New York police arrest 50 protesters

US police have arrested at least 50 Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters as several hundred demonstrators gather in a small park in New York’s lower Manhattan.

As many as ten members of the clergy, including Former Episcopal bishop George E. Packard, were among those arrested.

The arrests took place after the protesters got together in Duarte Square of Manhattan to mark the third-month anniversary of the OWS movement on Saturday.

Organizers said they were also rallying to find a new base campsite for the movement, which lost its iconic Zuccotti Park when the police forced them out of the encampment in the park on November 14.

The park is next to a lot owned by Trinity Church where protests erupted last month after demonstrators were evicted from Zuccotti Park.

“Today we are out here along with civil rights leaders, members of the religious community, local artists, members of the community board, calling upon Trinity Church to allow us to use this vacant lot next door, which has been vacant for three months, will and continue to be vacant for another, for a short period of time as a place to meet, to voice our protest until they come up with some other use for the space,” Mark Bray, a member of the OWS press team explained.

Church officials say they support the protesters but the property is not available for an encampment.

US police have arrested more than 5,000 protesters since the OWS movement began September 17.