Arrest of Wall Street Protesters Spark a National Movement

Police talk with arrested demonstrators who are participating in the Occupy Wall Street protests for the last two weeks. 700 were arrested on October 1, 2011., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Arrest of Wall Street protesters sparks a national movement

1:27 AM, Oct. 4, 2011

Demonstrator Lydia Ramos of Leominster, Mass. reacted to a show of support from a car passing the Occupy Boston encampment on the Rose Kennedy Greenway across the street from the Federal Reserve building, in Boston, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2011. The group is part of a nationwide grassroots movement in support of the ongoing Wall Street protests in New York.

BY CHRIS HAWLEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK -- Protests against Wall Street spread across the country Monday as demonstrators marched on Federal Reserve banks and camped out in parks from Los Angeles to Portland, Maine, to show anger over the economy and what they see as corporate greed.

In Manhattan, hundreds of protesters dressed as corporate zombies lurched past the New York Stock Exchange clutching fistfuls of fake money. In Chicago, demonstrators pounded drums in the city's financial district. Others pitched tents or waved protest signs at passing cars in Boston, St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo.

The arrests of 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge during the weekend galvanized a slice of discontented America, from college students worried about job prospects to laid-off middle-age workers.

Some protesters likened themselves to the tea party movement -- but with a liberal bent -- or to the Arab Spring demonstrators who brought down rulers in the Middle East.

"I've felt this way for a long time. I've really just kind of been waiting for a movement to come along that I thought would ... have some resonation within the community," said Steven Harris, a laid-off truck driver in Kansas City.

Harris and about 20 others were camped out in a park across the street from the Kansas City Federal Reserve building, their site strewn with sleeping bags, clothes and signs. Some passing drivers honked in support.

Protesters in St. Louis stood a few blocks from the Gateway Arch, carrying signs that read, "We Want the Sacks of Gold Goldman Sachs Stole from Us."

"It seems like money has all the power," Apollonia Childs said. "We all should have our fair share. We all vote, pay taxes. Tax the rich."

The Occupy Wall Street protests started Sept. 17 with a few dozen demonstrators who tried to pitch tents in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Since then, hundreds have set up camp in a park nearby and have become increasingly organized, lining up medical aid and legal help and printing their own newspaper, the Occupied Wall Street Journal.

About 100 demonstrators were arrested Sept. 24, and some were pepper-sprayed. On Saturday, police arrested 700 on charges of disorderly conduct and blocking a public street as they tried to march over the Brooklyn Bridge. Police said they took five more protesters into custody Monday, though it was unclear whether they had been charged with any crime.

Wiljago Cook of Oakland, Calif., who joined the New York protest on the first day, said the arrests shocked her.

"Exposing police brutality wasn't even really on my agenda, but my eyes have been opened," she said. She pledged to stay in New York "as long as it seems useful."

City bus drivers sued the New York Police Department on Monday for commandeering their buses and making them drive to the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday to pick up detained protesters. "We're down with these protesters. We support the notion that rich folk are not paying their fair share," Transport Workers Union President John Samuelsen said. "Our bus operators are not going to be pressed into service to arrest protesters anywhere."

The city's Law Department said the NYPD's actions were proper.

On Monday, the zombies stayed on the sidewalks as they wound through Manhattan's financial district chanting, "How to fix the deficit: End the war, tax the rich!" They lurched along with their arms in front of them.

Reaction was mixed.

Roland Klingman, who works in the financial industry and was wearing a suit as he walked through a raucous crowd of protesters, said he could sympathize with the message. "I don't think it's directed personally at everyone who works down here," Klingman said. "If they believe everyone down here contributes to policy decisions, it's a serious misunderstanding."

Another man in a suit yelled at the protesters, "Go back to work!"

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who made his fortune as a corporate executive, has said that the demonstrators are making a mistake by targeting Wall Street.

"The protesters are protesting against people who make $40- or $50,000 a year and are struggling to make ends meet. That's the bottom line. Those are the people who work on Wall Street or in the finance sector," Bloomberg said in an interview Friday.