The Occupy Wall Street movement is gaining momentum. Yesterday, September 30th, 2011, the protesters converged on the New York City police headquarters. Today, the protest shifted to the Brooklyn Bridge where the police arrested 500 700protesters for blocking traffic. It seems that the involvement of labor unions now supporting this protest has increased the size and effect of the protests in New York.
As Occupy Wall Street enters its third week, the pressure from the “bottom up” is starting to be shown to the public through media outlets. Although this protest was organized by Stephen Lerner and labor unions, the useful idiots representing the “99%”will bear the brunt of any retaliation. Would you rather be one of the 99% or the 3%?
David DeGerolamo
Hundreds Arrested on Brooklyn Bridge
More than 500 protesters associated with the “Occupy Wall Street” movement were arrested Saturday afternoon for blocking traffic on New York’s Brooklyn Bridge.
The arrests began at 4:45 p.m. and continued for hours. Brooklyn-bound traffic resumed at about 8 p.m. after being halted for roughly four hours, snarling traffic throughout lower Manhattan, according to Paul Browne, deputy commissioner of the New York City Police Department.
The march began in Lower Manhattan, and as protesters approached the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge, some people entered the pedestrian walkway, while others entered the Brooklyn-bound roadway, walking with traffic, according to several witnesses.
Police said people were advised to stay on the pedestrian walkway and not go into the roadway. Some protesters “locked arms and proceeded on the roadway,” said Mr. Browne, which blocked Brooklyn-bound traffic on the bridge.
Witnesses said police entered the bridge from the Brooklyn side and began arresting people on the roadway. Protesters on the pedestrian walkway were free to go.
“People were marching in the street and there were cops there letting people march on the road,” said Jessica Rechtschaffer, 41, a protester who lives in Manhattan. “The police changed their mind and corralled everybody and arrested them.”
Ms. Rechtschaffer added that protestors were not “violent or destructive.”
“It was all very orderly, but people were out in the streets,” she said. “Had they just let us cross, there wouldn’t be all this problem.”
