Four 'Occupy Wall Street' protestors arrested

NEW YORK — New York police arrested four people Wednesday during an Occupy Wall Street rally outside a skyscraper housing JP Morgan Chase bank.

About 100 people took part in the protest, chanting "we are 99 percent" and "tax the rich!" The protest quickly dispersed after the arrests, an AFP journalist said.

The Occupy Wall Street protest started September 17 with a camp in a small square in the New York financial district to highlight what demonstrators say is greed and corruption in the country's business and political elites.

Although the sit-in demonstration numbers only a few hundred people, swelling to several thousand during marches, it has struck a powerful note among US politicians and the media.

Smaller sister demonstrations have also popped up in cities across the country.

On Wednesday, the latest high-profile figure to react to the protests was Vikram Pandit, chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc.

In sympathetic comments, he said he found the protestors' complaints "completely understandable."

"Trust has been broken between financial institutions and the citizens," Pandit said at a Fortune magazine breakfast. "I'd be happy to talk to them anytime they want," he said in the comments posted by Fortune.