NEW YORK—Police arrested more than 700 “Occupy Wall Street” (OWS) protesters on Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, according to the NYPD.
The group planned a march across the Brooklyn Bridge that would end with free food for all at Brooklyn Bridge Park. More than 1,500 people marched from Zuccotti Park, where the protesters have been camping out for over two weeks.
When they arrived at Brooklyn Bridge around 4 p.m., one part of the group headed to the designated pedestrian walkway, while another entered the Brooklyn-bound car lanes.
A police officer told the group over the loudspeaker to leave the roadway or be arrested for disorderly conduct. Once protesters advanced onto the bridge, NYPD officers, forming a blockade, confronted them.
As police began pulling some of them out of the crowd and handcuffing them in plastic ties, the protesters collectively sat down while chanting, “The whole world is watching.”
After all was said and done, over 700 people had been arrested, including a New York Times reporter.
“A small group of individuals took it upon themselves to take the vehicle roadway that was not blocked off,” said Sandy from OWS’s Direct Action (DA) subcommittee, according to the OWS’s General Assembly website.
People from DA told march participants that there were two options, to take the planned pedestrian walkway route or to take the road, “which we warned them was illegal and highly unsafe,” said Sandy.
More than 20,000 people watched the live feed on the OWS website. Multiple videos of the action have also been circulating online. The videos, filmed by onlookers on the pedestrian bridge, as well as two short ones taped by the NYPD, portray a hectic scene, suggesting that some protesters in the back of the crowd may not have heard the orders from the police.
Those arrested were taken in buses to the precincts in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Many were released the same night with summonses for disorderly conduct and blocking vehicular traffic.
Friends Read Free