OWS - Day of Action
The day so far: (more news as it comes in)
The scene at Zuccotti Park appears to have turned ugly. After earlier allowing protesters to re-enter the square, police have attempted to retake the plaza. There were violent scenes, a number of arrests, and there are reports that protesters and a police officer were injured. Ben Moran, a producer with Al Jazeera English, said police took away an Occupy Wall Street protester, his head covered in blood. The New York Daily News said a police officer was injured. Police on the scene suggested he was stabbed in the hand by a protester wielding glass.
Our business correspondent Dominic Rushe has been monitoring developments on the New York Stock Exchange, target of the protest today.
The New York Stock Exchange is more concerned with Europe than what’s going on outside its doors. By lunch time the Dow was down 1.37% as worries about Spanish bonds rattled the markets.
An auction of Spanish bonds this morning showed how worried investors were as yields - the interest rate the bonds bare - leo to 6.64%. The higher the yield, the more risk is associated with the debt and worryingly Spanish bonds were approaching levels seen in Ireland, Greece and Portugal before they had to be bailed out.
The sale came as German Chancellor Angela Merkel reinforced her opposition to expanding the European Central Bank’s role in supporting sovereign-debt markets, saying ECB bailout’s wouldn’t immediately solve the euro-zone crisis.
Here’s a roundup of other developments at Occupy protests around the United States.
Portland, Oregon
Marchers staged a protest on the Steel Bridge, a major crossing over the Willamette River, which had been closed to traffic by police. According tooregonlive.com , police arrested at least 14 protesters from a group who had sat down on the bridge. The protesters moved on after about 45 minutes, and say they plan to occupy banks and other financial institutions in the city later.
Los Angeles
From the Associated Press: Los Angeles police have declared an unlawful assembly at a rally by Occupy Wall Street sympathizers in the downtown financial district. Sixteen people who plan to be arrested Thursday have linked arms around several tents as officers gather nearby.
Two other people were arrested earlier for interfering with officers but the march and rally has otherwise been peaceful.
The group, chiefly a coalition of labor unions, gathered between the Bank of America tower and Wells Fargo Plaza, chanting “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out.” The protesters then marched several blocks and occupied an intersection.
Good Jobs LA, a coalition that includes labor organizations, community groups and others, is organizing the protest. Many are wearing purple Service Employees International Union jackets and T-shirts.
Dallas
Police evicted dozens of protesters from their campsite near City Hall citing public safety and hygiene issues, according to the Associated Press. They arrested 18 protesters who refused to leave.
Berkeley
Two protesters were arrested and about 20 tents removed at an encampment on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
The NYPD has told our reporter Karen McVeigh that at least 100 people were arrested this morning.
Police arrested a woman in a wheelchair at the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. Photograph: Michael Moore
Among those arrested was a woman in a wheelchair. The activist film-maker Michael Moore took this picture, and said officers couldn’t work out what to do with her. In the end, they gave her a ticket, he said.
The number of people arrested today is rising. The New York Daily News says it’s 60, while the New York Times puts it at 75. ReporterRyan Deveraux has been among those who thronged back into Zuccotti Park after the demonstrations near Wall Street.
As many as 1,000 Occupy Wall Street protesters returned to Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, flanked by scores of police on motor-scooters and on foot. When they reached the plaza, some demonstrators took drastic measures to enter.
Since the mass eviction earlier this week the NYPD ringed the park with metal barriers. Access has been carefully monitored by private security guards employed by the park’s owners, Brookfield Properties, allowing people in one by one. When protesters returned to the park today a number of them began pushing against barricades, while police shoved back. Ultimately the demonstrators managed to wrest one metal barricade from the officers, opening a space for people to pass through.
There were scuffles between officers and protesters, before police moved back into the street. In the park, protesters celebrated with music and dancing. The plaza, which has near-empty over the last two days, is now filled with protesters preparing for further actions planned throughout the city.
In Zuccotti Park, Adam Gabbatt has been talking to protesters about how they feel the start of today’s day of action has gone so far.
Requests are currently going around for lunch to be sent to the former camp, and most seem satisfied with the first demonstration in what OWS is billing as a day of action.
“I think it started well, and we’ve still got a long day ahead of us,” said Fran Agnone, between sips on a coffee. She said it did not matter that the demonstration had not achieved its aim of shutting down the New York stock exchange. “That will come another day. All that matters is we’re changing people’s ideas.”
Esidra Swift and Kayla Braun travelled to New York from Norfolk, Virginia, where they have been part of the “100-200” strong Occupy camp there. “I feel like this is gonna be historic,” said Braun, who is enjoying her first visit to New York today. “There’s so many people here I feel like we have to make a difference.”
Louis Warner-Kamsler was among a group of 12 people draped in green foliage. “We are the trees from Liberty Square,” he said. “And we are sending the message that if you take the park, we’ll take the streets.”
