Wall Street Protesters Go on Defense, Occupy Grand Central

Tuesday evening’s rush hour saw about 100 members of the Occupy Wall Street movement jam Grand Central Terminal at the foot of the Apple store, causing general confusion and moderate delay for commuters trying to reach its tracks.

The confusion lay mainly with the nature of the protest, which had nothing to do with Wall Street, directly. In fact, commuters were generally confused about why the protesters might have any concern at all about non-disclosure agreements in mergers or acquisitions.

But the “NDAA” chant was not about finance. It was about the National Defense Authorization Act, signed Saturday by President Barack Obama while hundreds of thousands of visitors to New York were instead preparing for festivities that night in Times Square to usher in a New Year.

The provisions of that spending bill that concern the protesters have instead to deal with the meaning and implication of provisions that allow for detention of terrorism suspects. Among the concerns: that U.S. citizens could be arrested on American soil and held indefinitely.

A Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokeswoman said two summonses were issued and three people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, NBC News reported.

Grand Central train announcements were blasted loudly and continuously for ten minutes to drown out the demonstrators, according to the Gothamist.

The protesters aftward marched from Grand Central Station to Times Square. Part of the plan: A walk up Fifth Avenue for a "tour" of 1 percent homes. 

Tom Steinert-Threlkeld writes for Securities Technology Monitor.

 

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM FINANCIAL PLANNING