‘Police overdoing it on OWS protestors’

There has been a consistent overreaction of police against the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protestors, claimed Alex Vitale, a sociology professor at Brooklyn College in New York.

­“Police seem to be unable to distinguish a peaceful, though disorderly, march and a gathering truly engaged in destructive activities,” he said.

Vitale noted that specific demands have started to crystallize among the protestors.

“The US is kind of late to the game,” Vitale said, recalling previous demonstrations against austerity measures, corruption and concentrated economic and political power around the world.

He believes that “a coordinated global movement” has been born, calling attention to corrupt relationships between the economic and political elites. He also argued that a new level of anti-austerity activism has been reached, and may spark significant reforms and restrictions on free trade policies.

­Big business and the American government have been hoping that the “Occupy Wall Street” movement will go away like previous demonstrations in the past, but it appears the new movement is much more enduring, argued Ari Rutenberg, a Los Angeles-based political blogger.

“It is growing steadily and quickly,” Rutenberg stated. “Small steps after weeks or maybe months will convince these people that the protests are here to stay.”