video transcript

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) STORY: Occupy Wall Street protesters marched through the streets of lower Manhattan Friday before finally converging at the intersection of Wall Street and Broad Street, the site of the New York Stock Exchange. The march on the NYSE has become a weekly event for the OWS movement, but sometimes they have been prevented by a heavy police presence from reaching that spot. About 100 protesters formed a circle just in front of the large bronze statue of George Washington, dancing and chanting at 1600 EDT / 2000 GMT, the same time the closing bell of the NYSE is rung everyday. "The closing bell of the stock exchange symbolizes the prioritization of economics over politics in our society. The fact that our politicians are more beholden to these institutions than the people they are supposed to represent," said Mark Bray, a member of the Occupy Wall Street press working group. "So by holding the people's gong, we're having a symbolic representation of our response. We're saying 'No, the priority has to be family, the priority has to be workers, students, immigrants.' That needs to the the priority and that's why we're out here." Afterwards the crowd marched to Zuccotti Park, where the OWS movement was born just over six months ago to decry economic inequality.