The New York protest movement, “Occupy Wall Street,” currently enjoying a crowd of 15 000 supporters, has inspired folk in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and other cities around the United States to join in on the fun/outcry. Some level of police violence is being seen in all cases, with Seattle police forcibly removing all “occupation” settlements.

The above map, curated by Mother Jones, shows all of the Occupy protest locations. That lonely red dot off the East Coast is a demonstration in Hilo, Hawaii.

Bizarrely, the Los Angeles City Council has endorsed the protests, and is lobbying the city’s mayor to issue similar support for the Occupy movement, and its goal of financial reform. So hey, nice job, L.A.

Filmmaker, Michael Moore is predictably on-site at Wall Street, and tweets:

#OccupyWallStreet has shut down Broadway. Wow. NYPD prohibiting traffic.

Updates, video footage and photos are rolling in via Twitter and YouTube. In spite of this, cops seem entirely happy to look like brutal enforcers on video – like this fine member of the NYPD talking about how his “little-night-stick” is going to get a workout tonight. Which, of course, is what’s spreading the protest across the country. Class.

[source: BoingBoing]
[image source: @AdrienChen]