Scores of protesters were arrested in Manhattan Saturday as a march against social inequality turned violent.
Hundreds of people carrying banners and chanting “shame, shame” walked between Zuccotti Park, near Wall St., and Union Square calling for changes to a financial system they say unjustly benefits the rich and harms the poor.
At least 80 people were carted away in police vehicles and up to five were hit with pepper spray near 12th St. and Fifth Ave., where tensions became especially high, police and organizers said.
The National Lawyer’s Guild, which is providing legal assistance to the protesters, put the number of arrests at 100.
Witnesses said they saw three stunned women collapse on the ground screaming after they were sprayed in the face.
A video posted on YouTube and NYDailyNews.com shows uniformed officers had corralled the women using orange nets when two supervisors made a beeline for the women, and at least one suddenly sprayed the women before turning and quickly walking away.
Footage of other police altercations also circulated online, but it was unclear what caused the dramatic mood shift in an otherwise peaceful demonstration.
“I saw a girl get slammed on the ground. I turned around and started screaming,” said Chelsea Elliott, 25, from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, who said she was sprayed. “I turned around and a cop was coming … we were on the sidewalk and we weren’t doing anything illegal.”
Police said 80 protesters were arrested or ticketed at multiple locations for disorderly conduct, blocking traffic and failure to obey a lawful order but the number could rise.
If the NYPD’s excuse for this disgusting behavior — which should make decent police officers anywhere cringe with shame — is that the protestors didn’t have a permit, then fuck that. Of course, Mayor Bloomberg is probably off in Bermuda on his usual weekend getaway, so neither he nor his police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, won’t have to be held accountable for these wanton acts of police brutality until Monday. At least.
For shame.
(Photo: Jefferson Siegel / Daily News)
"Manhattan continued to have the biggest income gap of any county in the country, with the top fifth of earners (with an average income of $371,754) making nearly 38 times as much as the bottom fifth ($9,845)."
(Source: inothernews)
INLAND / ISLAND Pakistani villagers take shelter on a dry patch in the flood-hit Badin district of Sindh province on September 14. Pakistan called on the world to speed up relief efforts after torrential rains exacerbated major floods, killing 270 people and making another 200,000 homeless in the south of the country. (Photo: Asif Hassan / AFP-Getty via MSNBC.com)
“Women will be ambassadors. Women will be ministers.” said Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of Libya’s National Transitional Council in his first speech in Tripoli, said to cheering. He also stated that the Libyan government would seek to be one of moderate Islam, rejecting extremism but based on faith.
Raise America's Taxes
NYTimes’ Nicholas D. Kristof addresses President Obama’s speech, Republican Representative Paul Ryans’ proposed budget plan, and argues taxes needed to be raised instead of cutting essential programs like Medicaid.
This isn’t just an argument to get the country out of debt. We live in a society that is so apathetic we don’t even care if senior citizens can’t afford health care and proper medical attention because we don’t want to pay higher taxes.
In the end, it’s not about socialism, capitalism, etc. It’s about a common decency and humanity we’ve all lost.
Sociology ARGHH!
Why can’t I find anything in the news to write my Intro. to Sociology response memo? I need something that concerns class struggles to connect it to the reading, but…nothing!
I thought if you threw a dead cat you’d hit an argument about class conflict. WTF PROFESSOR ARUM??!
