Cops busted more than two dozen marchers and Maced numerous others after the ongoing Wall Street demonstrations suddenly turned violent last night.
Earlier, thousands of protesters had thronged the streets of lower Manhattan in a massive, but peaceful demonstration.
But as day turned to night, skirmishes broke out along Broadway, with arrests at Liberty, Cedar, Wall and Ann streets.
In most cases, protesters tried to jump barricades, drawing sharp police responses.
Police said late last night that 28 protesters were arrested and one officer suffered minor injuries after being knocked off a scooter.
Two WNYW/Ch 5 journalists, a photographer and reporter, were Maced and hit by an officer’s baton.
The biggest clash happened as more than 150 marchers demanded access to Wall Street from Broadway.
About 25 of them tried to push through, as officers used clubs and Mace to move them back. One cop in a white shirt, signaling he’s a supervisor, was caught on camera wildly swinging his baton in the battle, which led to at least six arrests.
At Cedar Street, at least five were arrested as protesters screamed: “Don’t pepper- spray them!’’ The cops didn’t.
And, as at least a dozen officers frog-marched one handcuffed protester at Liberty Street, onlookers jeered, “Let him go! Let him go!”
Then, at Ann Street, one protester and paraded down the middle of the street. Cops busted him for that violation.
During peaceful daytime hours, a massive parade of protesters -- including members of labor unions -- took a milelong route from Foley Square to the Financial District, where the group that calls itself Occupy Wall Street has camped out in Zuccotti Park since last month.
Moviemaker Michael Moore, among protesters at Cedar Street, said he was impressed with the turnout: “It’s way beyond anything that I expected, and I expected a lot.”
Moore ran into fellow Tinseltown activist Tim Robbins and they greeted each other, agreeing: “Yeah, people are pissed!”
“The tipping point occurred when the men in the top floors of these buildings decided to loot the public treasury and take away the future of a lot of these young people here,” Robbins said. “This is what a real grass-roots movement looks like.”
A group of nurses from DC chanted, “Occupy Wall Street! All day, all week!”
The nurses decried what they saw as government coddling of corporations and their financiers in the face of widespread unemployment.
We are not going away,” said Deirdre Beckford, 46.
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