Occupy Wall Street Protests Turn Violent Friday - Video

HT- The Blaze

A NYPD officer engages a protester after a scuffle broke out near Wall St. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

We already mentioned that the protests turned violent this morning in New York after protesters, emboldened by the decision not to evict them from their home base, marched on the New York Stock Exchange. In our previous story we had video catching the tail end of an incident involving a protester and police on scooters.

Now we have the full video showing the actual moment the clash began, courtesy of the New York Post:

The protester can be heard screaming for the media as he is being arrested.

A New York City police officer runs over a National Lawyers Guild observer as Occupy Wall Street demonstrators march through the streets near Wall Street, Friday, Oct. 14, 2011, in New York. (Photo: AP)

WCBS-TV explains what happened:

Police urged protesters to stay out of the street and stay on the sidewalk.

Police scooters were shaped like a V and moved toward the protesters in the standoff. One man lost his balance, and was run over by a police scooter. Police descended on the protester and got him out from under the bike. Some witnesses tell Sandberg the man was beaten during the arrest.

“We had somebody knock over a scooter, there were some arrests here — I don’t know what the charges were — there were people in the street the police officer was trying to get them out of the street, this was down near the exchange,” New York City Police Department’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Paul Browne said.

First Precinct Commander Ed Winski checked a protester who refused to stay on the sidewalk. When the protester came back into the street, Winski hurled his megaphone down and wound up rolling around in the street with the protester, throwing punches. Other officers surrounded the two, throwing punches. The protester was arrested.

[...]

Police say the protesters were throwing bottles and bags of garbage at officers, triggering the police response, Sandberg reported. Police say they were trying to control the situation when it got out of hand.