NEW YORK - October 15, 2011
"We are going to piggy-back off the success of today, and it's
going to be bigger than we ever imagined," said protester Daniel
Zetah after Friday's announcement that protesters could remain in
the park.
Over the past month, the protest against corporate greed and
economic inequality has spread from New York City to cities
elsewhere across the United States and around the world. Several
demonstrations were planned this weekend in the U.S., Canada and
Europe, as well as in Asia and Africa.
Violence broke out in Rome, where some protesters smashed shop
windows, torched cars and attacked news crews.
Supporters in Sydney, Australia, waved signs Saturday with such
slogans as "you can't eat money." About 200 people in Tokyo
joined the global protests, and Philippine supporters in Manila
marched on the U.S. Embassy to express support for Occupy Wall
Street and to denounce "U.S. imperialism" and U.S.-led wars and
aggression.
Stateside, marches were planned for Saturday in cities across
the country, from Providence, R.I.; to Little Rock, Ark.; to
Seattle. About 200 people camped overnight in Detroit, a group
spokeswoman said.
In New York, a march on a bank was scheduled for late morning
with a rally simultaneously elsewhere, to be followed by other
events through the day that were to culminate in what organizers
called an Occupation Party starting late in the afternoon in Times
Square.
The Friday showdown in New York came as tensions rose, with
several arrests in many U.S. cities and scattered clashes between
demonstrators and police.
Zuccotti Park owners had planned to temporarily evict the
protesters in the morning so the grounds could be power-washed. The
protesters, their numbers swelled to about 2,000 before daybreak,
feared the cleanup was a pretext to break up the demonstration.
They vowed to stand their ground.
Just minutes before the appointed hour, park owners Brookfield
Office Properties announced it would postpone the cleanup at the
request of "a number of local political leaders." The company
gave no details. Word of the decision brought boisterous cheers
from the demonstrators and predictions that it would strengthen the
movement in the U.S. and beyond.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose girlfriend is on Brookfield's
board of directors, said his staff was under strict orders not to
pressure the company one way or the other. He noted that Brookfield
can still go ahead with the cleanup at some point.
In San Diego, police used pepper spray to break up a human chain
formed around a tent by anti-Wall Street demonstrators. Police in
riot gear herded hundreds of protesters away from the Colorado
state capitol early Friday in Denver, arresting about two dozen
people and dismantling their encampment. In New Jersey's capital of
Trenton, protesters were ordered to remove tents near a war
memorial.
In New York City, police arrested 15 people, including
protesters who obstructed traffic by standing or sitting in the
street and others who turned over trash baskets and hurled bottles.
A deputy inspector was sprayed in the face with an unknown liquid.
In one case, an observer with the National Lawyers Guild who was
marching with the group refused to move off the street for police,
and the tip of his foot was run over by an officer's scooter. He
fell to the ground screaming and writhing and kicked over the
scooter before police flipped him over and arrested him.
And a video posted online showed a police officer punching a
protester in the side of the head on a crowded street. Police said
the altercation occurred after the man tried to elbow the officer
in the face and other people in the crowd jumped on the officer,
who was sprayed with a liquid coming from the man's direction.
Police said the man, who escaped and was wanted for attempted
assault on an officer, later said in an online interview he's HIV
positive and the officer should be tested medically.
A man who identified himself as the protester, Felix
Rivera-Pitre, said in a statement posted online that he didn't
provoke the officer. "I was just doing what everyone else was
doing in the march," he said. "It felt like he was taking his
frustrations out on me."
Organizers in Des Moines, Iowa, accepted an offer Friday night
from the mayor to move from the state Capitol where they were
prohibited from staying overnight to a city park blocks away,
averting a possible showdown.
---
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers
Patrick Walters in Philadelphia, Patrick Condon in Minneapolis,
Mike Householder in Detroit, Colleen Long in New York and Michael
J. Crumb in Des Moines, Iowa.
Wall Street protesters energized by park decision
By 6abc
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