The more NYPD cops caught on camera corralling and manacling Occupy Wall Street protesters, the greater their ranks grow, protesters tell Metro.
After she heard of protesters arrested over the weekend, Chris Cuthbertson, a teacher from New Jersey, came with her sister to join the 150 people camped out in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, where they are demanding economic reform.
“I hope it’s the beginning of some change,” she said.
The videos “brought a lot of people in,” said Kyle Kneitinger, 22, who has been sleeping in the park for a week now. “That was a pretty big deciding factor for people who were on the cusp of coming.”
The most damning video captures NYPD officers using pepper spray against female protesters penned in by police barricades. The women appear unarmed when they are sprayed in the face by cops, and they scream in pain.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne confirmed that police pepper-sprayed the women, but defended the decision: He said the women confronted the officers and tried to prevent them from erecting the mesh barrier. Browne said he’s also wary that protesters are editing video.
Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter @AlisonatMetro.
