Thousands of protesters have descended on lower Manhattan’s  financial district for Occupy Wall Street’s Day of Action literally shutting down Wall Street and lower Manhattan.

Occupy Wall Street’s Day of Action had been planned before the city and park owners cracked down on the encampment in Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, but took on added importance after police brutally evicted protesters from Zuccotti Park destroying  tents, tarps and even books by orders of Mayor Bloomberg who planned along with 18 other Mayors across the country planned on how to stop the protestors, including openly gay Democrat Sam Adams of Portland, OR

This is a critical moment for the movement given what happened the other night,” said Paul Knick, 44, a software engineer from Montclair, N.J. “It seems like there’s a concerted effort to stop the movement and I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Reports of whats happening at this morning action in Downtown are sketchy but Jamie Kilstein, activist and cohost of Citizen Radio, is reporting via Twitter that arrests are happening and the NYPD is using forcing, clubbing and dragging away protesters indiscriminately including the arrest of Nadia Lapsina, a disabled woman in a wheelchair.

One of the more dramtic moments of the morning so far has come with the arrest of  retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis, who in uniform, knelt in front of police line and asked to be arrested in a show of solidarity to the protesters and to make a statement against the police brutality and excessive force that the NYPD is using on the protestors.

Jamie Kilstien will be folowing the events of the day and pisting vis Twitter.  

Follow Jamie @JamieKilstein  or use the Twitter hashtags #OWS and #N17 to get the real story and news updates that the mainstream media news outlets are refusing to cover.