Occupy activists march across Brooklyn Bridge

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Occupy Wall Street protesters marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on Sunday to mark the six months that have passed since hundreds of them were arrested walking the same route. This time, their numbers were far less.

A couple of hundred activists marched from Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, where they first camped out last September to start a movement that has spread around the world. They were flanked by police officers on scooters and on foot.

The marchers used the pedestrian walkway to cross the bridge. The commemoration ended with a rally in Brooklyn's Cadman Plaza, which wrapped up just as rain started to fall.

There were no reports of arrests.

One of the marchers, wearing green hospital garb and wheeling an intravenous bag, unfurled a banner saying "Health Care for the 99 percent." Occupy activists dubbed themselves the "99 percent" opposing the economic inequality represented by the wealthy "1 percent."

The Brooklyn gathering included a "General Assembly" - as Occupy supporters called their daily meetings in Zuccotti Park, where they discussed various protest topics.

Bob Broadhurst, 54, of Hyde Park, Mass., a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, glanced across the crowd of dwindling protesters, shook his head and said it was "very disappointing."

He was one of more than 700 people arrested on the bridge six months ago. He said he expects the charges to be dropped.

"It's complicated because nothing has changed since the fall in terms of the causes, but nobody wants to take a political position stance," said Thor Caristo, 37, of New York, when asked about the future of the movement.

"However, May 1 will change that," he said, referring to planned May Day marches and rallies backed by the nation's largest unions.

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