Posted on 09/27/2002 9:00:08 AM PDT by Dog Gone
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Demonstrators chained themselves together, bicycled through downtown streets and harassed police with false 911 calls Friday as financial ministers from around the world began a weekend meeting.
By mid-morning, about 500 people had been arrested, Police Chief Charles Ramsey said. Most were charged with blocking sidewalks or entrances to buildings or parading without a permit, although 65 were charged with rioting.
Ramsey said one protester was injured slightly.
The financial meetings began without interruption -- surrounded by fences, closed streets and lines of police -- while protesters were scattered elsewhere.
At one downtown intersection, protesters chained themselves together, and police had to cut the chains to arrest them. Others danced through the street with mud and leaves smeared on their hair and clothes. Fire trucks were called to put out a few tires set ablaze on the outskirts of town.
Protesters broke windows at a Citibank office and tossed smoke bombs during a clash with police.
``This is not a police state, we have a right to demonstrate,'' chanted a group of mostly young people, some wearing bandanas over their faces. After police led dozens away, the sidewalk was littered with their personal items -- jackets, gas masks, helmets, goggles, a journal.
In a grassy area a few blocks from the White House, officers on motorcycles, horseback and foot corralled together about 200 protesters who banged on drums and plastic buckets, and police began the process of formally taking them into custody.
Among those arrested: a nude woman chanting slogans against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Police officers threw a sheet around her before she was taken into custody.
Braced for two more days of protests around the financial meetings, Ramsey said his officers wouldn't interfere with lawful demonstrations.
``As long as they're peaceful, they'll be OK, but we make a judgment call,'' he said.
The district's police force received 1,700 reinforcements from around the country.
Dozens of other protesters rode bicycles through the city. The Anti-Capitalist Convergence said they were protesting the Bush administration's environmental policies, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and ``corporate greed.'' Others were there to voice their opposition to war against Iraq.
Many emergency calls proved false. ``It's another protester tactic,'' Officer Tony O'Leary, a police spokesman, said of the calls. ``It's something we're prepared for.''
Dan Ueda, 25, said he was nervous as he awaited the signal to lock arms with fellow protesters for a ``snake march'' through the city.
``We're hoping not to get arrested in the first five minutes,'' said Ueda of Cliffside Park, N.J.
Said Andrew Pearson, 25, of Chapel Hill, N.C., ``I wish more of our movement concentrated on its message than its tactics, like running through the streets.''
Many commuters heeded officials' advice to avoid driving into the downtown area and, with only a few exceptions, traffic kept flowing.
In April 2000, police arrested about 1,300 people during similar, but generally peaceful demonstrations.
On the Net:
Mobilization for Global Justice: http://www.globalizethis.org
Anti-Capitalist Convergence: http://www.abolishthebank.org
District of Columbia police: http://www.mpdc.dc.gov
Jubilee USA: http://www.jubileeusa.org
This is outrageous. I hope they can find a way to prosecute these people. Many years ago, I remember my son was in a minor school bus accident. All the kids were fine (a stone kicked up broke a window), but a man a few blocks away died from a severe electrical shock while all the units were tied up at the bus accident. We felt so badly. According to the law, the children had priority so the man was left for quite some time.
If I had a true 911 emergency on that day, and the help did not come because these idiots had screwed up the phones, I would be more than furious.
*We are opposed to capitalism. We fundamentally reject a social and economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and exchange. We reject a system driven by an exploitative logic that sees human beings as human capital, ecosystems as natural resources, and culture as simply a commodity. We reject the idea that the world is only valuable in terms of profit, competition and efficiency.
*We reject the ideology of neo-liberalism, whereby corporations and investors are exempt from all political and social measures that interfere with their so-called "success".
*We are anti-imperialist, opposed to patriarchy, and denounces all forms of exploitation and oppression. We assert a worldview based on the respect of our differences and the autonomy of groups, individuals and peoples. Our objective is to globalize our networks of resistance to corporate rule.
*Respecting a diversity of tactics, we support the use of a variety of creative initiatives, ranging between popular education to direct action.
*We are autonomous, decentralized and non-hierarchical. We encourage the involvement of anyone who accepts this statement of principles. We also encourage the participation of all individuals in working groups, in accord with their respective political affiliations.
*We organize with a regard for security culture, keeping in mind the constant repression and infiltration of political movements by the state.
Said Andrew Pearson, 25, of Chapel Hill, N.C., "I wish more of our movement concentrated on its message than its tactics, like running through the streets."It was clear to me when they were marching through Manhattan several months ago that they have no unifying message to concentrate on. Hence, the need to try to outdo one another with attention-grabbing tactics.
Sure, right. Breaking windows and throwing smoke bombs is just demonstrating."
For some of these people, their clear intention is to create as much disruption as possible. Such "true believers" will show up at every protest, creating more chaos, pushing the boundaries ever further, just knowing that the world will be all sweetness and light when they are in charge. If these young people had been properly educated, they would know this wasn't a free speech issue at all.
I thought the same thing upon reading that. If those idiots can be caught somehow, they should be tossed in the hole for a long time.
They indeed have the right to demonstrate, but that doesn't include the right to bust up private property.
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