An arrest was made today, 17th of December, at Pershing Square downtown LA during Occupy LA’s march for Bradley Manning’s freedom and candle lit vigil.

The march of approximately 300 hundred protestors came up with a bad start when the police arrested a protestor. However, no more than an hour later the same protestor was back in the march, ”I was walking in the street with everybody,” he says. ”And then the police asked me to move aside to the sidewalk. I moved on to the sidewalk. The police grabbed my hand, I forcibly took my hand away and got arrested.

Occupy Los Angeles demanded at the beginning of the march of the immediate release of Bradley Manning and the dropping of all charges against him. In their statement for the march they write: If Bradley Manning is the one who released the Afghan war diaries, the Iraq war logs, the footage leading to the “collateral damage video”, the 250,000 US diplomatic cables, and many other secrets to wiki leaks, then as an individual he may have very well done more to promote democracy, then any one individual solider, in United States History.

Democracy requires that people not only make choices, but that their choices are based on accurate and current information – voting does not matter if voters are ignorant as to what choice will serve their own best interest. The volume of secrets and lies allegedly exposed by Bradley Manning has empowered millions of people to make decisions based on the whole truth.

”I’m here today to support Bradley Manning because he’s a hero”, says Jeff Swietlik. ”He has provided us with a treasure trove of information that is very enlightening and gives a better insight into how our government’s working.

Robert Schwartz means that people should tell the truth and be recognized for the heroes they are.

Follow Occupy worldwide on: http://www.vmsplay.com/occupy

After the initial incident the march continued peacefully and ended at City Hall with a candle lit vigil.