Police arrested over a dozen far left protesters today after they blocked traffic by staging a sit-in protest on Market Street. The protesters want companies to redistribute wealth.
KMOV reported:
Traffic on Market Street is back to normal in downtown St. Louis, this after dozens of protesters took to the streets speaking out against alleged corporate greed.
The protest started around 1 p.m. at the intersection of 8th and Market, just outside the Peabody Energy headquarters. Protesters marched into the roadway, sat down in the middle of the intersection, linked arms, chanted and waited to be arrested.
Police lined the sidewalks and blocked the entrances of nearby buildings before moving in and taking more than a dozen protesters into custody.
The protest was organized by a group called Midwest Rising and targeted what the group calls corporate greed and environmental and human exploitation by big business. This protest specifically named Peabody Energy and Bank of America.
Activists demanded that Peabody Energy returns $61 million in tax breaks to the city and halt plans to build an export terminal in Washington for the export of coal to China. The protesters also demanded Bank of America to stop financing for companies engaged in mountaintop removal coal mining.
More… Ed took this photo at the protest:
They brought their drums with them to the rally.