Occupy Wall Street protest: They’ll be there for the long haul

East Village artist Katarina Malizon, 22, joined the protest for a few hours yesterday. “I am trying to bring enlightenment,” she said. “About, you know, the debt.”

They’re not going anywhere.

The several hundred protesters who have gathered in Lower Manhattan as part of the Occupy Wall Street campaign have set up camp in Zuccotti Park across the street from the World Trade Center.
“Roze,” 25, came down from Connecticut for the protest and vowed he’s not leaving until Oct. 6.
“This has to be done. We can’t stop protesting,” he told Metro. “The world’s coming to the point where it’s fully close to destroying itself.”

The hundred or so protesters indefinitely camped out in the park — far less than the 20,000 organizers originally hoped for — have come to rail against corporate excess and the lack of jobs.

College undergrad Tess Danielson, 21, came from Gainesville, Fla. She said she’s frustrated with the weak economy.

“I just don’t like the whole situation, where I have to stay at a horrible job that I hate,” said Danielson.
But others say their message is deliberately muddled. “We don’t have a plan right now,” said Christopher Albert, 23. “The idea with all of this is talking to people and figuring out what people’s differences are.”?

Wall Street on lockdown

Security will remain tight around Wall Street all week.

The J train skipped Broad Street yesterday and will likely do so again today, as long as the protesters remain, police told Metro. Police said yesterday that seven people have been arrested since Saturday for things like jumping police barriers.

But to one man who works in the Financial District, the protesters are simply annoying.

“I think it’s a little ridiculous,” said Jamel Wright. “If they’re trying to achieve annoying the people who actually get up in the morning and are not walking around with picket signs … they’ve achieved that.”