Chanting, “We are the 99 percent,” more than 2,000 people marched to One Police Plaza Sept. 30 to protest police brutality against the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators who have camped out in a financial-district park since Sept. 17. The previous Saturday, a police supervisor had pepper-sprayed peaceful protesters marching near Union Square.
On Oct. 1, more than 700 demonstrators were arrested during a march across the Brooklyn Bridge. On Oct. 5, more than 15,000 people, many from the city’s labor unions, marched from Foley Square to Zuccotti Park, the site of the occupation.
The occupation is trying to spark outrage against financial-empire greed. Even before the recession, the top 1 percent of New Yorkers received 44 percent of all income in the city.
Several tenant and housing-advocate groups and activists have joined the protests, including several members of Met Council’s board, lawyer Sam Himmelstein and others from his firm, Tenants and Neighbors, and the Pratt Area Community Council.