Thousands of protesters—by some counts as many as 20,000—took Times Square last night, demonstrating for four hours as 74 people were arrested. In Chicago, 175 protesters were arrested for refusing to leave Grant park; in Arizona, more than 40 people were detained in Tucson and Phoenix.

Of the 74 arrested in New York, 42 were arrested at Times Square and another 24 at a Citibank in Greenwich Village. (Apparently another five were arrested for wearing masks.) Two NYPD officers "suffered minor injuries in the chaos" in Times Square. The protesters had marched from Zuccotti Park in the late afternoon, stopping in Washington Square Park along the way and arriving in Times Square by 5, where they were greeting by a large crowd of police (some on horseback), not to mention a few tourists:

Sandra Fox, 69, of Baton Rouge, La., stood, confused, on 46th Street with a ticket for "Anything Goes" in her hand as riot police pushed a knot of about 200 shouting protesters toward her.

"I think it's horrible what they're doing," she said of the protesters. "These people need to go get jobs."

Later in the evening in Washington Square Park, police in riot gear cleared the park of protesters after the midnight curfew; in Chicago a similar situation in Grant Park ended with the arrest 175 demonstrators who intended to spend the night in Grant Park:

Officers individually approached protesters, who had formed a human chain and sat on the ground, to give them the option to leave the park voluntarily or be arrested.

As of 1:30 a.m., at least 50 protesters had been hauled away, while about 150 others stood and continued their demonstrations from across the street on Michigan Avenue.

[...]

Many chanted "The whole world is watching," echoing chants during protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, some of which took place in and around Grant Park.

[image via AP]