NEW YORK (Reuters) – Dozens of protesters were arrested yesterday during a demonstration in New York City to denounce what organizers say is Wall Street’s contribution to climate change.
Hundreds of protesters had earlier in the day blocked streets near the stock exchange, in an action called Flood Wall Street.
It came on the heels of Sunday’s international day of action that brought 310,000 people to the streets of New York City in what activists said was the largest protest ever held on climate change.
Sunday’s turnout was about triple that of the previous biggest demonstration on climate change, a Copenhagen demonstration five years ago.
Shortly after the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange at 4 pm, demonstrators tried to push back metal barricades the New York Police Department had used to keep them away, an effort that ended when police turned pepper spray on the crowd.
Police later broke up the gathering, ordering remaining protesters to disband. A core group of a few dozen activists staged a sit-in steps away from Wall Street, and police officers handcuffed and walked them away one-by-one, taking them to police vans parked nearby. Earlier in the day, police had arrested three protesters.
An NYPD representative could not immediately provide an exact tally of how many protesters were arrested yesterday.
