People poured into New York’s financial district today to mark the 1 year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. Police in riot-gear were armed and ready as about 12 people have been arrested so far. The protesters spirits have stayed at a high as they chanted “All day, all week, Occupy Wall Street” and “We got sold out, banks got bailed out.” Click below to read more.
Occupy Wall Street protesters poured into New York’s financial district today to mark the first anniversary of the movement, but their presence was dwarfed by riot-gear-clad police, who set up metal barriers and formed human walls to pacify the demonstrators.
Hundreds of protesters scattered into Manhattan’s financial district, decked out in costumes including Uncle Pennybags and an enormous marionette Statue of Liberty.
Police arrested about a dozen people who had been sitting on the sidewalk during the morning hustle, according to The Associated Press.
Chanting, “All day, all week, Occupy Wall Street” and “We got sold out, banks got bailed out,” members of the Occupy movement voiced their grievances, just as business people arrived at their offices for the work day.
At times it seemed the mass of the protest was made up more by the media covering the event than by anyone with a political agenda. A pink-frocked “bishop” protester arrested by police was surrounded by a media scrum so dense the police came to break up the knot of humanity.
The momentum waned with the start of the business day, with businessmen in Ralph Lauren polo button-downs replacing the hand-painted shirts favored by the movement.
Demonstrators had hoped their protest today would help rekindle the movement, which spawned tent cities around the globe and became a rallying point for the “99 percent.”
The goal of the protest was to create “a swirl of mobile occupations of corporate lobbies and intersections,” according to the Occupy website.
“We’re going to hold acts of non-violent civil disobedience on intersections around Wall Street to basically shut down the morning commute of these Wall Street bankers; we’re in a crisis situation, enough’s enough,” Mark Bray told ABC News affiliate WABC-TV Sunday.
