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– Wednesday saw ten thousand protestors march from Foley Square to the Financial District in a rally against corporate greed as documented in the following Associated Press video.
What wasn’t documented in the piece was the many arrests that occurred later that night, when police took their batons and beat back some of the protestors at Liberty Square. The New York Daily News reported that “scuffles” between the police and protestors began after “some of the younger demonstrators” attempted to “storm barricades blocking them from Wall Street and the Stock Exchange.” However it happened, it didn’t look good in the video captured by someone at the “scuffle.”
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– The Daily Show‘s Samantha Bee tried to find some humor amidst the “Occupy” situation, as she tried to bridge the gap between protestors and workers in the surrounding New York area.
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– President Obama addressed the protests in a White House news conference on Thursday. “I think [the protests] expresses the frustrations the American people feel, that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country … and yet you’re still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on the abusive practices that got us into this in the first place,” said the President, who took the opportunity to bash Republicans on the matter. “Not only did the financial sector, with the Republican Party in Congress, fight us every step [of] the way, but now you’ve got these same folks arguing we should roll back all those reforms and go back to the way it was. That does not make sense to the American people. They are frustrated by it and they will continue to be frustrated by it until they get the sense that everyone is playing by the same rules.”
Republicans responded immediately, with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor calling the protestors a “mob” at a “Values Voter Summit” in Washington. “This administration’s failed policies have resulted in an assault on many of our nation’s bedrock principles,” Cantor told the crowd. “If you read the newspapers today, I for one am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and the other cities across the country and, believe it or not, some in this town have condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans.”
– The “Occupy” movement has spread to other cities as well. The Washington Post reports a group called the “Raging Grannies” have organized hundreds of protestors and have taken over Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C. The San Francisco Bay Guradian reports that protestors rallied at the at the Federal Building yesterday and plan to return today for a march commemorating the 10th anniversary of the war against Afghanistan. Meanwhile, in San Diego, members of the social media-driven group called Occupy Together are gathering for a demonstration “in protest of the global financial corruption currently invading politics, media and corporations, exemplified by the recent financial-industry meltdown and subsequent recession,” according to the group’s website. Those are but a handful of cities that are joining in on the movement.
Not surprisingly, many of you are split about the protests.
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What will be the outcome of the “Occupy” movement?
