Hundreds of anti-Wall Street
protesters forced the temporary closure of the Brooklyn Bridge when they
marched into traffic, prompting dozens of arrests, New York police and
demonstrators said.
Hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters forced the temporary
closure of the Brooklyn Bridge when they marched into traffic, prompting dozens
of arrests, New York police and demonstrators said.
Anti-Wall Street activists first occupied a small park in
lower Manhattan two weeks ago to protest corporate bailouts and corporate
influence in politics.
A New York Police Department spokesman told AFP that on
Saturday, "there were also several hundred protesters who decided to walk
on the roadway and who blocked traffic. Some heeded the warnings, some left,
and arrests were made."
The "Occupy Wall Street" group inspired by the
pro-democracy Arab Spring movements said on its website that "at least
50" protesters had been arrested, though the NYPD would not confirm the
figure.
Police shut down the Brooklyn Bridge at around 4:00 or 5:00
pm (2000-2100 GMT), the NYPD spokesman said, adding that he could not confirm
how long the bridge was closed.
"There were several hundred (more) protesters who walked
on the pedestrian walkway of the Brooklyn Bridge and there were no incidents,"
he told AFP.
"Occupy Wall Street" said it had staked its ground
in downtown Manhattan "as a symbolic gesture of our discontent with the
current economic and political climate."
"We are all races, sexes and creeds. We are the
majority. We are the 99 percent. And we will no longer be silent," it
added.
Protesters have added police brutality to their lengthy and
still vaguely defined list of grievances after a senior officer used pepper
spray against four demonstrators who had already been shut inside a police pen
a week ago.
In Boston on Saturday, twenty-four protesters were arrested
and charged with trespassing as a vast crowd marched outside Bank of America
offices.
Right to the City, the coalition of advocacy groups that
organized the demonstration, said the event was held to protest corporate greed
and to stop bank foreclosures.
According to organizers, some 3,000 people marched outside
the bank. Police did not provide a crowd estimate.
Source : AFP
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