New Year's Eve Occupy Wall Street Protests: Police Arrest Dozens

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Dozens of Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested on New Year's Eve as they tore down barricades surrounding New York City's Zuccotti Park, the former home of their encampment that was dismantled several weeks ago.

About 500 protesters gathered in the park Saturday evening, where they rang in the new year with songs and their now-familiar chant of "We are the 99 percent."

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About 11 p.m., after a relatively quiet evening, some protesters began to tear down the barricades that have surrounded the park since New York police officers evicted Occupy Wall Street members on Nov. 15, protesters said Sunday. Police then moved in.

"They (police) got very aggressive and started pushing people and pepper-spraying people," protester Jason Amadi, 27, of San Jose, Calif., said Sunday. "I got pepper-sprayed in the face."

The protesters said they worked at sections of the park in teams of twos and threes, retreating only when police converged and pulled the barricades back.

"People were collecting all the barricades and making kind of a big heap of them in the middle of the park," said protester Melanie Butler, 30, of Brooklyn. "And we were standing on it with our Occupy Wall Street banner."

The New York Police Department said 68 people were arrested, and at least one person was accused of assaulting a police officer, who suffered cuts on one hand. Other charges included trespassing, disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment.

Police were still processing the arrests Sunday morning, but some protesters had been released. Police provided no other details on the confrontation.

After the arrests, the crowd began to thin out. A smaller group of about 100 people marched in a circle near the park and then most of them left, Amadi said.

"Many of us there felt that it was a symbol of the new year, of what was to come," he said. "People protesting peacefully, but without fear."

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Comments

[citizenlegisators]

11:24 AM on 01/12/2012

no report on the abandoned baby found and OWS father arrested here

[Tquin]

09:08 AM on 01/03/2012

Good, keep them locked up. That way they are out of the cold and no longer a danger to themselves or others.

[sheoples]

03:10 PM on 01/07/2012

"In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."
-- Mark Twain

[Liz Pierce]

08:13 AM on 01/03/2012

greed is greed
whether it be corporate....political....personal.....
greed is human
how do you change that?

[alkh3myst]

01:19 AM on 01/03/2012

Veterans For Occupy. The meeting starts now.

[deusnonestsorry]

12:14 AM on 01/03/2012

Well, you can't spell CLOWNS without O.W.S.

[reklaw78]

10:55 PM on 01/02/2012

Has OWS accomplished anything? I mean, besides letting us all know that there was a park in NYC called Zuccotti.

[Mlark]

08:30 PM on 01/02/2012

Whats occupy wall street?

[peoplepersons]

04:07 PM on 01/02/2012

To all those who have their jobs and think life is good and think everyone complaining just needs to get a job is wrong. The ones with a job pay inflated prices, even though 80% of all products comes from slave labor and politically controlled markets, while the ones struggling with work or decent pay lose out on anything extra, yet alone the necessities.

The only way a society can make this work is by controlling the media and putting the ones in control without a conscious. You really have to not care about human life to send all your jobs to China. You really have to be greedy to keep inflating prices when your labor costs were slashed.

When enough is enough a lot of people shout and say what they feel. This has been done without so much as a response other than spending 623 billion more on a defense bill that was designed to get rid of the shouting people.

Fascism controls the middle east as well as China. America feels comfortable with it's ability to heard the sheeple and continue ripping EVERYONE off. The only defense they express is the protection of wealthy people. Weather it's with taxes or security guards. Social security is being cut, Medicare is going bankrupt and unemployment insurance is being cut in half. Yet the rich still don't have to pay. We do not have a democratic government. We have a bunch of capitalists that will take from anyone they can.

