Americas

Americas

New York police arrest 50 protesters

18 December 2011 01:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. US police have arrested at least 50 Occupy Wall Street protesters as several hundred demonstrators gather in a small park in New York’s lower Manhattan, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The arrests took place after protesters got together in Duarte Square of Manhattan to mark three months anniversary of Occupy Wall Street movement on Saturday.

Organizers said they were also rallying to find a new base camp for the movement, which lost its iconic Zuccotti Park home after police forced them out of their encampment on November 14.

The park is next to a lot owned by Trinity Church where protests erupted last month after demonstrators were evicted from Zuccotti Park.

"Today we are out here along with civil rights leaders, members of the religious community, local artists, members of the community board, calling upon Trinity Church to allow us to use this vacant lot next door, which has been vacant for three months, will and continue to be vacant for another, for a short period of time as a place to meet, to voice our protest until they come up with some other use for the space," Mark Bray, member of the OWS press team explained.

Church officials say they support the protesters but the property is not available for an encampment.

US police have arrested more than 5,000 protesters since the OWS movement kicked off on September 17.