Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Please support KAZU’s Spring Pledge Drive. Click here or call (831) 582-5298.

At Occupy Wall Street: Some Arrests; Some Midday Chaos At Park

A demonstrator (left) and a police officer, in Manhattan's financial district earlier today.
Mary Altaffer
/
AP
A demonstrator (left) and a police officer, in Manhattan's financial district earlier today.

As Eyder continues to file posts from the streets of lower Manhattan, where Occupy Wall Street protesters have been on the march today, here are some more views of what's happening there and other resources for monitoring what's happening:

Update at 4:15 p.m. ET: Our colleague Bill Chappell has used Storify to gather other feeds and reports about what's happening.

Update at 4:05 p.m ET: Mayor Michael Bloomberg just told reporters he thinks the real story of the day so far is how relatively few people were part of the protests. He estimated that perhaps 1,000 or so were moving from scene to scene. "It's not an overwhelming number," Bloomberg said. "Police were able to handle it."

Update at 3:50 p.m. ET: According to The New York Times' City Room blog, there have been about 175 arrests in New York so far today.

Update at 3:40 p.m ET: Eyder just described for the Newscast desk what it was like in Zuccotti Park earlier this afternoon when tempers flared. "Some of the protesters were kicking barricades," he said. Police moved in to get one of those protesters, and the man was later led out, "with blood all over his forehead."

That led to an effort by other protesters to move away. "Using the 'people's mic,' " Eyder said, "where the crowd repeats what [one] person who's talking says, eventually they said 'we're a peaceful movement' and they started to march toward Union Square." That defused the tension in the park.

Update at 2:10 p.m. ET: There's a lot of pushing and shoving going on right now at Zuccotti Park — the site where the protesters had been, until this week, camped out night and day. As The New York Times' City Room blog says, after the morning's marches, protesters:

"Returned to the park, where they yanked out barricades that had been placed there on Tuesday in order to create single-file entrances. Perhaps a thousand protesters streamed into the park, followed by officers who began making more arrests. Officers could be seen shoving and hitting protesters and journalists."

Eyder just called to report he saw one man, his head bloodied, being led from the scene. "It's pretty chaotic," he said.

From our original post at 10:25 a.m. ET:

-- The latest lede on The New York Times' City Room blog is that "hundreds of protesters from Zuccotti Park clashed with the police as they tried to reach the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning, and at least 50 were arrested."

-- New York's Daily News says "the mobile protest turned the typical morning rush hour into chaos," around the financial district.

-- CBS New York says "there's been some pushing and shoving." The protesters, it adds, "were greeted by a large police presence, who had essentially turned the blocks surrounding the NYSE into a large 'frozen zone.' "

-- NPR's Margot Adler reports from the "Wall Street canyon" that there "was some shoving going on" and that police were "pulling some people out" and making arrests.

-- WNYC estimates that "about 500 protesters gathered" early in the day at Zuccotti Park and then headed off toward Wall Street.

-- There's a live feed from "The Other 99" here. It's a webcast, from the street, of the protesters' perspective.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.