Occupy Wall Street is now entering its third week in Manhattan and protesters say they’re not going anywhere.
This comes as a shock, after all over 1,000 have been arrested in past weeks.
The bulk of the arrests happened this past weekend when over 700 protesters were arrested during a march over the Brooklyn Bridge. The march to the bridge began Saturday in Zuccotti Park and had grown during the time it reached the bridge.
According to Occupy Wall Street’s latest update Saturday, this was the plan:
“We the 99% will not be silent and we will not be intimidated. This Saturday thousands more of us will march together as one to show that it is time that the 99% are heard. Join us on the 2nd week anniversary of your new movement.”
And that, “As members of the 99 percent, we occupy Wall Street as a symbolic gesture of our discontent with the current economic and political climate and as an example of a better world to come. Therefore we invite the public, our fellow 99 percent, to join us in a march on SATURDAY AT THREE, starting from LIBERTY PLAZA (ZUCCOTTI PARK) at LIBERTY & BROADWAY.”
“March will end with a gathering and some eating at Brooklyn Bridge Park 5:30 p.m.,” read the post.
According to the NY Daily News, the standoff started around 4 p.m. Saturday and ended up in a slew of arrests—About 500 protesters ended up on one lane of the road across the bridge and could be found in orange netting and being arrested—According to the Associated Press, police used orange netting to stop the group from going farther down the bridge, which is under construction.
Not everyone believed construction was the reason, some believe that police were leading them on the road as a trap. NYPD responded to this by releasing a video showing a captain warning protesters of a potential arrest.
“Ladies and gentleman, since you have refused to leave this roadway I’m ordering your arrest for disorderly conduct,” he reportedly said.
The protesters first stormed Wall Street weeks ago demanding an end to corruption of the rich.
U.S. Day of Rage website reads, ”Bought by hard and soft dollars, disloyal, incompetent, and wasteful special interests have usurped our nation’s civil and military power, spawning a host of threats to liberty and our national security. We have had enough,” and goes on, “Legitimate government is born of the self-interest and will of the people expressed by its citizens in free and fair elections. It does not spring from a tyranny of special interests, patronage, or a system or ideology that runs counter to the aims of life.”
