Cops Bust Dozens, Clear Zuccotti Park

Dozens arrested in Zuccotti Park, 6 months after protests started

By Mark Russell, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 18, 2012 7:42 AM CDT

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Cops Bust Dozens, Clear Zuccotti Park — An Occupy Wall Street demonstrator lays amidst his fellow protestors in Zuccotti Park after a march in celebration of the protest's sixth month, Saturday, March 17, 2012, in New York. With the city's attention focused on the huge St. Patrick's Day Parade many blocks uptown, the Occupy rally drew a far... (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

The NYPD cleared Zuccotti Park last night around 11:30pm, arresting the small number of Occupy protesters who refused to leave the park on the six-month anniversary of the movement's birth, reports the AP. Demonstrators had started filling Zuccotti in the afternoon, with signs and banners. Around 1pm they left the park and marched down Broadway to Wall Street, before returning to Zuccotti.

“It’s just a reminder that we’re here,” one protester told the New York Times. “It’s an opportunity to remind Wall Street that we aren’t going anywhere.” As the day went on, numbers swelled to about 500. But when they started setting up tents and bringing sleeping bags, the park owner sent in security to tell protesters to leave the park and asked the police for help. No official count of the arrested has been released yet, but the Wall Street Journal estimates that about 40 protesters were taken into custody. (More Occupy Wall Street stories.)

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