Local supporters of the  Occupy Wall Street movement – on the two-month anniversary of the start of its protests in New York – took part in various demonstrations in Amherst yesterday and demonstrated in front of and reportedly entered the Bank of America on South Pleasant Street to voice their discontents, according to reports.

An employee of Amherst Books told Springfield-based WGGB-TV abc 40 that around 50 to 100 protesters participated in the march – with some entering the bank between 2 and 3 p.m. According to abc 40, police eventually forced the protesters who entered the bank back outside.

Nelson Klein, a senior BDIC major at UMass who said he was a bystander to the march to Bank of America, said he thought the purpose of the march yesterday was to go into the bank and voice “unhappy” sentiments about the establishment. He said the movement was a response to what he saw as the bank being engaged in “unfair lending practices and home foreclosures.”

He also said that a lot of the participants marched to the bank with the intention of closing out their personal accounts.

Jennifer Giammanco, another bystander to the protest and a senior Middle Eastern studies and political science major, said she thought the marchers were protesting the bank more as a symbol rather than the people working in it.

There were reports that the Bank of America may have been shut down during the protest. But none of those reports have been verified.

Klein said he saw bars brought down on the doors of the Bank of America but thought it was only briefly, noting the employees at the bank may have gotten nervous about the large number of people.

Nancy Pierce can be reached at [email protected].