[AlexNYC]

11:25 AM on 01/03/2012

Fanned and faved for cutting through all the cr*p and telling it like it is. The corporations and the richest 1% are controlling the government, the media, our laws and our tax structure. The American Dream has ceased to exist. Parents no longer believe their children will do better than they did, and many worry that they may even be worse off. Today a person needs to either win the lottery or happen to be among the very few lucky few who manage to swim upstream against the current and make a better life for themselves. Greed for money and power has corrupted our country beyond repair. We can no longer expect change to come fromt he top, Obama is proof of that. Change must come from the bottom up. People are working harder and longer and have less to show for it. The corporations have ceased to be a benefit to society, they have become monsterous parasites that feed on the populace but don't give anything back. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the middle class is being eliminated. The unregulated corporate mindset has become sociopathic and is destroying our democracy and our social structure. The Occupy Wall Street movement is focusing on the banks, the brokers and the corporations because they control the government. Our congress is proof that they take orders from corporate and money interests, not the people.

[Tom Hn]

03:30 PM on 01/02/2012

Occupy is so 2011. I was there last year. Now I think it was overrated.
Back to work.

[LeftMyArmInIraq]

02:40 PM on 01/02/2012

PLEASE AMERICA ,

While I was over there , there was a very bright soldier I had the honor of meeting , he used to make us laugh everyday and I mean everyday . We were sitting one day and we talked till morning and he starting weeping not because of the dangers we all were facing but because he recieved a letter from someone and told him that his parents had lost their home . Well , he never made it home and all the men in our company made a promise that if we made it home that we will fight to help people KEEP their HOMES . We need your surport .

AMERICA
There is so much CORRUPTION in Congress something DRASTIC needs to HAPPEN . MILLIONS of AMERICANS have lost their homes due to Job loss no fault of their own . Congress voted to help WALLSTREET with our very own TAX DOLLARS . AMERICA PLEASE we need your help in this struggle .

Thank You

[ILikeNike]

03:07 PM on 01/02/2012

Thank you for sharing this. I salute you for your bravery. And work with you in keeping OWS alive and thriving.

[LeftMyArmInIraq]

03:29 PM on 01/02/2012

We Thank You So Much

[Martha Fair]

03:27 PM on 01/02/2012

This is what they need to hear to make them face reality of a country that was totally sold out and corrupted because of money and greed. God bless you soldier! Fave you!

[LeftMyArmInIraq]

03:52 PM on 01/02/2012

We Tank You

[macrophone]

02:19 PM on 01/02/2012

what do Nikes and OWS have in common?

[ILikeNike]

02:35 PM on 01/02/2012

They both provide 'arch' support. There..!

[ILikeNike]

03:56 PM on 01/02/2012

This thread is not about the brands of clothing we all wear, but since you've raised That topic, the point is a good one: we All should support US companies (Nike is American, now in some of its factory production, and in providing thousands of retail jobs).
And we should get vocal with All corporate US companies to have them stop outsourcing..

[CanadaStan]

02:12 PM on 01/02/2012

"Dawson Creek's mayor, Mike Bernier, in Vancouver recently for a conference, handed out business cards to Occupy Vancouver protesters, promising them he would find them jobs in Dawson Creek, provided they are hard workers.

"We have basically zero unemployment in Dawson Creek - it's the lowest in the province," Bernier said.

While the protesters he talked to said they wouldn't take him up on his offer, he still encourages others to move to the city."

http://www.theprovince.com/business/Dawson+Creek+booming+employers+having+hard+time+finding+enough+workers/5809064/story.html#ixzz1iKUx0EVq

$100,000.00 a year aint enough for them I guess.

[alkh3myst]

01:17 AM on 01/03/2012

Oh, Canada! I'm outta here!

[timthedem]

02:05 PM on 01/02/2012

Think the powers that be were scared in 2011, oh just wait for 2012.

[MrDoughnut]

07:24 PM on 01/02/2012

Right on. 2012 the year of the R-I-O-T-S

[ZoharWe]

01:49 PM on 01/02/2012

'Dump or Not To Dump'
www.occupyholestreet.com
Graphic Commentary on Portfolio Management

[trojoe]

01:46 PM on 01/02/2012

This veteran supports Occupy.

[ILikeNike]

01:55 PM on 01/02/2012

Fanned.

[MrDoughnut]

07:26 PM on 01/02/2012

This civilian supports OWS just like the 1960's