Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times is reporting that about 100 Occupy Wall Street protesters marched yesterday to a 53rd Street hotel where President Barack Obama was at a fund-raising dinner during his visit to New York City.  This was being done as Occupy Wall Street protesters earlier in the day were being forcibly evicted from parks in Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

The article described the New York City scene as:

“Escorted by police vehicles as they [the protesters] helped snarl traffic across the Times Square area, beginning at Bryant Park, the group settled in front of barricades on the southwest corner of 53rd Street and Seventh Avenue, in view of the Sheraton hotel at which Mr. Obama was expected to appear by 9 p.m.

Demonstrators held signs that leveled some of the Occupy protest’s most pointed criticism to date of the president. “Obama is a corporate puppet,” one said. “War crimes must be stopped, no matter who does them,” read another, beside head shots of President George W. Bush and President Obama.   One man, wearing a mask of the president’s face and holding a cigar, carried a sign that read, “I sold out!”

Tony