Although not attracting the crowd many Occupy Wall Street activists had hoped for, May Day marches drew tens of thousands of demonstrators across the New York City and surrouding boroughs, demanding social change and higher taxes for the wealthiest in American society.
Throughout the day, Occupy Wall Street activists joined by unions formed
groups of between 30 and 50 activists at various corporate locations
throughout the city, including the offices of Chase, Pziser, and HSBC.
Outside the headquarters of Fox News in midtown Manhattan demonstrators
pounded the sidewalks on a wet and gloomy morning, where they urged
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (parent company of Fox News) to pay
more taxes.
"They got bailed out. We got sold out," circling protestors shouted in protest at bank-rescue plans, while AIDS activists from Vocal New York blasted Murdock's New York Post for pushing
austerity measures that hurt HIV patients and promoting tax cuts for the
rich.
Former Republican governor of New York State, George Pataki, who was
leaving the building as protests continued, called the behavior of the Occupy
Wall Street movement "appalling but not surprising."
"They are spoiled and ignorant and destructive of our society and they
should get a job and pay taxes to assist those in need of help," he said.
In Bryant Park, boisterous May Day celebrations continued among hundreds
of mostly Occupy Wall Street revellers until the afternoon, before joining thousands at an
evening rally in Union Square, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Despite over 30 arrests, May Day most protests went by peacefully. However,
in Lower Manhattan "blac block" members rampaged through through the streets,
pounding on car windows, before being coralled by pursuing police on
scooters into Washington Square Park, where one protestor was left on the
ground with a bloody nose, following a brief confrontation with cops.
En route to a final protest at Bowling Green near the southern most tip of
Manhattan, one self-described blac-block member, who asked not to be
named, called the Occupy Wall Street movement the "60s of our time."
"Everyone keeps saying we don't have a message. We do. Stop f-king with us.
Stop destroying the world. It's time to make a stance and stop taking sh-t," he
said.
