Monday morning at 10 a.m. two members of ‘Walkupiers,’ a national branch of the Occupy movement, were arrested in Madison County.Group members are on a months-long protest march from New York to Atlanta on foot. As they were on their way to Athens to meet with Occupy Athens protestors, officers from the Madison County Sheriff’s Department approached them and asked for identification.“We had just started out on the road,” said Darrin Annussek, who had been walking from Philadelphia. “We had gotten down the road a little bit and it was pouring down rain and the cop stops us and says that one of the sheriffs from Madison county said they had gotten a complaint about public service behavior.”

According to a press release from the Occupy Athens movement, officers received a complaint about a traffic obstruction.

Annussek said the group encounters confusion from police occasionally who are not familiar with the movement. After explaining the group to police and stating that they “respect all of the laws,” the officers asked for identification. Two of the Walkupiers, Sarah Handyside from Oregon and Garth Kiser from Illinois, refused.

“A couple of our members believe very strongly in that being an invasion of privacy and a breach of their rights,” he said. “They refused to show their identification without any probable cause, they didn’t feel they had to and they were subsequently arrested.”

The two Walkupiers were arrested and held at the Madison County Jail, but released around 6 p.m. yesterday.

According to Tim Denson of Occupy Athens, their protest planned for Tuesday will go on with the Walkupiers despite the arrests.

“We are definitely going through with the protest tomorrow,” Denson said.

Annussek confirmed that the group will be in downtown Athens today, but he remains surprised that Walkupiers were arrested after traveling hundreds of miles — in 17 mile a day segments — with no problems.

“We haven’t caused a disturbance all the way here,” he said. “We haven’t had this kind of problem.”