And like many other Occupy activists and social-trend analysts Wednesday, she said that similar police confrontations taking place across the country will have a predictable effect.

"It just grows the movement," Rainey said.

As they prepare for a "national day of action" on Thursday, protesters from Seattle to New York are feeling energized, preparing to turn out perhaps the biggest crowds yet of the 2-month-old Occupy Wall Street movement. Unions and liberal groups are teaming up with Occupy groups across the country in an attempt to boost the turnouts.

With thousands expected to participate, all eyes will be on the police, who have cracked idown on protesters from coast to coast in recent days.

Marchers are expected to take to the streets in major cities including Seattle, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Portland, Ore., Miami, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Washington.

Hundreds of unemployed workers will join forces with the Occupy Boston protesters, trade unions and community groups today to march for what they describe as "jobs, not cuts."

The protesters will gather first at Dewey Square around 4 p.m. on Thursday before marching to the Charlestown Bridge on North Washington Street. The march will halt before protesters cross the bridge. Police are expected to shut down the bridge during the march.