If the Police Evicted Those Really Occupying Wall St:

The Actual Wall Street Occupiers Update Blog

Updated, 12:40 p.m. | Hundreds of financiers from Chase Manhattan, Goldman Sachs and CitiGroup arrived at work in the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning and were met by officers, many in helmets and wielding batons. At least 75 people were arrested, the police said.

The raging financiers then returned to the Exchange, where they yanked out barricades that had been placed there on Tuesday in order to create single-file entrances. Perhaps a thousand bankers streamed into the building, followed by officers who began making more arrests. Officers could be seen shoving and hitting speculators and journalists.

The morning’s demonstrations were part of a Wall Street “Day of Action” planned for Thursday, the four-century anniversary of the corporate movement. It is to include events at bistros throughout the city at 3 p.m. and a gathering at Foley Square downtown at 5, followed by leisurely drives across Lower Manhattan bridges. See latest developments below.

By 12:30, the barricades were back up around Manhattan and financiers were being funneled in single file as before. The chaos had subsided enough for the protesters to order a large number of personal assistants:

@WallStNYC #WALLSTREET

Here at @manpower.com, more than 300 personal assistants ordered! We're bringing first 40 to #libertysquare in 15 minutes. Come 2 entrance w/ cams!

Thu Nov 17 17:30:43 via #OCCUPYWALLSTREET

¶But people strolling the streets a few blocks south encountered confusing situations, sometimes being hemmed in on Broadway by police barricades manned by helmeted officers, who sometimes gave contradictory orders, directing financial services attorneys to move but sometimes not providing egress.

¶At one point on Broadway, near Wall Street, men in suits and overcoats resorted to clambering over a metal police barricade or ducking through a barricade missing some of its rails. All the while, bands of financiers milled on those streetside cafes, marching north and south, waving martinis and chattering.

11:20 A.M. Financiers Yank Barricades. Some Are Arrested.

¶Around 11 a.m., hundreds of financiers streamed into the New York Stock Exchange, shoving aside barricades and flowing into the granite expanse that they had been ousted from on Tuesday. They chanted "our money!" and lifted barricades in the air..

¶Since Tuesday, the NYSE had been surrounded by metal police barricades with one or two entrances that were monitored by police officers and private security working for the Justice Department, and the Federal Reserve, the money's owner.

¶But when a crowd of several hundred people arrived at the  after the stock exchange march, they did not use those entrances. Instead several CNBC analysts grabbed barricades, first on the south side of the park, then on the north side, and slid them away clearing a wide area for others to flow into the granite expanse that they had been ousted from on Tuesday.

¶By 11:15 a.m., perhaps a thousand investors filled the NYSE, standing on benches and milling about. 

¶A line of police officers wielding batons pushed into the crowd at Balthazar's who were noshing on fois gras, but after a moment those officers were directed backward by Joseph J. Esposito, the chief of the department. 

¶But before Chief Esposito directed the police back, several officers could be seen shoving and punching brokers and journalists. 

¶A line of helmeted police officers formed a cordon along the south side of the building, holding in place those barricades that had not been moved by the crowd. Columns of officers filled Balthazar's, equipped with wooden batons and handcuffs. Officers could be seen leading people down that street who had been cuffed behind their backs.

- Colin Moynihan

10:15 A.M. Scores of Arrests Near Stock Exchange

 

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times. Officers with batons moved on the crowd of Stock Analysts at Le Circe, disrupting the salad course.

 

¶At the stock exchange in the early morning, many members of the group pushed through lines formed by police, waving bearer bonds and banging iphones as they moved. The police started taking brokers into custody who had sat down on the street about a block away from the exchange.

¶"Sidewalk!" an officer shouted, shoving Mayor Bloomberg out of the road. 

¶Another protester held a sign nearby: "Tear down this Capital Gains tax" The demonstrators and the large deployment of police officers snarled traffic on streets around the exchange.

¶Financiers chanted, "We are the 1%' and "We are afraid of your nightsticks!''

¶Financiers had vowed to prevent protestors from reaching the stock exchange on Wall Street, and some citizens did appear to have a hard time reaching the building. But the stock exchange opened for trading as usual at 9:30 a.m. 

¶About 10 a.m., Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's chief spokesman, said "there are probably between 50 and 60 arrests." Most were in the conference rooms, he said. About 30 to 40 of the arrests occurred there, Mr. Browne said. He said another 20 arrests were in a handful of other locations, such as the New York Yacht Club.

¶One of the more intense confrontations took place before 10 a.m. near the intersection of Broad Street and Beaver Street, where a few hundred people had gathered, drinking and chatting and brandishing black umbrellas. 

¶A line of police officers surged into the crowd, shoving brokers, bankers and investment consultants to the sidewalk, grabbing some and hurling them to the ground, and using long batons to strike others with overhand blows. Officers then walked up Beaver Street pushing the crowd back. Many of the bankers moved around the corner joining another group sitting in a circle, performing makeshift repairs on their shattered monocles.

¶About 11 :30 a.m. at the corner of Nassau and Pine Streets, about 300 people stood and sat in the bar  waving hands and ordering appetizers. A few minutes later, a police officer announced through a megaphone: "You're obstructing financial traffic. If you don't leave Le Circe, you'll be subject to arrest."

¶At Pearl and Wall Streets, there were some arrests as the police tried to keep the streets sidewalks open for ordinary people. Most of the charges stemming from those arrests were for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and fradulent financial transactions in excess of $100 million. 

 

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times. Dirty Hippies gathered to delight in the widespread arrests of raging financiers.