Occupy Wall Street: Demonstration Turns Violent with Pepper Spray; 80 Protesters Arrested [VIDEO]
The Occupy Wall Street protests turned violent this weekend, with videos emerging that show police officers employing tactics including tasers and pepper spray to subdue protesters.
More than 80 people were arrested on Saturday as they marched from their encampment in Zuccotti Park, in the financial district, to Union Square. A police spokeswoman confirmed to ABC News that about 80 people were arrested, adding that the arrests were for disorderly conduct and obstructing vehicular and pedestrian traffic in addition to one for assaulting a police officer.
The anti-corporate Occupy Wall Street demonstration began on Sept. 17 but diminished somewhat in the ensuing days as a smaller core of protestors rotated between Zuccotti Park and nearby Wall Street. But the protests intensified over the weekend, and a video surfaced showing police officers trapping protestors in an orange net and using pepper spray, apparently without provocation.
One of the protestors arrested on Saturday night spoke to ABC News from the back of a police van.
We haven't been charged, we don't know what happened, said Cristina Gonzalez, 25. We are at One Police Plaza, there's 16 of us in the back of a van and we're sweating. And there's a man back here who needs medical attention. He's bleeding from his head and his handcuffs are too tight.
A message posted on Sunday to the Occupy Wall Street Web site said that protestors were regrouping.
Throughout the day our sisters and brothers arrested yesterday came back home to Liberty Plaza, the message said. They greeted the new faces that have joined us here. They shared their stories of imprisonment, of medical care denied and delayed. We welcomed them and listened.
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