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The police arrested 185 people on Monday as protesters tried to block access to the New York Stock Exchange on the first anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Demonstrators had planned to converge from several directions and form what was called the People’s Wall around the stock exchange to protest what they said was an unfair economic system that benefited the rich and corporations at the expense of ordinary citizens.

Last year, protesters took over Zuccotti Park, not far from Wall Street, setting up an encampment that became an inspiration for similar Occupy campaigns around the world. But after being evicted from the park in November, the protests lost much of their energy, though their message of economic inequality has resonated in Washington and in the presidential campaign.

On Monday, the police countered the blockade planned by protesters with one of their own, ringing the streets and sidewalks leading toward the exchange with metal barricades and asking for identification from workers seeking access.

Protesters marched though the streets, waving banners and banging drums while accompanied by bands playing “Happy Birthday.”

At several points during the morning, crowds of protesters numbering in the hundreds briefly blocked intersections before being dispersed, with arrests in some instances.





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Though organizers said more than 1,000 people participated in the demonstration, the roving groups did not appear to cause much disruption on Wall Street.

Officers sometimes surrounded large groups of protesters, though they did not appear to make mass arrests. But on several occasions, officers plunged onto sidewalks packed with protesters and arrested people after saying the crowds were blocking pedestrian traffic.

At one point, at Broad and Beaver Streets, a commander grabbed a man from a crowd standing on the corner. Protesters tried to pull the man back, but officers surged into the crowd and wrested the man away, placing him in handcuffs.

One of the more turbulent episodes took place along Broadway where several hundred people marched. Officers approached a man who had been yelling objections to the metal police barricades that cordoned off Wall Street. When the officers grabbed the man, he began shouting “I did nothing wrong,” but they removed him.

As they were leading the man away, a line of officers pushed away a large crowd of people, including news photographers. One officer repeatedly shoved news photographers with a baton, and a police lieutenant shouted at one point that no more photographs would be permitted, adding, “That’s over.”

Organizers said they had planned the protest to show that the Occupy movement still had vitality and to express continuing frustration with the economic environment.

Among those gathering early Monday was Oren Goldberg, 32, of Bushwick, Brooklyn, who said he had joined the protest partly because he felt the need to somehow register his conviction that the financial system was not operating properly.

“It’s exciting to see any group of people attempting any sort of change,” he said, adding that Occupy participants were interested in “working toward a greater good than profiteering.”

As the protesters gathered as early as 6 a.m., police vans were parked on side streets throughout the financial district, and helicopters buzzed overhead. Men in suits walking to work passed contingents of officers posted on corners.

Sporadic marches continued through the afternoon, along with arrests.

Several demonstrations took place outside financial institutions. Some people were arrested at a Bank of America branch opposite Zuccotti Park. Later the police arrested about a half-dozen people who sat down in front of Goldman Sachs headquarters on West Street while a crowd chanted “arrest the bankers.”

As the police directed the crowd to leave the area, people in the building could be seen gazing down from windows. Some of the protesters pointed up to the windows and shouted, “Goldman Sachs, we’ll be back,” as they began marching toward Zuccotti Park.

As night fell, a few hundred protesters gathered in the park. Their numbers declined, however, after dozens of police officers and private security guards walked through the park and trained powerful spotlights on those inside.

At one point, as the police arrested a woman inside Zuccotti Park, an officer told a city councilman, Jumaane D. Williams, to get down from a granite bench. Mr. Williams refused, saying he was a Council member and wanted to observe. After Mr. Williams refused a second order to get down, two officers shoved him with batons, knocking him off the bench.



Joseph Goldstein contributed reporting.