Abby Martin of "Breaking the Set" speaks to independent journalist Tim Pool about live streaming and the rise of new media.

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Tim Pool is in Tampa, Florida livestreaming from the Republican National Convention. Come watch and chat, or follow @Timcast for Twitter updates.

Some iPhone issues are interfering with the livestream, so some viewers may not be able to see the live feed from Tampa at this time. Techs are working on the issues.

A group of Occupy protesters -- the Guitarmy -- who marched from Philadelphia to NYC converged with local demonstrators at Zuccotti Park this afternoon, where two activists were arrested and a woman collapsed during a chaotic confrontation with the NYPD.

According to emails this evening, the woman on the ground is Mary, (No last name given, sorry.) she's an activist from Washington State who sometimes marches dressed as the Statue of Liberty. Mary participated in the week-long 99-mile Guitarmy march from Philadelphia, which reached NYC today. Conflicting reports on how she wound up on the ground, some say she was knocked down by police, but others say suffered heat stroke and passed out. Word now is that she was treated at the scene, released and is doing fine.

This next video is the arrest of one of the drummers who was one of many musicians at Zuccotti Park:

Apparently, all the chaos started as the protesters were about to enjoy a pasta dinner and security started carrying off the food, and I imagine all those marchers were pretty hungry about then, too.

Here's a photo of livestreamer Jeff's arrest (Jeff sometimes assists Tim Pool, @Timcast)

Tim Pool finished livestreaming for the night with one last update, here, where the tensions seem to have diminished with around 100 protesters still in Zuccotti Park and a huge police presence remaining. No word on the reason for the arrests earlier. Hopefully everyone will remain calm through the night. I'll check on updates in the a.m.

Please Note All times are Eastern Standard Time.

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Tim Pool is livestreaming now in the streets of Chicago, and you can follow Tim on Twitter @Timcast, and below is Luke Rudkowski's livestream, and you can follow Luke on Twitter @LukeWeAreChange.

Please don't forget, these dedicated journalists devote themselves to documenting the Occupy movement and depend on donations from strangers to keep their work going. If you're able to do so, click through on the livestream to the livestream site and visit the "donate" button for each of them.

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Tim Pool is livestreaming in Lower Manhattan anticipating trouble from the NYPD again tonight. After a scuffle in the street, a "white shirt" begins randomly picking out people and the arrests are underway.

Update 1: Ten arrests so far this evening, we only know that those arrested were cited for noise violations, for a total of 14 for the day. The police also designated a certain area of the sidewalk as a "sensitive" area, are protesters are to stay away from that area. Things seem calm, a few white shirts walking in the street, protesters watching, it seems like a stand off at the moment. NYC residents who were visiting the Occupiers are still in the area.

Update 2: Someone in the Occupy group yells "mic check," which quickly brings a white shirt over to the group to warn about noise level in a residential area.

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Earlier today, the NYPD disrupted and arrested Occupiers who had been sleeping on the sidewalk in a "sleepful protest" for the past week. Lawyers are advising that sleeping on the sidewalks is indeed legal, but surprise *cough* the police disagree.

From a report in NY Magazine earlier today:

The first arrest took place on the east side of the street, just before 8 a.m., when an officer grabbed a large piece of cardboard from a man.

“That’s my cardboard,” the man said, trying to grab it back.

“You’re going to resist?” the officer said before arresting him. A few feet away, officers arrested a woman sitting on a curb.

Moments later, an officer placed a video camera close to the face of a man walking on Nassau Street. The man swung a bag toward the lens and the officer punched him in the face, then arrested him. A fourth arrest took place on Wall Street.

March 30, 2012: Spring Training is a series of weekly Friday afternoon exercises developed by the Occupy Wall Street Direct Action Work Group to improve communication, coordination, and build team spirit in marches leading up to May Day. The weekly exercises culminate in the "People's Gong" in front of the New York Stock Exchange, an action designed to raise the voices of the 99% in contrast to the NYSE's closing bell representing the 1%.

This week, protesters were successful in entering Wall Street despite hastily set up police barricades. Protesters approached Wall Street from multiple entry points and once inside patiently waited until pacers gave the signal to assemble the action, it was very much like a flash mob.

Tim Poole can be seen in the video livestreaming from the steps of Federal Hall. Stopmotionsolo is there also sitting underneath the statue later on, and OccupyMusician is there with her trombone. The Granny Peace Brigade are dressed in yellow.

Some "fighting" chants heard:

"Ain't no power like the power of the people, 'cause the power of the people don't stop; say what?"

"A-Anti-Anticapitalista!"

It may not sound like much: A video blogger bought a toy helicopter.

But the blogger is 25-year-old Tim Pool — an internationally known journalist who attracts tens of thousands of viewers to his live-stream broadcasts from Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, DC, LA and other cities. (His feeds and archival footage are also aired on mainstream networks such as NBC.) He and his partners hope that the toy chopper — the $300 Parrot AR Drone — will be one step toward a citizen-driven alternative to mainstream news.
...

Having thoroughly figured out how to cover giant events from ground level, they are now exploring ultra-cheap alternatives to the hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollar news choppers used for aerial reporting of big events like protest marches and police clashes. In the process, the video bloggers are discovering both how far low-cost consumer technology has come and how much farther it needs to go.

Like the HD video cameras now included in the livestreamers’ cellphones, aerial surveillance drones have progressed from ultra-expensive professional gear to impulse-buy items. What was once in the Pentagon budget is now at Toys “R” Us – in a simple form, at least.

“The AR Drone is the first toy that came out,” said Sam Shapiro, a programmer from Brooklyn who is helping Pool put together the airborne news network. He says he doesn't identify with the Occupy protesters, but does support their goals.

Shapiro got involved after watching the arrests of over 700 Occupy demonstrators at the October 1 Brooklyn Bridge march. “While I can’t be involved in stuff like that, I don’t want to see my friends being beaten up because they don’t have tactical knowledge of what’s going on,” he said

More on this at Wired.