Hundreds of protesters took to the New York streets Thursday, swarming sidewalks near the New York Stock Exchange amid scuffles with police.

An Occupy Wall street demonstrator is arrested by the police as the protesters moving through the streets of Manhattan near the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Nov. 17, 2011. Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters marched through New York's financial district toward the stock exchange on Thursday. [Shen Hong/Xinhua]

This was part of the nationwide protests held on Thursday to mark two months' anniversay of the Occupy Wall Street movement.   

Over 200 protesters were arrested in New York as protesters fanned out across the city heading toward Foley Square in lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said five police officers had been injured.

Many protesters complained of brutal treatment by the police, pointing to one media image of man whose face was bloodied as he was arrested and another of a woman who was dragged across the sidewalk by an officer.

57-year-old bond trader Gene Williams joked that he was “one of the bad guys” saying that, “The fact of the matter is, there is a schism between the rich and the poor and it's getting wider."

Participant and small business owner Jonathan Smucker confronted a Wall Street financial firm executive who held a sign that said 'get a job': "Ten percent of Americans are looking for work, most Americans are struggling, and you stand smugly in your suit and say to 'get a job'. You're insulting just about everyone in your country," Smucker said.

Since Sept. 17, the Occupy Wall Street movement has spread to major U.S. cities. New York City authories said that the city has spent 6 million U.S. dollars on protest-related costs, excluding the Nov. 15 raid.

Two days ago New York police drove Occupy Wall Street protesters away from Zuccotti Park after they have camped there for nearly two months and arrested around 200 protesters for resisting orders.