Interesting contradictions in these reports:
Taking Times Square: Occupy Wall Street Movement is Becoming Very Powerful
By: Kevin Gosztola Sunday October 16, 2011 2:21 pm
At least one hundred US cities participated in an October 15 Global Day of Action yesterday. Each demonstration was part of a growing “Occupy” movement that was ignited by Occupy Wall Street just over four weeks ago.
A few of the cities attempted to start permanent camps, like Occupy Wall Street has successfully done in Liberty Park. But, in cities like Chicago, the police enforced a park curfew and arrested about 175 protesters who refused to leave Grant Park.
I was in New York City to cover the day of action. The day began with a march on Chase Bank in Manhattan. It was peaceful and 800-1000 people participated in the march.
From Chase Bank, the march headed to Washington Square, a site where. It stretched for at least five to six blocks. The police were noticeably overwhelmed. They had to keep traffic moving and manage a march of about a thousand people...
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/10/16/taking-times-square-occupy-wall-streets-movement-is-becoming-very-powerful/Long report on NYC, good pics/videos
Anti-Wall St. movement grows to dozens of cities
By Chris Hawley
Associated Press / October 16, 2011
NEW YORK—Protesters in at least four U.S. cities who were part of a growing anti-Wall Street sentiment were arrested after refusing to obey police orders to leave public areas, including 175 people in Chicago, where the arrests brought about a new phase of civil disobedience, organizers there said Sunday.
The arrests were mostly peaceful and came as somewhat of a contrast to earlier demonstrations, where protesters took care to follow laws in order to continue protesting Wall Street's role in the financial crisis and other grievances. The arrests came after a day of protests in cities around the world where thousands gathered to rally against what they see as corporate greed.
Most of those marches Saturday were largely nonconfrontational, though dozens were arrested in New York and elsewhere not for refusing to obey orders but when police moved to contain overflowing crowds or keep them off private property. Two officers in New York were injured and had to be hospitalized.
At least one protest overseas grew violent. In Rome, rioters hijacked what had been a peaceful gathering and smashed windows, tore up sidewalks and torched vehicles. Repair costs were estimated at $1.4 million, the mayor said Sunday.
In addition to the arrests in Chicago, 46 people in Phoenix were arrested for misdemeanor criminal trespass after refusing to leave a park, Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Trent Crump said. And police said some protesters were arrested after they remained in a Tucson, Ariz., park past the 10:30 p.m. closing time. An exact number wasn't available Sunday...
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/10/16/thousands_of_protesters_fill_nycs_times_square/From Tahrir Square to Times Square: Protests Erupt in Over 1,500 Cities Worldwide
Posted Oct. 16, 2011, 1:08 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tens of Thousands in Streets of Times Square, NY
Tens of Thousands Flood the Streets of Global Financial Centers, Capitol Cities and Small Towns to "Occupy Together" Against Wall Street Mid-Town Manhattan Jammed as Marches Converge in Times Square
New York, NY -- After triumphing in a standoff with the city over the continued protest of Wall Street at Liberty Square in Manhattan's financial district, the Occupy Wall Street movement has spread world wide today with demonstrations in over 1,500 cities globally and over 100 US cities from coast to coast. In New York, thousands marched in various protests by trade unions, students, environmentalists, and community groups. As occupiers flocked to Washington Square Park, two dozen participants were arrested at a nearby Citibank while attempting to withdraw their accounts from the global banking giant.
"I am occupying Wall Street because it is my future, my generations' future, that is at stake," said Linnea Palmer Paton, 23, a student at New York University. "Inspired by the peaceful occupation of Tahrir Square in Cairo, tonight we are are coming together in Times Square to show the world that the power of the people is an unstoppable force of global change. Today, we are fighting back against the dictators of our country - the Wall Street banks - and we are winning."
New Yorkers congregated in assemblies organized by borough, and then flooded the subway system en mass to join the movement in Manhattan. A group calling itself Todo Boricua Para Wall Street marched as a Puerto Rican contingent of several hundred playing traditional music and waving the Lares flag, a symbol of resistance to colonial Spain. "Puerto Ricans are the 99% and we will continue to join our brothers and sisters in occupying Wall Street," said David Galarza Santa, a trade unionist from Sunset Park, Brooklyn. "We are here to stand with all Latinos, who are being scapegoated by the 1%, while it is the bankers who have caused this crisis and the banks who are breaking the law..."
http://occupywallst.org/Occupy Wall Street Spreads to Over 50 Cities, Reflecting Israel’s Social Justice Protests and Arab Spring Roots
Sep 29
Posted by David Harris-Gershon
As the initial phase of Israel’s social justice protest movement climaxed this summer – with tent encampments dotting nearly every municipality in the country and massive street rallies shaking Israel’s major cities – many progressives in America looked on from the sidelines in awe, cheering Israel’s youth-driven movement.
In a diverse array of online venues, people marveled at the protesters’ success and identified closely with many of their central demands – bolstering social welfare programs, strengthening workers’ rights and reforming those capitalist systems that have served to widen the gaps between the rich and the poor. However, while cheering from the sidelines, many in this country who longed for such a movement to sweep through the United States also expressed feelings of envy. Time and again, the following refrains echoed on news sites, blogs and in social media: it can’t happen here. America is too big. The geography makes a replication impossible.
It was a refrain voiced by those who viewed New York City and Washington, D.C. as the necessary focal points for mass protests, and who thus seemed frustrated by the prohibitive burden of long-distance travel. And to be fair, with the September 17 Occupy Wall Street initiative scheduled to take place in New York City, such frustrations had practical weight, for who among us can travel from Denver to New York to engage in prolonged protests?...
...Today, what we saw in Israel is beginning to happen here, for less than two weeks after 700 protesters converged on New York City under Adbusters’ call for Americans to Occupy Wall Street, the movement has organically branched off into over 50 additional states and cities across America as local citizens take up the banner of this rapidly-growing movement in the places where they live. While the central protest in New York is slowly growing, the expansion of this protest movement across the U.S. is anything but slow. There’s now an Occupy Boston; an Occupy L.A.; an Occupy Chicago. There’s an Occupy Arkansas; an Occupy Indianapolis; an Occupy Nashville; an Occupy Pittsburgh.
And this list of locations is not growing by the day. It’s growing by the hour
http://davidehg.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/occupy-wall-street-spreads-to-over-50-cities-reflecting-israel%E2%80%99s-social-justice-protests-and-arab-spring-roots/Europeans join "Occupy Wall Street" amid threat of banking crisis
By the CNN Wire Staff
October 15, 2011 -- Updated 2247 GMT (0647 HKT)
CNN) -- The "Occupy Wall Street" movement went global Saturday, crossing the Atlantic to many European cities, where protesters turned out by the thousands for largely peaceful demonstrations. In many cities, handfuls of protesters donned masks portraying a sinister, smiling face with a pointy black mustache and a thin lip beard taken from the movie "V for Vendetta" about a masked hero who fights against totalitarianism.
Here's a country-by-country look at the European demonstrations:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/15/world/europe/occupy-europe/