NEW YORK - Thousands of demonstrators protesting corporate greed filled New York City's Times Square, mixing with gawkers, Broadway showgoers, tourists and police to create a chaotic scene in the midst of Manhattan. “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” protesters chanted Saturday from within police barricades. Police, some in riot gear and mounted on horses, tried to push them out of the square and onto the sidewalks in an attempt to funnel the crowds away. Sandy Peterson, of Utah, who was in Times Square after seeing “The Book of Mormon” musical on Broadway, got caught up in the disorder. “We're getting out of here before this gets ugly,” she said. The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators had marched north through Manhattan from Washington Square Park earlier in the afternoon. Once in Times Square, they held a rally for several hours before dispersing. Over the course of the day, more than 80 people were arrested. After midnight, about 10 people were loaded into a police van after refusing to leave Washington Square Park, where protesters had returned to convene a meeting following the Times Square rally. The police had warned protesters that the park had closed, and began massing in riot gear and on horses a few minutes before then; most people had left by then. Police spokesman Paul Browne said 42 people were arrested in Times Square on Saturday night after being warned repeatedly to disperse; three others were arrested while trying to take down police barriers. Two police officers were injured during the protest and had to be hospitalized. One suffered a head injury, the other a foot injury, Browne said. Earlier in the day, demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street encampment in New York City paraded to a Chase bank branch, banging drums, blowing horns and carrying signs decrying corporate greed. Marchers throughout the country emulated them in protests that ranged from about 50 people in Jackson, Mississippi, to about 2,000 in the larger city of Pittsburgh. “Banks got bailed out. We got sold out,” the crowd of as many as 1,000 in Manhattan chanted. A few protesters went inside the bank to close their accounts, but the group didn't stop other customers from getting inside or seek to blockade the business. Police told the marchers to stay on the sidewalk, and the demonstration appeared to be fairly orderly as it wound through downtown streets. Later, police arrested 24 people at a Citibank branch near Manhattan's Washington Square Park. Most were detained for trespassing after they ignored a request by the bank to leave, police said. Overseas, violence broke out in Rome, where police fired tear gas and water cannons at some protesters who broke away from the main demonstration, smashing shop and bank windows, torching cars and hurling bottles. Dozens were injured. A dozen demonstrators were arrested, the Italian news agency reported. Those arrested came from several Italian cities, especially in the south. Police said they seized clubs and incendiary devices from the protesters. Tens of thousands nicknamed “the indignant” marched in cities across Europe, as the protests that began in New York linked up with long-running demonstrations against government cost-cutting and failed financial policies in Europe. Protesters also turned out in Australia and Asia. In Canada, hundreds protested in the heart of Toronto's financial district. Some of the protesters announced plans to camp out indefinitely in St. James Park and protests were also held in other cities across Canada from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Vancouver, British Columbia.
