Friday 18 November 2011

Arrests on Occupy Wall Street 'day of action'

Occupy Wall Street protesters are preparing for new demonstrations after about 100 people were arrested near the New York Stock Exchange in the morning.
A solidarity protest in Los Angeles saw 20 people arrested for sitting in a street as hundreds marched downtown.
City officials in Dallas evicted the protesters' camp there, arresting 18.
In New York, demonstrators plan to occupy 16 subway stations on Thursday afternoon and march from City Hall across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Most of the arrests in New York happened at a rally to mark two months of protest. City officials had expected "tens of thousands" of protesters throughout the day.
Police blocked streets and protesters massed at junctions on the edge of the city's financial district.
Scuffles broke out, with police dragging some protesters away.
Later on Thursday, protesters in San Francisco occupied a branch of Bank of America, holding signs including one that read: "Make Banks Pay".
A police department spokesman told Reuters that 95 demonstrators were arrested at the bank, most on suspicion of trespassing.
'Bad guys' "You do not have a parade permit! You are blocking the street!" a police officer told protesters through a bullhorn during the morning's protests.
Some protesters were arrested after they sat down in an intersection, while others were arrested as they tried to get closer to the stock exchange.
"All day, all week, shut down Wall Street!" the crowd chanted.
Gene Williams, a bond trader, joked to the Associated Press that he was "one of the bad guys" but said he empathised with the demonstrators.
"They have a point in a lot of ways," he said. "The fact of the matter is, there is a schism between the rich and the poor and it's getting wider."
Lost camps Thursday's demonstrations were before Tuesday's surprise pre-dawn raid of Zuccotti Park, where demonstrators had been camping.
Police allowed them to return but banned them from setting up camp again. Numbers dwindled to fewer than two dozen overnight.
Some of the 200 protesters detained during the eviction appeared in court on Wednesday.
A number of similar encampments have been removed in US cities in recent days.
Scores of arrests were made as police removed tents in Oakland, California and Burlington, Vermont.
But evictions went peacefully elsewhere, including Atlanta, Georgia; Portland, Oregon; and Salt Lake City, Utah.
@'BBC'

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