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
Is it just me or do these misguided punks look totally scared and wondering why they got themselves in so much trouble?
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This is part of the problem. There is little penalty for the lawbreakers. If Ramsey had said, "There were 300 fractured skulls", then we would see much less of these hooligans. They only demonstrate in countries where they know they won't get hurt.
It's just you. There has been one minor injury reported, probably the one woman with a cut we've seen pictured here. Not bad when over 600 arrests have now been made.
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