Cornel West Arrested on Supreme Court Steps

By Press TV

17 October 11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7REgiTAplnE

After leading a march down Pennsylvania Avenue from Freedom Plaza, West, along with 18 other protesters, was arrested on the steps of the Supreme Court Sunday afternoon over their refusal to leave the grounds of the court.

He stated “It's a beautiful day,” as he was handcuffed and led away.

West is a prominent African American author, commentator, civil rights activist and a professor at the prominent Princeton University and well-known and regarded for his contributions to the post-1960s civil rights movement.

Before his apprehension at the Sunday rally, West told protesters that he wanted to be arrested as part of a tribute to the slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“It is a great movement. It is a magnificent movement here, around the country and the world… it is democratic awakening… Now we are going to expose the corporate greed and we try to renew the American democracy,” the activist told Press TV's correspondent.

Although Washington has not had a great number of arrests of demonstrators, people involved in protests are not shying away from being apprehended, saying they regard it as a more intimate form of participation in a cause they believe in.

The anti-corporatism protests called “Occupy Wall Street” were initiated September 17, when a group of people began rallying in New York's financial district to protest 'corporate greed' and top-level corruption among other instances of social inequality in the United States.

The campaign has now spread to major US cities, including Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Boston, as well as hundreds of communities across the nation, with more Americans joining the demonstrations each day.

Meanwhile, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Portugal are also some of the countries that have recently seen huge OWS-inspired protest rallies.