Police arrest 68 Occupy protesters

Police arrested 68 people overnight after anti-Wall Street protesters streamed back into Manhattan's Zuccotti Park and toppled security barricades on New Year's Eve, police said Sunday.

One protester was accused of assaulting a police officer by stabbing the officer in the hand with scissors and of throwing an object at a police van, a department spokesman said. The officer was treated and released from a hospital.

Other protesters face charges of disorderly conduct, trespassing and obstruction, police said.

The scuffle started after hundreds of protesters marked the new year by returning to Zuccotti Park, the September birthplace of the national Occupy movement against economic inequality.

The movement has seen its momentum stymied as cities around the country have evicted demonstrators from tent camps. Police cleared Zuccotti Park of campers in November.

Occupy organizers had urged protesters to reclaim the lower Manhattan park as part of a "New Year's Revolution." Demonstrators strung lights and danced on top of torn-down barricades before most of the arrests began, according to the Occupy Wall Street website.