‘Protesters know US is a police state’

Political activist Debra Sweet says that the Occupy Wall Street protesters understand that the United States is a police state.

“We have the right to assemble. We have the right to language, but of course we also understand the police-state nature of this country,” Ms. Sweet told Press TV on Saturday.

Sweet and about 30 others were arrested by the New York Police Department on Friday after they launched a new campaign to bring an end to the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy.

The activists locked arms in front of the 28th Precinct in Harlem in order to voice their opposition to the “illegitimate, unjust, immoral, and unconstitutional” policy and then were arrested and held for nearly six hours.

Sweet noted that approximately 85 percent of the people stopped by the US police are usually young male African Americans or Latinos, while over 90 percent are not criminal and do not get arrested or receive a ticket.

On Friday, over 20 anti-corporate protesters were arrested in Cincinnati, Ohio, where they had been camping out at a park for nearly two weeks.

The Occupy Wall Street movement began on September 17 in New York City, with the protesters saying they intend to literally take over the country’s financial center until their demands are met.

The movement took shape against the backdrop of high unemployment, which stood at 9.1 percent in August, home foreclosures, and the 2008 corporate bailouts as a protest against corporate greed and corporations’ excessive influence on the US political system.