Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested on Brooklyn Bridge ›
More than 700 people were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday evening during a march by anti-Wall Street protesters who have been occupying a downtown Manhattan square for two weeks.
The group, called Occupy Wall Street, has been protesting against the finance industry and other perceived social ills by camping out in Zuccotti park in New York.
During the afternoon a long line of protesters numbering several thousand snaked through the streets towards the landmark bridge across the East River with the aim of ending at a Brooklyn park.
However, during the march across the bridge groups of protesters sat down or strayed into the road from the pedestrian pathway. They were then arrested in large numbers by officers who were part of a heavy police presence shepherding the march along its path.
At one stage 500 protesters were blocked off by police on the bridge. At least one journalist, freelancer Natasha Lennard for the New York Times, was among those arrested.
Is anyone shocked by this? It will be interesting to see what happens as more people show up.
New York Times(!) has great coverage here. It appears police may have inadvertently (at best) or purposefully (at worst) led some of the marchers from the walk bridge to where they were arrested. Several reports have Tony Bologna as one of the officers who was walking ahead of marchers. Here’s one photo that appears to show him talking with officers watching over several handcuffed protesters on the bridge.
![chaotrix:
speciousplans:
Contemplation.
[Image: a protester holds a cardboard sign that says “NYPD is only a layoff away from joining us!!!” Next to him are two police officers, one is discreetly peeking at the sign, the other looks in the other direction looking somewhat discomforted.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls94j1uJsZ1qgjrf2o1_1280.jpg)
