27 protesters were arrested during three Occupy movement demonstrations on Tuesday in Chicago and Washington D.C.
A total of 21 economic protesters were arrested for trespassing in Illinois on Tuesday as the Occupy Wall Street movement continued to spread across US major cities.
Last night, five women aged between 55 and 80, from the Action Now group, were arrested in Chicago for taking rubbish from a foreclosed home owned by Bank of America and dumping it at one of the company’s branches.
Action Now is a group of working families, which said Bank of America had not properly shuttered the foreclosed home from which the group took the furniture and garbage.
“Since Bank of America will not go to our neighborhoods and clean up their vacant properties, Action Now members brought the neighborhood to them,” Action Now group said on its website. Bank of America has not yet commented.
The arrests in Chicago came one day after thousands of people including teachers and religious leaders marched and snarled rush-hour traffic while protesting unemployment and economic woes.
They marched to target financial events in Chicago, including a conference of the Mortgage Bankers Association.
16 of them were arrested for misdemeanor trespassing at the Hyatt Regency protest, where the Mortgage Bankers Association conference was held.
Chicago has also seen several weeks of daily protests outside the Federal Reserve Bank by “Occupy Chicago”, an echo of the larger Wall Street protests.
Six other demonstrators were arrested in Washington D.C. yesterday after 100 protesters unfurled upside-down flags – a symbol of distress – and anti-war banners in the atrium of a Senate office building.
Occupy D.C. protesters chanted “We are the 99 per cent” – reflecting their view that the country’s wealthiest 1% have too much and are too powerful – and “Stop the wars” until the police cleared the area.
The original protest in Washington D.C. had been planned for months by such anti-war groups as Veterans for Peace and Code Pink to mark the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan.
But the demonstration drew participants as well from the Occupy DC protest, a local version of the anti-corporate Occupy Wall Street demonstrations that have spread nationwide.
In New York, the Occupy Wall Street movement has got stronger, with the added celebrity backing of stars such as singer Kanye West this week.
Yesterday, Occupy Wall Street demonstrators marched to the home of JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and today they are gathering at the company’s headquarters in New York to protest.
One day before, a huge crackdown on Occupy Boston’s second campsite ended with about 100 protesters arrested and their tents and personal belongings reportedly thrown into bins.
The Occupy Boston protesters were arrested on Monday around 1:30 a.m. after they ignored warnings to move from a downtown greenway near where they have been camped out for more than a week.
They had tried to expand from their original site in Dewey Square to a second site across the street, along the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
According to authorities, a local conservancy group recently planted $150,000 worth of shrubs along the greenway and officials said they were concerned about damage, but the arrests were mostly for trespassing.
Boston police had warned Occupy demonstrators for hours they would have to return to Dewey Square, where a tent city has been steadily growing, and issued leaflets saying protesters could not occupy the greenway.
[youtube ypcl40ikwQk]
