The arrests were made peacefully, and the Police Department's handling of the matter even brought praise from an Occupy Philadelphia organizer.
"This went off really well. The Police Department really showed the rest of the world, specifically New York, how to handle protesters," said Julia Alford-Fowler, an Occupy Philadelphia organizer in its legal working group. "And I think they should be commended for being peaceful."
Alford-Fowler, 33, a doctoral student at Temple University and instructor at Delaware County Community College, said participants began the march from City Hall Saturday afternoon and wound up near Police Headquarters. When some people sat in the street, a police captain warned them they could be arrested, she said.
Some members of the group decided they were willing to take that chance and slept in the street, holding their ground. By late Sunday morning, dozens of police officers - many trained in civil disobedience - began showing up. Police blocked off Eighth Street between Race and Cherry and called on Larry Krasner, a lawyer, to communicate with the group.
The protesters sat with arms linked, many wearing scarves over their faces. They said they would move if police issued an apology to them in front of cameras.
Most of the protesters were in their 20s, some of them recently unemployed, some recent college graduates. Several said they had been wrongly arrested or had their rights violated by police locally and elsewhere.
"We're taught in school this is the land of the free," though many are incarcerated in the United States, said Bri Barton, 22, a recent graduate of Moore College of Art and Design. "I want people to stop dying because of this country."
Matthew Goodsell, 25, of Philadelphia, a recently unemployed floor installer, said he had been wrongfully arrested twice, including once for underage drinking.
