Protesters have flooded back into the New York Park where police demolished their two-month-old tent camp, vowing to step up the Occupy Wall Street movement despite a ban on camping out there. The movement to protest supposed corporate greed and political dysfunction was thrown into crisis during a turbulent 24 hours on Tuesday that began with a surprise early morning police raid on the privately-owned Zuccotti Park.
Protesters then spent the day playing cat-and-mouse with authorities as they required to re-establish their base near Wall Street, the symbolic epicenter of a movement that has enthused similar protests in other US cities and abroad.
In the evening, police reopened the park and let the protesters back in one-by-one -- but only after a New York judge backed a ban on pitching tents, rejecting the demonstrators' legal challenge to the dismantling of the camp.
"No one will be deprived of entry," a police officer said at the gate, as people began to wander back in. Organizers put the number at 1,200. Once inside, the crowd began to chant: "All day, all week, occupy Wall Street."
