Wall Street is the latest target of activist-hacker group Anonymous.
On September 17, the anti-corporate group set in motion its new initiative to “Occupy Wall Street.” The agenda: Attract a large amount of people, most of them wearing the group’s signature “Anonymous” masks, to setup camp at Wall Street in an effort to raise awareness against current economic policies.
Four days in, an estimated 200 of the original 1,000 protesters are still remaining, but the covers may be beginning to lift. The NYPD has so far arrested seven people, four of them due to a rare 150-year-old state statute that bans masked gatherings, reports the Wall Street Journal.
“I was arrested for looking like I ought to be arrested,” one of the people arrested told the Journal.
The other three were arrested for “trying to use a tarp to protect communications equipment from rain,” announced a tweet from @AnonOps, one of the group’s official Twitter handles, also reporting that one protester was unfortunately found to be in critical condition.
However, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, supported the group’s right to protest, stating that the city make sure they have places to do so as long as other people’s rights are respected.
The movement was first announced on August 30 in a video posted by the group’s official YouTube account. Voiced by a signature text-to-speech synthesizer, it warned Wall Street of their intention to “flood into lower Manhattan to set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months.”
While a larger turnout was anticipated by the media, the response to the movement has still been feverish. Most major outlets have covered the protest and the hashtag #OccupyWallStreet has been abuzz on Twitter.
Although, one tweeter noted the lack of coverage on TV news network CNN, questioning host @AndersonCooper: “Some feel you don’t have the courage to cover #occupywallstreet. Is that true? We’ll see.”
“If the #occupywallstreet protestors had worn teabags on their hats, that liberal media would have covered them,” remarked @JohnFugelsang.
The group intends to stay true to its original intention of camping out for months, stressing that it will continue to repeat its demand in a plurality of voices: “We want freedom.”
Anonymous heeded the original call to occupy Wall street, issued by Adbusters in July. The protestors also include Code Pink, Redditors, and even celebrities like Roseanne and Lupe Fiasco.