Police Arrest 14 in Two New York Occupy Protests

A new round of arrrests against Occupy Wall Street demonstrators took place on March 24, 2012 in New York City. The police repression against the popular movement is continuing., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Police arrest 14 in two New York Occupy protests

Sat, Mar 24 2012

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fourteen protesters were arrested on Saturday in separate Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, one that involved an hours-long march through Manhattan streets and a second at the United Nations, authorities said.

Several hundred protesters zig-zagged from Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan where the anti-Wall Street Occupy movement was born last year to Union Square Park in what was billed as a demonstration against police brutality.

Protesters carried banners that said "end police brutality" and signs that questioned such as "Angry Pacifist", "Shame on NYPD", and "They never stop & frisk old white guys like me."

Ten protesters were arrested in that demonstration, which lasted about four hours, mainly for disorderly conduct, police said. It was not clear what formal charges were issued.

The protest came a day after the New York Police Department said it was firing an undercover detective who had fired the first shots of a hail of police gunfire that killed an unarmed black man who was leaving his bachelor party in 2006.

The killing of Sean Bell sparked outrage and criticism from black community leaders, who said it was evidence of groundless racial profiling and excessive force in the department.

Police detained two demonstrators who lied down in the middle of a Manhattan street. Dozens of protesters lied down on sidewalks, or cut across busy intersections.

Two men and two women were arrested for trespassing during a protest at the UN later Saturday billed as the start of a campaign to disrupt corporate polluters.

It was the second straight Saturday of Occupy demonstrations in New York at the site of the movements inception last September. Last Saturday, more than 70 protesters were arrested when police swept them out of Zuccotti Park just before midnight.

(Reporting by Carlo Allegri; Writing by David Bailey; editing by Dan Burns)