Americas

Americas

Police arrest Occupy Denver protesters

21 December 2011 01:53 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. US police have arrested nine Occupy protesters in Denver, the capital city of the central state of Colorado, and dismantled their camp, which was put on fire during the violence, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Police arrested nine protesters on Tuesday during the confrontation with anti-corporatism demonstrators, said Denver Police spokesman Lieutenant Matthew Murray.

It was not immediately known who set ablaze the camp, set up by protesters in Civic Center Park outside the Capitol building in downtown Denver.

Once police pushed protesters back, firefighters extinguished the fire and â€œpublic works crewsâ€ dismantled the camp, he said.

Over the past few weeks, police have broken up Occupy encampments in cities and towns across the US, harshly attacking and arresting dozens of protesters.

The anti-Wall Street protest in Denver was one of the last encampments in a major US city as part of a countrywide Occupy movement. The protest movement, which gave voice to outcries and grievances of people against poverty, unemployment, war, and corporatism, first began in Spain before gaining prominence in the US and then moving to other countries

In recent weeks, police have forcefully dismantled protest camps in New York, Los Angeles and many other cities while the Denver protest site has continued to draw demonstrators despite freezing temperatures and police crackdowns.

Since October, police have attacked the Denver camp three times and removed demonstrators from the site but they kept coming back. However, an Occupy demonstrator said the latest confrontation was more "tense" than previous ones.

There have been 5,425 arrests during Occupy protests in 94 cities across the US up to December 12, according to St. Pete for Peace, an Occupy-affiliated group from St. Petersburg, Florida.

The Occupy Wall Street movement began when a group of demonstrators gathered in New York’s financial district on September 17 to protest against the unjust distribution of wealth in the country and the excessive influence of big corporations on US policies.