Wall Street protests spread to New Jersey

Protesters representing a wide array of ages and causes brought the "Occupy Wall Street" movement across the Hudson River Thursday, staging demonstrations in Trenton and Jersey City.

The protests, loosely organized around themes of economic inequality and corporate greed, have been gaining momentum across the country since starting last month with a handful of protesters outside the New York Stock Exchange.

On Wednesday, 23 people were arrested during a march of several thousand people in lower Manhattan. About 700 had been arrested during a protest on the Brooklyn Bridge over the weekend.

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday that authorities would continue to accommodate the protests against Wall Street as long as they did not break any laws.

The growing number of demonstrations has caught the attention of President Barack Obama, who acknowledged the movement during a news conference Thursday, saying the demonstrators were expressing the frustrations of the American public.

In New Jersey, about 75 people linked arms in front of the Goldman Sachs building in downtown Jersey City around 2 p.m. yesterday, as workers in suits and ties peered down at protesters chanting; "This is what democracy looks like!" and "Hey-hey, ho-ho, Goldman Sachs has got to go!"

Protester Pat Meany, clad head-to-toe in psychedelically painted clothing and a jacket hand-lettered with the words "If it says 'Made in America' it must be an antique," rode his vintage Schwinn bicycle to Jersey City from his home in Hackensack.

"I'm hoping Obama will use this momentum to pass the jobs bill and raise taxes on the rich," said Meany. At 53, he said it was near-impossible to find steady work anymore, and likened the odd jobs he's able to find to those of a foreign day laborer.

"I do every job under the sun, because that's how you survive," he said. "I'm not waiting for no $25,000-a-year job to come back again, because my best working years are behind me, and in the working world, 50 is the new 65."

In Trenton, about 50 protesters set up camp at a World War II memorial across from the state Capitol yesterday. Some brought sleeping bags and planned to stay overnight.

In Los Angeles, police arrested about 11 anti-Wall Street demonstrators who entered a Bank of America during a downtown march by hundreds of people.