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Dozens Arrested During Occupy Wall Street Protest on New Year's Eve

By DNAinfo Staff on January 1, 2012 12:57am  | Updated on January 1, 2012 1:40pm

By Paul Lomax and Tom Liddy

DNAinfo Staff

DOWNTOWN — A police officer was slashed with scissors and dozens of protesters were arrested during a raucous Occupy Wall Street protest on New Year's Eve.

Hundreds of the anti-greed protesters took advantage of the massive police presence in Times Square on Saturday night to reassert their presence at the former encampment at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan.

A total of 68 protesters were arrested during the action, police stated.

A police officer had his hand slashed with scissors during the demonstration, but was treated and released at the scene, the NYPD said. Police confirmed the officer was cut by a protester, but did not have information regarding the person's identity or the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Occupy Wall Street protesters hold up a sign in Zuccotti Park after protesters stacked up barricades there on Dec. 31, 2011.
Occupy Wall Street protesters hold up a sign in Zuccotti Park after protesters stacked up barricades there on Dec. 31, 2011.
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DNAinfo/Paul Lomax

The demonstrators took some of the metal barricades that surrounded Zuccotti Park, at Broadway and Cedar Street, and tossed them into a pile in the hours before midnight.

They chanted and then jumped on top of the pile. 

"All week all year, we'll still be here," they chanted as they faced off with police.

"This is what police brutality looks like."

Earlier in the night, the protesters flowed into the park, near the World Trade Center and set up a small tent, according to the New York Times.

When officials said that the tent violated park rules, protesters initially resisted but then took it down, the Times said.