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Elated Occupy Wall Street protesters march on Broadway

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Occupy Wall Street protesters, uplifted by the postponement of a cleanup of Zuccotti Park, where they had been gathering, marched early Friday morning on Broadway in lower Manhattan.

The anti-greed protesters, who have spent nearly a month in the park, cheered the early-morning decision on the cleanup. As day broke and the cheering died down, police on scooters positioned themselves in the streets around the park and the impromptu march began.

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Richard Borkowski, a 50-year-old software designer, said he had come from his Manhattan apartment prepared to link arms with others to preserve the protest if it came to that.

Photos: ‘Occupy’ protests
‘I just see the American dream being sucked away by Wall Street and its investment banks,’ said Borkowski, who held a handmade sign that read in part: ‘Evict Congress.’

‘This impacts a lot of people,’ he said when asked what had prompted him -- a middle-aged white man with a job and an apartment -- to join a protest movement that to casual passersby looks to be dominated by 20-somethings who are out of work and laden with student debt.

‘This is not just about 400 people,’ he said, motioning toward the crowd that has been living in Zuccotti Park. Its rallying cry is ‘we are the 99 percent!’ to protest the concentration of wealth in the richest 1 percent of the population. ‘This does affect the 99 percent,’ said Borkowski. ‘I am part of the 99 percent.’

The owner of the park had notified the city late Thursday night that it was postponing power washing the park, avoiding an anticipated clash between police andthe Occupy Wall Street protesters, who feared they were being evicted.

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