Public Citizen president: 'Occupy' movement is just getting started

The advocacy group Public Citizen applauded the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters after police in riot gear evicted them from their encampment at New York City's Zuccotti Park in a surprise pre-dawn raid Tuesday.

"Occupy Wall Street has helped focus national attention on the crucial problems of our day: unchecked corporate power that chokes our economy and democracy, rising inequality that betrays the basic promise of America, joblessness when there’s work to be done, foreclosures that displace families and leave houses empty, and much more," said Robert Weissman, the president of Public Citizen.

"The hardy bands of Occupy protesters in New York and around the country have fundamentally altered the national conversation – and not just in the media. Political and campaign discourse has changed."

The eviction came as the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstration against economic inequality neared its two-month anniversary. The protesters had planned a provocative “day of action” to shut down Wall Street.

Spin-off protests in numerous other cities have also recently faced police action.

"The Occupy movement already has done more to help this country than anyone could reasonably have imagined," Weissman continued. "But it’s just getting started. The movement won’t be deterred by eviction efforts in New York or Portland or Oakland or St. Louis or Nashville or anywhere else. 'We are the 99 percent' is not a call that can be so easily silenced, nor a movement that can be stopped."

Public Citizen was founded by Ralph Nader in 1971.

Photo credit: David Shankbone