700 Arrested on Brooklyn Bridge as Occupy Wall Street Enters Third Week, Protests Grows Nationwide

The "Occupy Wall Street" protests in the financial district took a dramatic turn on Saturday when protesters tried to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. When police arrested 700 of the demonstrators, the event quickly turned into one of the largest arrests of non-violent protesters in recent history. Some protesters claim police lured them onto oncoming traffic on the bridge’s roadway; others said they did not hear instructions from police telling them to use the pedestrian walkway. Meanwhile, similar "Occupation" protests have spread to other cities, including Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles, where hundreds of protesters are now camped out in front of City Hall. We host a roundtable discussion with Marisa Holmes, an organizer with the main organizing group of Occupy Wall Street, called the General Assembly, Marina Sitrin, an attorney who is part of Occupy Wall Street’s legal working group, and Laurie Penny, a writer and journalist who reported on protests in London earlier this summer

Marisa Holmes, is an organizer with the main organizing group of Occupy Wall Street, called the General Assembly. She is an activist and documentary filmmaker.

Marina Sitrin, an attorney who is part of Occupy Wall Street’s legal working group. She is also a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Globalization and Social Change at the City University of New York, where she is researching global mass movements from Spain to Egypt. She is author of "Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina."

Laurie Penny, a writer and journalist who reported on protests in London earlier this summer. She is author of the upcoming book, "Penny Red: Notes from the New Age of Dissent."

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/3/700_arrested_on_brooklyn_bridge_as