ABC News’ Olivia Katrandjian reports:

At least 80 people were arrested on Wall Street today in the eighth day of protests against corporations, according to the group Occupy Wall St, which reported police used tasers and mace to control the crowd today.

The New York Police Department could not confirm how many arrests had been made because they were still being processed, a spokesman said.

A video has circulated of a police officer throwing a protestor to the ground. The reason for the violence is unknown – the video shows the man standing in what seems to be a non-threatening manner before the attack.

Another video shows police officers shoving male and female protestors off the street, and using a large orange net to move the crowd.

The group claimed today on its website that several arrested protestors were locked inside a police van this morning, one with a “possibly life-threatening” concussion.

The website reported at least one protestor was arrested for taking photographs. An NYPD spokesman said police were not targeting those with cameras.

Photographs that did make it into the blogosphere showed signs that read, “A Few Prosper, Billions Suffer,” and “Debt = Slavery.”

The protests began on Sept. 17, when hundreds of protestors gathered at Bowling Green Park in Manhattan, home of the iconic charging bull in New York’s Financial District, as they prepared to “take the bull by the horns,” as a flyer advertising the event said.

“The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%,” said a statement on the website Occupy Wall Street.

According to statements on the website, the movement, an offshoot of online magazine AdBusters, is angered by what it calls the principle of “profit over and above all else,” which it says has dominated not only America’s economic policies, but also the way in which Americans view culture and humanity.

Posts on the website compare the group’s efforts to those used in pro-democracy movements across the Middle East, dubbed the Arab Spring.

“On the 17th of September, we want to see 20,000 people to flood into lower Manhattan, set up beds, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months,” one statement says. “Like our brothers and sisters in Egypt, Greece, Spain, and Iceland, we plan to use the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic of mass occupation to restore democracy in America. We also encourage the use of nonviolence to achieve our ends and maximize the safety of all participants.”

As has become the norm of such protests, this movement has been fueled by social media fire, with supporters taking to Twitter under the hash tag #occupywallstreet. The major hacking group Anonymous has also thrown in its support, live streaming the day’s events.

“History teaches us that when the rich get too rich and the poor get too poor there is always a revolution. Let’s hope this is the start of change!” wrote a reader with the username “Takebackourgovernment” on the movement’s website today.

ABC News’ Candace Smith contributed to this report.

When Ron Paul routinely trounces his opposition in post-debate polls, the establishment media dismisses the outcome as not being reflective of national trends. However, a new CNN survey confirms that the Congressman is a top tier candidate and his popularity is rapidly accelerating.

In a national poll conducted by CNN which surveyed over 1,000 Americans between September 9-11, Paul came in fourth just 6 per cent behind Mitt Romney in second , with Sarah Palin third and Rick Perry leading.

“Besides Perry and Romney, Paul beat out the rest of his competition by 7 percent or more. Paul’s support also increased by six percent from the CNN poll that was conducted between August 24-25, 2011,” reports The State Column.

So in effect Ron Paul has doubled his national support in the space of just over two weeks alone, no doubt as a result of his sterling performances in the recent Republican debates. Polls show that the Texan Congressman has emerged victorious from every debate thus far.

Rick Perry is clearly the frontrunner at the moment, receiving 30 per cent in the CNN poll, but he is there to be shot at and his popularity is quickly losing steam. The Texas Governor was whacked from all sides during the debate last night and the more people learn about his involvement in the HPV controversy, his tax hikes and his globalist tendencies, the myth that Perry is a down-home conservative will swiftly evaporate.

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Indeed, even in Perry’s home state of Texas, President Barack Obama, whose approval rating has hovered at an all time low recently, is almost as popular as the Governor. Ron Paul easily defeated Perry in a poll of Texans over who they would prefer as President, because Texans are painfully aware of Perry’s real record in the Lone Star State. Once Americans nationwide come to the same realization, Perry will sink faster than Rudy Giuliani in 2008.

Out of all the candidates, Ron Paul clearly has the strongest momentum going into the turn of the year, and now that the establishment media has been forced to stop ignoring him and acknowledge the fact that he is a top tier candidate, that platform will only become more prominent. Expect the smear attacks against Paul to also become much more frequent.

The hoax has completely failed. Ron Paul is now a confirmed presidential frontrunner for 2012, and the momentum he is now building will ensure the only true constitutionalist in the field offers a fierce challenge to the likes of Perry and Romney for the Republican nomination.

Watch all of Ron Paul’s responses from last night’s CNN debate below.

Washington, DC – Congressman Ron Paul (TX-14) today introduced HR 459, The Audit the Fed Bill to the 112^th Congress.

This legislation is very similar to HR 1207 from the 111^th Congress and calls for a full and complete audit of the Federal Reserve by the Government Accountability Office, to be reported to Congress by the end of 2012.

HR 1207 garnered broad bi-partisan support with 320 cosponsors in the 111^th Congress, and was attached (but removed in conference) as an amendment to the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill.

In response to unprecedented public interest in the activities of the Federal Reserve, it hired a full time lobbyist for the first time in history during the 111^th Congress.

“I was very pleased that so many of my colleagues were willing to stand up for transparency and accountability in government by cosponsoring HR 1207 in the last Congress.  I am optimistic about our prospects for a full and complete audit in the 112^th Congress,” stated Congressman Paul.

HR 459 has 56 co-sponsors at time of introduction.

We Are Change groups from MD, VA and DC have joined togeather to hold an End The Fed protest in Washington DC in honor of Independence Day. The event will be on Saturday, July 3rd and the permits are already in. We Are Change groups have been putting up banners in the local area for the coming event. It is important not to lose momentum and to continue the energy that has sprung up around the notion of abolishing the Federal Reserve. With more and more public awareness as to what the Federal Reserve Bank is and how it operates, common people from the left or right have been getting behind this revolutionary idea.

Please come and join We Are Change in Washington D.C. this July 3, 2010 to take a stand for liberty. If you cannot make it to D.C. and would like to organize your own Federal Reserve protest, contact your local End the Fed group in your area by going tohttp://endthefedusa.ning.com/ or your local Campaign for Liberty chapter athttp://www.campaignforliberty.com/

Don’t let up, don’t back down, don’t allow the children of the future to wake up homeless on the continent their forefathers conquered. If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention. For more information visit http://www.wearechangedc.org/.

The Federal Reserve is a cartel of private banking corporations which lend money to the United States. It is touted as if it were a Government Agency. IT IS NOT. The Federal Reserve Bank, through its inflation of the money supply and the distortion of free markets resulting from its intervention, is responsible for the current financial and economic crisis. The current round of “bailouts” and federal government nationalization of large segments of the financial sector further inflates the US dollar and disrupts the proper funtioning of the markets and will ultimately serve to plunge the nation into an even more severe crisis, quite possibly even into a serious depression. Our goal is to educate Americans so we can have a sound monetary system in this country, and not be held at gunpoint by a private banking cartel who pretends to be a government entity.

Donovan Hubbard WAC-VA
Heidi Humphrey WAC-MD