A year ago, on Sept. 17, 2011, hundreds of protesters took to the Financial District of New York, leading to police barricades going up around Wall Street and a camp being set up at Zuccotti Park.
Today, hundreds are taking to the streets of New York again in remembrance of what happened on that day and possibly to give the movement new life leading up to November's presidential election in the United States.
(Scroll down for live updates. The Guardian is also live blogging here.)
"Occupy Wall Street" can be traced back to an Internet campaign. Protests in the streets of New York soon followed, inspiring similar protests worldwide.
The Occupy Wall Street website which emerged as the protests continued describes the movement on its About page as follows:
Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. #ows is fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations.
As time went on, conflict arose between protesters, Occupy Wall Street was divided into two distinct groups and the movement lost momentum.
Keep up with the latest on today's anniversary through the live updates below.
Huffington Post editor Craig Kanalley has posted pictures from Zuccotti Park tonight here.
| @ katz : NLG says confirmed arrests reached 160. 30 released so far. #S17 |
Comparing today's Occupy protests to ongoing demonstrations in the Middle East and China, Bloomberg Editorial Writer James Gibney says, "You're making the U.S. look bad."
In a new opinion piece, he talks about the religious and nationalistic based protests overseas being much more interesting than today's events in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the Occupy Wall Street movement's one-year anniversary seems to be many bongos short of a good drum circle, notwithstanding a continuing cavalcade of scandals involving top-tier banks supposedly chastened by the regulatory lapses that helped precipitate one of history's biggest erasures of wealth. Come on, guys -- at least torch a bus or sumpin'.
Journalism & Public Media Campaign Director at Free Press Josh Stearns has posted his thoughts on the past year of Occupy with a new blog post.
He writes about attacks on journalists and freelancers covering Occupy:
The attacks on press were troubling on many levels but particularly because media making was such a central part of the Occupy movement. From tweets to blog posts, pictures to streaming video, Occupy made strategic use of the Web from day one and inspired a new generation of activist journalists who chronicled the movement. While covering the NATO protests this summer in Chicago, Laurie Penny tweeted that “In 2012, youth power’s equivalent of the peace v-sign is the camera phone held aloft.”
A march has just concluded, bringing protesters back to Zuccotti Park. They're greeted by dozens of cops, including in riot gear, per Patrick deHahn.
| @ patrickdehahn : Probably 100 cops in the plaza with the red cube, about half are riot cops. #ows #s17 |
| @ macfathom : Just now: @johnknefel arrested, Village Voice photographer @csmuncyphoto thrown to the ground and briefly detained, then released. |
Read more about journalists arrested today here.
The latest count of those arrested in New York is now 146, Newsday reports, citing an NYPD spokeswoman.
| @ TheAtlantic : Happy birthday, Occupy! (Income inequality is still getting worse.) http://t.co/OEyhkXBp |
A number of protesters have regrouped at Battery Park after marching through the FInancial District this morning. Here's what the scene looks like:
(Photo by AP/John Minchillo)
The Guardian reports that there have now been 135 arrests related to Occupy Wall Street, citing an NYPD spokesman.
| @ AnonymousPress : RT @nastiachurkina: chanting at #Zuccotti Park: "happy birthday, occupy! happy birthday to you!" #S17 #OWS Park is packed. |
The Associated Press has some raw video of arrests during Occupy Wall Street demonstrations today in New York.
WATCH:
| @ OccupyWallStNYC : Another march brewing now, circling #LibertySq now, then bifurcating and heading W and N! #OWS #S17 |
Frances Fox Piven writes for The Guardian that it's a mistake to call the Occupy movement dead. She notes, "The great protest movements of history lasted not for a moment but for decades."
Some demonstrators have taken the streets in San Francisco and pitched tents in support of the Occupy movement.
(Photo by AP/Ben Margot)
Lukas Walczak just posted an Instagram photo showing Zuccotti Park.
| @ LukasWalczak : Back at zucotti #s17 #ows #occupywallst http://t.co/kktxDu8Q |
“The movement has lost steam," says Jamie Chandler, a political science professor at Hunter College in New York. “Occupy Wall Street failed to influence Washington because organizers didn't professionalize. They didn’t form PACs and field candidates."
From The Village Voice's Nick Pinto:
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| @ macfathom : Also in Zuccotti Park: more people than I've seen since the November eviction. |
Some Occupy protesters gathered at Battery Park in New York today. Here's video from this afternoon of the scene at Battery Park.
New video from journalist Daniel Bentley shows the human microphone back in use at Zuccotti Park.
“This may be the last opportunity we have before the election to have the voices of the people heard,” 47-year-old demonstrator Robert Cammiso told The New York Daily News.
According to the Associated Press:
But the protests lacked the heft of last year's Occupy events. Last year there were thousands of protesters. On Monday morning, there were a few hundred at most.
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| @ katz : Several arrests outside Goldman Sachs on West Street #S17 http://t.co/3C7YN2Aw |
Protesters affiliated with Occupy Wall Street gather near a police blockade by Wall Street.
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
| @ HuffPostMedia : Journalists arrested covering Occupy Wall Street protests http://t.co/lQ92x2Tg |
| @ allisonkilkenny : Sign at zuccotti: "nothing has changed" #ows #s17 |
Mashable is rounding up citizen journalism reports and photos via social media related to the Occupy Wall Street anniversary protests.
More than 100 have been arrested so far during today's protests in New York, police say.
For context on what's happened to the Occupy Wall Street movement since it began a year ago, here's an excellent explainer from Safi Knako.
The Huffington Post | By Craig Kanalley Posted: 09/17/2012 2:24 pm Updated: 09/17/2012 2:24 pm