Police are shifting into new postures of action and response to protesters in the “Occupy Wall Street” movement who are now camping or hanging out in many U.S. cities, the New York Times reports. In Boston early yesterday, more than 100 protesters were arrested when the group expanded from its previous area in the center of the financial district to a nearby part of open park space.
In Seattle, officials pressured protesters to relocate to City Hall from a park in the busy downtown shopping district, after what had been a mostly peaceful, if statutorily illegal standoff. A sometimes tentative police response is adding its own element to the mix. In Atlanta, protesters were warned by the police yesterday that if, at 11 p.m., they were still in Woodruff Park, a small oasis in the heart of downtown, they would be arrested. Anyone who does not want to be arrested can simply leave the park, the police said. Protesters said they were told the same thing on Monday. Dozens of police officers showed up but made no arrests.