Thousands March in NYC for OWS ‘Day of Action’ [Video]

Occupy Wall Street protesters during "Day of Action"

The two-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement was a day of heightened emotions as protesters shut down New York City blocks while voicing their displeasure with Wall Street, and frustrated commuters were forced to make contingency plans on their way to work as streets became flooded with demonstrators and intersections were barricaded by NYPD officers in riot gear.

The planned protest—dubbed “Day of Action”—resulted in more than 200 arrests as thousands of protesters took to the Manhattan streets to once again express their dissent with big corporations and inequality in America. Protesters said the day held extra meaning for some, after they were evicted from their symbolic home at Zuccotti Park early Tuesday morning.

During a confrontation at Zuccotti, a NYPD officer was reportedly slashed by a protester and required more than a dozen stitches in his left hand, according to the Daily News.

Pictures from Nov. 17 “Day of Action”

Despite all the arrests, violence was minimal, according to reports, and police promptly led away protesters in handcuffs without violent confrontations.

Occupy Wall Street protesters block one of the entrances to the New York Stock Exchange

From the Financial District to the Brooklyn Bridge protesters held several demonstrations throughout the day, while at the same time infuriating many New Yorkers who were unable to slice through the pack of demonstrators to get to work. Some spewed anger toward protesters with repeated shouts of “get a f***ing job.”

“I don’t even know what to call them,” said an upstate man who works in the financial sector, “they’re just naive.”

Others just wanted to escape to the friendly confines of their office buildings.

“I’m pretty frustrated cause I’m just trying to get to work and it seems impossible,” said a Brooklyn woman who unsuccessfully tried to find holes in the protest near the New York Stock Exchange.

But to some protesters, this day was long overdue: “Our lives have been disrupted for the last five, six years and in order to make a statement we need to block the daily lives of other people,” said Dave Korn, whose arrest earlier in the week didn’t stop him from standing alongside others who were kicked out of Zuccotti—the place he still calls “home.”

“SHUT DOWN WALL STREET”

Prior to the swarm of protesters moving to the Financial District, NYPD officers, set up checkpoints around the surrounding blocks leading to the New York Stock Exchange. Those trying to get to work—many unsuccessfully—had to show proof of employment along with a valid ID, just to get through the steel barricade. Others looked at each other in astonishment after learning they had to present identification to walk through public streets.

Protester during Occupy Wall Street "Day of Action" (Photo credit: Jed Morey/Long Island Press)

Some protesters taunted and got in the face of work-bound New Yorkers who tried to keep their emotions in check, even though they were being ridiculed for being part of the system of greed the protesters said emanates from Wall Street.

“You’re going to show your ID to walk down the streets of the United States of America?” a protester dressed in a leather jacket and shirt and tie screamed to the line of people.

But despite their failed attempt to delay the Opening Bell on the exchange, OWS protesters didn’t make it easy for police and the people bound for work. Several human barricades sprouted up at surrounding blocks in the Financial District, forcing NYPD officers to break up the line of bodies in a tug-of-war between police and protesters.

At one point, at the intersection of Wall Street and Hanover Street, police pushed through a human barricade, sending flailing demonstrators to the ground.

One man, who was linking arms with his fellow protesters, said he was injured after the human barricade was broken up.

Pictures from Nov. 17 “Day of Action”

“They shoved us onto the ground and started trampling us,” he said with a grimace, as his friends helped him from the ground.

Police made dozens of arrests early in the morning. Protesters bound in plastic handcuffs were dragged through swarms of protesters that converged on police to snap pictures and ask for their name and badge number.

Chants of “the whole world is watching” were directed at officers who said they were trying to maintain peace on a day of protest that went through the night.

“We’re in the tradition of Egypt and Tunisia and the movement keeps building,” aid 34-year-old Brooklyn resident James Trimarco. “And right from the beginning we wanted to be here on the doorsteps of the stock exchange.”

“STUDENT POWER”

Occupy Wall Street protest at Union Square

After a brief break in the morning chaos, hundreds of students descended on Union Square on Thursday afternoon during a disruption-free meeting of college students wary about their future. Police observed from the perimeter as park police perched themselves on higher ground.

“We have stood up to economic injustice,” Pam from New School blasted into a microphone as her voice carried through the sea of people holding signs that read, “our education is under attack…stand up and fight back.”

She added, “then they took our tents, they took our medicine, and they destroyed the Peoples Library. But this is nothing new. This is what the one percent have been doing for the past 30 years.”

The scene invited shoppers at Barns and Nobles on the opposite side of the street to peek their heads through windows to catch a glimpse of the action. Bank employees at Capital One Bank peered through a giant glass window, giving them a front row seat of the peaceful protest.

Students and adults passed out signs to wave in the air.

Pictures from Nov. 17 “Day of Action”

All City University of New York schools were represented by a single student who was assigned the task of passing on a message made by a collective group of people.

An Egyptian man named Ahkabad, who took part in the uprising at his home country earlier this year, implored OWS protesters not to give up.

“We are in solidarity with you,” he screamed, as his friend waved an Egyptian flag behind him. “[Friday,] Egypt we will organize a demonstration with millions. Millions of Egyptians who support the feeling, who support social justice so we can make a change…our generation can make a change. I believe in that, we can change the world.”

Protesters were then advised to prepare for a giant march to Foley Square. Police and news helicopter followed from above.

“OUR STREETS”

Thousands marched down 16th street before police quickly planted barricades and called in fire trucks and other emergency vehicles to prevent the flood of protesters from leaking down the street lined with banks, retail shops and apartments.

Blocked in, some demonstrators—against the advice of others—jumped onto cars and trucks to plot a new map. A group of women riding a treadmill at a local gym across the street slowed down their workout to catch a glimpse of the protesters. A family walked out of a bank, where a man was arrested outside just minutes earlier, and nervously walked back and forth, unable to find a way home.

Occupy Wall Street protester arrested (Photo credit: Jed Morey/Long Island Press)

Protesters then split up and walked down the Avenue of the Americas and Greenwich Avenue. Observes peeked their heads out of office building and apartments and cheered on the protesters. As the two giant group of protesters finally converged onto one block, traffic was completely halted.

Demonstrators chanted “Whose streets? Our streets” as they navigated around taxis and packed buses. Frustrated drivers tried to go in reverse to find a way out.

Pictures from Nov. 17 “Day of Action”

Shop owners ran out of their stores with wide-eyed looks at the scene. Parents snatched their children into the arms to prevent them from getting hurt.

Protesters used a handful of people on race bikes to direct them away from police. A maze-like route took them through Avenue of the Americas, West Broadway and Canal Street. When night fell, and they finally made it to Foley Square to meet up with several thousands of union workers, students, and other protesters they yelled, “we made it.”

“Coming together in Foley Square tonight, is a sign of solidarity,” said Gray Edgerton, 27, an artist from Brooklyn. “Today was chosen as a day where all of these different disenfranchised groups, the students the workers…that have been struggling to get by…this is a message to the politicians, to the world.”

Said Christine Rowland, from the American Federation of Teachers: “I’ve been following the movement closely. We feel like we’re part of the 99 percent, [it] definitely is us. And we understand what it’s about and we really just wanted to be here to support our brothers and sisters who have been in Liberty Square and across the country. ”

Later in the evening, thousands of people crossed the Brooklyn Bridge to cap the day’s events.

Earlier in the day, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said despite the movement’s attempt to draw thousands of people to their “Day of Action,” there was “minimal disruptions to our city.”

But many protesters disagreed. “Our voices were heard,” protesters repeated throughout the day.