Today and throughout this past week in New York City, a protest has been occurring in the financial district and moving uptown towards the Union Square area. About 85 of these protestors were arrested today and 5 more were pepper sprayed by the police. The charges including disorderly conduct, blocking traffic, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, and assault on a police officer. The protests include a few hundred people and are being organized by a group in New York called the General Assemble and are directed “against a financial system that participants say favors the rich and powerful over ordinary citizens.”
Although not referring to a specific policy or economic event, this article is important in helping us to understand the amount of public unrest and dissatisfaction over the current state of the American economy. These types of economic protests have been prevalent in ailing European economies like Greece and Ireland for many years, but this is the first we have seen on this scale in the US. It certainly poses questions about the state of our country and economy as we enter into a new election season. The public has clearly reached a new level of dissatisfaction with the economy, and it will be interesting to see what follows, whether this turns to wider spread protests, electoral turnover, or something else unexpected. With the connection that these protests have to reactions in European countries, it will be important that we pay attention to the history and developing situations in these countries to help predict and explain our own.
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