Had enough, New York?
A New York City police officer was slashed during Thursday’s “Occupy Wall Street” action– and a second cop was taken to a local hospital with an eye injury– after clashes between protesters and activists across lower Manhattan, sources told FoxNews.com.
Both officers are said to be in stable condition, although the incident marked an escalation of tension in the uneasy give-and-take between NYPD officers charged with maintaining order, and protesters determined to be heard.
The officer sustained the injury after a long day of marches and demonstrations by protesters across Manhattan’s Financial District. Here’s what happened, according to law enforcement sources.
Prompted by unknown reasons, a single officer, on-duty at the time, waded into a mass of protesters in Zuccotti Park. Once there, the officer called for back-up. Two additional officers responded to the call for help and joined the original one.
Something was thrown at eye of the original officer, perhaps an irritant, said law enforcement sources at the scene. Then, moments later, something “sharp” was thrown at one of other officers providing back-up, causing a deep gash on this thumb, the source said.
The officer hit in the eye was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where his injured eye was “flushed out,” said a law enforcement source. The second cop was taken to an as-yet unidentified local hospital, where he was due to receive numerous stitches to close the gash on his hand, law enforcement sources told FoxNews.com.
The movement started anew Thursday morning with far less than the anticipated 10,000 activists marching on the heart of Manhattan’s Financial District, two days after cops rousted the ragtag bunch from their encampment in nearby Zuccotti Park.
Organizers had called for 10,000 to amass in lower Manhattan, but the crowd appeared to be no more than one-fifth that number.
Displaced but still determined, the marchers symbolically started at the now-cleared Zuccotti Park as the sun rose above Manhattan and suited squads of traders and brokers arrived for regular shifts. They headed for another symbolic destination — the New York Stock Exchange. Roughly 100 arrests were reported to FoxNews by a law enforcement source.
The NYPD did its best to keep the protestors on the periphery of the plaza in front of the exchange, cordoning off the area with metal barricades, scooters and parked vans. Only a smattering of the officers wore helmeted riot gear, the rest in their blue, workaday attire.
But as soon as one of the many side streets leading to the Exchange in the warren-like Financial District was blocked by the NYPD, the protesters resumed their march and headed for another entry point.
Blocked from access to the plaza, the march effectively surrounded the outskirts.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/17/occupy-protestors-march-on-new-york-stock-exchange/
As long as Bloomberg allows these thugs to run roughshod through his town, this will continue. Can we call them terrorists, now?