Protesters mark 'Occupy Wall Street' anniversary
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E-mail Xinhua, September 18, 2012
"Occupy Wall Street" demonstrators are back to New York's Lower Manhattan on Monday for the first anniversary of the movement.
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Members of "Occupy Wall Street" protest during the one-year anniversary of the movement in New York, the United States, on Sept. 17, 2012. |
More than 100 people have so far been arrested, including 43 arrests over the weekend, over charges ranging from disorderly conduct to impeding vehicular traffic and trespassing, according to the New York Police Department.
Early Monday morning, a few hundred occupiers took part in a march toward the New York Stock Exchange after rallying at the nearby Zuccotti Park. Police dressed in riot gear started lining the streets of the Financial District before dawn, armed with batons and plastic handcuffs.
The protests then broke out at various locations between the movement's spiritual homes of Zuccotti Park and Wall Street.
About noon time, a large crowd gathered at Bowling Green Park, near Battery Park in south Manhattan. A man held a placard reading "BBB, Bankers Behind Bars." Another protester carried a big ball written with the words "Payday Loans". He said the ball is a symbol of a mountain, "I couldn't live like this anymore."
"We want free education, free internet, decent housing," James Richardson, in his 30s, told Xinhua.
"Indeed, Wall Street is our common villain who is robbing the 99 percent blind on behalf of the 1 percent. We are marking the occasion of our anniversary by making our voice heard by everybody once again," said protester Bray Blacksmith.
Hundreds of police officers line the streets in lower Manhattan to keep demonstrators out of streets.
The grass-root movement began on September 17, 2011 in the form of the occupation of Zuccotti Park near the New York Stock Exchange to protest against the richest one percent in the United States, namely banks and financial institutions, on behalf of the other 99 percent.
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