Warner-Kamsler and his fellow trees were on the march this morning. “I think it went pretty well, we showed our strength, made out points, and soon we’ll do it again even stronger, because we’re not going away.”
Police say that by 10am, about 50 arrests had been made at the Occupy protests in New York. CNBC reported that many New York Stock Exchange workers were up to an hour late for work, but – despite the claims of Occupy protesters on Twitter – the sounding of the opening bell at 9.30am was not delayed.
Protesters have now regrouped in Zuccotti Park, which is packed with hundreds of people. There have been scuffles here, and a number of arrests.
Activist Michael Kink, executive director of the Strong Economy for All Coalition, got inside the New York Stock Exchange this morning and managed to indulge in a little direct action. It appears he was allowed in to be a guest on the business network CNBC, which has studios inside NYSE.
Our reporter Karen McVeigh, who is also on the scene in the Financial District, notes that Wall Street workers were furious at the disruption to their day.
Protesters had threatened to stop the bell that marks the start of trading at the New York Stock Exchange in Wall Street. But in the end, Occupy Wall Street marchers were not allowed anywhere near it The NYSE is surrounded on all sides by metal barricades, designated a “frozen area” by police.
Only employees with company ID are being allowed through. Workers, already blocked from leaving the subway at their usual exits are tutting and exhaling at police officers directing them away from streets closed because of the march.
There was little sympathy for the occupy movement here. “I’ve been trying to get to work for half an hour, they should throw them all in jail,” one woman said as she approached Exchange Place, where protesters had gathered and were sitting in a circle telling stories of economic hardship.
A man in a suit waiting to be allowed through a police barricade told his friend: “Don’t worry they’ll all get arrested in a minute.” Groups of protesters gathered in the streets parallel to Wall street, singing and chanting behind barriers.
Occupy Wall Street protesters at William Street and Exchange Place in Lower Manhattan. Photograph: Karen McVeigh/guardian.co.uk
Adam Gabbatt has been speaking to a Wall Street worker who opposes the protests. Here’s an audio recording of his interview.
The Occupy protesters have succeeded in causing considerable disruption in Lower Manhattan this morning, but police have secured the New York Stock Exchange and split the march into smaller, more easily contained groups. There have been more scuffles and arrests:
This video, taken by Adam Gabbatt, shows a man being arrested and bundled into a police van on Broadway.
Earlier, the NYPD broke up a human blockade of Occupy Wall Streetprotesters in order to allow a police bus to be moved in the direction of the New York Stock Exchange, reports Ryan Devereaux.
Protesters had gathered in front of the police barricades at the intersection of Broad earlier this morning. Shortly before 9:30 the department moved in a bus directly in front of the gathered demonstrators. The police then opened the barricades and began pushing demonstrators from behind. One young man was pulled over a barricade and thrown to the ground. Roughly a half dozen were arrested.
Shortly thereafter another skirmish broke out as officers attempted to push protesters onto the sidewalk. Earlier at the intersection police struck a Russia Today producer with a baton as she was filming
Occupy protesters appear to have succeeded in blocking all access points to Wall Street now, with no-one being allowed in. The Stock Exchange is due to open at 9.30am, and Salon reporter Justin Elliott says there’s speculation that protesters may make a symbolic move at that time. Our reporter Adam Gabbatt says he thinks enough workers will have made it in to the NYSE for the opening bell to be rung and the exchange to open as planned.
Here and there, localised scuffles are breaking out. Freelance journalist Andrew Katz says he counted 22 arrests at the intersection of Broadway and Pine. Multiple reports on Twitter say batons have been drawn and pepper spray deployed at the intersection of Broadway and Beaver.
Here’s a report from Adam Gabbatt of the first 90 minutes of the protest today.
The first event in Occupy Wall Street’s “day of action” is an attempt to “shut down Wall Street”- kicking off a series of protests on the movement’s two month anniversary. At 6.30am around 100 people were gathered at Zuccotti Park, but with a steady stream of protesters beginning to arrive.
Some 300m south, a police barricade, flanked by TV news crews, was blocking access to Wall Street. Workers were allowed to enter the street, but only after showing company ID. I tried to enter, but was told “no press today, for security reasons”, by a police officer.
By 7.30am the crowd had left Zuccotti Park, but only to gather in the square opposite their former camp. Some 500 people massed there, listening to briefings about what to do if arrested, before setting off on the march to Wall Street.
Heading east, the streets leading south onto Wall Street were blocks by police officers and metal barricades. Protesters finally accessed Wall street after finding a route along Pearl Street, gathering outside Deutsche Bank for around five minutes before setting off
again.The march is quite spread out, with regular shouts of “slow down” to those at the front appearing to go unheeded.
Police are taking preventative action by blocking key streets before protesters arrive, but are generally allowing the march to progress.
