MOUNTING ANGER: A cop struggles for balance as his horse gets pushed amid the Times Square protest yesterday. (Angel Chevrestt)
Thousands of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators deposited their rage in Times Square last night — and the cops paid them back with interest.
Forty-five people were arrested as a mob of roughly 5,000 protesters — voicing their anger about what many describe as the worst economic situation since the Great Depression — clashed with police trying to set up barricades to keep them on sidewalks.
A total of eighty-eight protesters were arrested at various locations yesterday.
As the mayhem in Times Square built, Seventh Avenue between 46th and 57th streets was shut down to cars and much of the area ground to a halt.
Officers and protesters could be seen shoving back and forth.
The melee sent two officers to the hospital for minor injuries to their head and foot, cops said.
At one point, cops on horseback were called to keep the crowd penned in.
One cop’s horse tumbled to the ground after it slipped on a grating.
The horse and officer were not injured.
Three people were arrested at 46th Street and Seventh Avenue at around 6:15 p.m. for trying to dismantle police barricades, cops said.
Some protesters near them were chanting to “fight back,” but the violence did not escalate.
The other 42 were arrested a block over at Sixth Avenue at around 8 p.m. The crowd was given three warnings to disperse but did not, cops said.
“There was one girl crying, I think because of one of the protesters who was being particularly rowdy was being manhandled by the cops,” said Harry Kaback.
“There were about two or three van loads of people they arrested,” Kaback, 26, said.
Ricardo Casanova, 42, said cops “were just grabbing people, whoever was being rowdy or yelling. It was crazy.”
The protesters, who have mostly stayed at Zuccotti Park near Wall Street, were excited to take their movement to a high-profile location.
“Times Square is a place where everybody keeps an eye on,” said Ricardo Cortez. “The whole world is watching,” said Cortez, 37.
The march to Times Square began at around 4 p.m. at Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village.
Five people were arrested on the march for wearing masks.
About a 1000 protesters were in Washington Square Park an hour before its midnight curfew but almost all left after cops warned them that they’d be arrested.
Fourteen people remained in the park, and were sitting in the waterless fountain when they were taken into custody early today, cops said.
The protesters started yesterday by leaving their Zuccotti Park encampment to march to the Chase Bank buildings in the Financial District, banging on drums and chanting, “We got sold out, banks got bailed out!”
About 30 protesters then hit the Citibank on La Guardia Place.
“They all went in a big flash mob to close their accounts,” said Adrielle Slaugh, 24, an office manager who described the 2:15 p.m. bank invasion as “general rowdiness.”
“They were screaming and chanting while they were going in,” said Slaugh,.
Police said 24 people were arrested for criminal trespass, with two of them being hit with an additional charge of resisting arrest, cops said.
Activists were energized by officials backing off on Friday from efforts to empty Zuccotti Park for a formal cleaning — and then preventing protesters from returning with sleeping bags.
Additional reporting by Aaron Feis, Colin Mixson, Josh Saul and Jamie Schram