Police say they've arrested five Occupy Seattle demonstrators who lay down inside a Chase Bank branch and refused to move.
KOMO TV reports that five protesters with the Occupy Seattle movement were arrested Wednesday afternoon for trespassing after refusing to leave a Chase Bank branch on Capitol Hill.
The Seattle Times says other protesters began pounding on a police paddy wagon after the Wednesday afternoon arrests, chanting "Let them go!" The Times says police used pepper spray on that protest crowd of about 200.
Seattle's anti-Wall Street demonstrators later headed downtown for a planned Wednesday evening march to protest a scheduled speech by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
Dimon is keynote speaker at a University of Washington Foster School of Business leadership celebration.
Occupy Seattle demonstrators say Dimon is an example of an overpaid executive responsible for foreclosures and questionable corporate behavior.
Protesters target downtown Oakland bank branches
OAKLAND, Calif. — Groups of Occupy Oakland protesters are breaking off from the main rally near the city hall plaza to picket at nearby banks.
All three banks located within blocks of the plaza were closed Wednesday, though that didn't stop protesters from chanting and waving signs outside.
At a Citibank branch, more than a dozen protesters blocked the entrance, some with fake $100 bills taped across their faces.
About 200 people chanted outside a Wells Fargo branch, which had graffiti scrawled on its wall. The messages read, "The 1 percent won't back down" and "Who's robbing who?"
College freshman Alan Yee joined a group of students at the Wells Fargo protest. He says he's marching for several of his classmates who are struggling to pay tuition.
St. Paul's campers could stay to 2012
LONDON — A lawyer for protesters outside London's St. Paul's Cathedral says authorities have offered to let the tent city stay until next year
The loosely organized demonstration, inspired by New York's Occupy Wall Street movement, has wrong-footed both city and church officials since it began last month, defying pleas to leave and the threat of legal action.
Authorities have suspended legal bids to remove the tents. On Wednesday John Cooper, a lawyer for the protesters, said that authorities had offered the protesters a deal "to stay on site until the new year," then leave on an agreed date.
"My client is considering this offer," he said on Twitter. Cooper confirmed the offer in an email to The Associated Press.
