Occupy Wall Street activists say they aren’t giving up their fight to use public spaces.
Police cleared out encampments of protesters in Los Angeles and Philadelphia last week, and protesters have not been allowed to spend the night in New York’s Zuccotti Park since Nov. 15.
But protesters who gathered at Zuccotti on Saturday said the movement to challenge economic inequality would not die.
The protesters, who have not been allowed to spend the night at Zuccotti since Nov. 15, pressed for access to an alternative space owned by a historic New York church.
The protesters want Trinity Wall Street, an Episcopal church that dates to the colonial era, to let them use a vacant lot it owns at Sixth Avenue and Canal Street. The fenced-in property was the scene of arrests on Nov. 15.
Three protesters said they were starting a hunger strike Saturday to try to pressure Trinity to let them use the vacant lot.
A spokesman for Trinity said the lot “is not available nor is it suitable for large-scale assemblies or encampments.”
The spokesman, Lloyd Kaplan, added that the church “supports the vigorous engagement of the issues which Occupy Wall Street has raised.”
Other activists were staging 24 hours of street performances on Broadway near Times Square.
(Source: NBC New York)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
One Response
They are shooting themselves in the foot. Most Americans have a strong distaste to unruly mobs (cf. the 1968 convention riots in Chicago were a major factor in Nixon defeating Humphrey).