Protesters target Rupert Murdoch, David Koch

Original Link: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65599.html

By TIM MAK

Occupy Wall Street protestors marched to the homes of five New York billionaires Tuesday to protest the expiration of the state’s millionaire’s tax.

“The march just got started [at 1 p.m. EDT], we’re big and loud, and we’re headed to Rupert Murdoch’s house,” said Doug Forand, the spokesperson for 99 New York, the coalition which organized the protest, earlier on Tuesday.

Forand estimated that between 500 and 600 protesters were involved in the march.

Organizers marched to News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch’s home, followed by the homes of businessman David Koch, hedge fund manager John Paulson, real estate developer Howard Milstein, and finally J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

“Where’s our bailout?” they shouted as they walked by, according to the AP. “How do we end this deficit? End the war, tax the rich!”

The protestors waved oversized checks to illustrate how much less the billionaires will pay after New York’s two percent tax on millionaires expires on Dec. 31.

The march passed without incident or any reports of arrests, unlike a previous Occupy Wall Street demonstrated that led to hundreds of arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1.

“There is just a hunger and an anger about what is happening economically right now,” Forand said.

The demonstrators left their established zone of “occupation” at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan and travel uptown to 59th Street near Central Park, where they started their march just after noon.

The march was planned by groups associated with the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations — UnitedNY, the Strong Economy for All Coalition, the Working Families Party and New York Communities for change.

The billionaires got some support from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, himself a fellow billionaire. In particular, he praised J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. “He’s brought more business to this city than maybe any other banker in modern day. … To go and picket him, I don’t know what that achieves. Jamie Dimon’s an honorable person working very hard. He pays his taxes,” Bloomberg said, according to the AP.

“While everyone else is struggling and being asked to make sacrifices to get through the economic downturn, these folks are actually being given more money to line their pockets,” Forand told the amNewYork newspaper. “They live in luxury — these folks don’t need a tax break.”

The march comes after disturbing threats were made against politicians in the state capital of Albany last week due to the expiration of the millionaire’s tax. The threats adopted similar language used by the Occupy Wall Street movement — that of the one percent exploiting the remaining 99 percent of Americans. It’s “time to kill the wealthy,” the email read. “Tax the millionaires! If you don’t, I’m going to pay a visit with my carbine to one of those tech companies you are so proud of and shoot every spoiled Ivy League [expletive] I can find.”

Meanwhile, about 100 protestors were arrested in Boston Monday after they refused to leave an area called the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway early Tuesday morning, reports The Boston Globe.