NY rally backs OWS protest detainees

Thousands of demonstrators have marched across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street protesters, hundreds of whom were arrested earlier in the day.

The crowds moved towards the bridge, celebrating the two-month point since the movement was first initiated in September, holding candles and singing “Happy Birthday, Occupy Wall Street”, the state-run BBC reported Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the police arrested over 200 protesters after brutally cracking down on thousands of anti-Wall Street demonstrators that filled the streets of the Financial District near the New York Stock Exchange and Zuccotti Park, the symbolic home of the movement since it began on September 17, in efforts to shut down the stock exchange.

The morning rallies were part of an Occupy Wall Street “Day of Action” planned for Thursday.

Police tried to pen in the protesters on the bridge with barricades, ordering them to stay off the roads.

Despite mass arrests and brutal crackdowns by US police, the Occupy protest movement against state-sponsored corporatism, income inequity, growing poverty and cuts in public services has now spread to virtually all major cities across the United States.

The movement has also triggered similar efforts across the world, particularly in financially troubled Europe, including countries such as Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Portugal.