Next up for protesters: Occupy the Courts.
Lawyers representing about 800
Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested in the past month demand that prosecutors drop the charges.
If not, they say they won't deal and will insist on going to trial - putting pressure on the already overloaded
Manhattan criminal courts.
"I'd like to suggest to the DA's office the appropriate way to deal with these cases is outright dismissal," said defense lawyer
Martin Stolar.
"The leverage is, we take them all to trial."
Stolar and other members of the civil rights-focused
National Lawyers Guild plan to meet today with prosecutors from
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.'s office to lay out their position.
At least some protesters who face charges - including two out-of-towners arrested last week - will demand their day in court.
"I didn't do anything wrong," said
Zach Welch, 20, of upstate
Rochester, after spending 24 hours behind bars for resisting arrest and wearing a mask depicting the 16th century anarchist
Guy Fawkes. "I was expressing my rights."
Vance's office had no comment on the meeting and said all cases are reviewed individually.
