Occupy Wall Street Wins Converts, Flummoxes Cops on Global Day of Protest

Occupy Wall Street Wins Converts, Flummoxes Cops on Global Day of Protest: "The flat-foots were caught flatfooted as Occupy Wall Street marchers took to the streets of New York City.

They looked like a small army. Just a few short blocks from Liberty Plaza, where a four-week occupation has spawned the beginnings of a new mini-society, the opposition was gathering. Unlike Occupy Wall Street, this “rally” had no drum circles and no people’s kitchen. They carried no signs and chanted no slogans. What they had were weapons, vehicles and a cohesive look. A not-so-thin blue line, punctuated by white-shirted superiors, carrying out their own occupation with no threat of eviction.

Clustered around the Church of Saint Peter, the New York City Police Department had created a staging ground for the day’s actions. Six NYPD buses, the kind often used to cart mass arrestees to jail, were parked in the vicinity, along with 15 scooters, 12 police vans, two marked and several unmarked SUVs and squad cars, several flatbed trucks overflowing with metal fences, and a bus-sized command unit. More than 70 cops milled around on the street, talking, texting and listening to briefings. Just like at Liberty Plaza, there was energy in the air, but here it was a nervous kind....."