[Reader-list] washington protest on war

[Ravi Sundaram]

This is from the Washington Post . For more detailed coverage see 
http://dc.indymedia.org/

-ravi


Thousands Fill Streets Of D.C. to Protest War
By Manny Fernandez and Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 30, 2001

Anarchists in black bandannas, peace activists with banners and signs, and 
police in riot gear took over the streets of downtown Washington yesterday 
during the first major national anti-war protest since the Sept. 11 
terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Young protesters, who beat drums and the bottoms of plastic tubs, shouted 
chants at stone-faced police in a tense standoff on one Pennsylvania Avenue 
block, while area activists and those who had come in caravans from 
California, New York, Ohio and Oregon called on thousands at Freedom Plaza 
to raise their voices for peace.

Such scenes had been anticipated for months by police, organizers and 
District residents, but the terrorist attacks softened what had been 
expected to be a clash between unprecedented law enforcement might and as 
many as 100,000 anti-globalization protesters. Yesterday's rallies, 
instead, developed into a largely peaceful display against military 
retaliation, marred by a few scuffles and three arrests during one of the 
day's two downtown marches. Eight more were arrested at the now-closed D.C. 
General Hospital in a related protest.
Police officials estimated the crowd in the two marches at about 7,000, 
while some organizers put the figure closer to 25,000, the same number that 
protested the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in the 
District in April 2000. That time, there were hundreds of arrests, 
skirmishes between police and protesters, and some property damage.
War was on everyone's mind, it seemed yesterday.

"I don't think the solution to violence is more violence," said Rachel 
Ettling, a 19-year-old sophomore at New York's Columbia University who held 
a red banner at a park in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol dome that read: 
"Amerika! Get a clue!" Ettling said she and the throngs of protesters were 
putting the country's best ideals to use. "It's a very patriotic thing to 
be an activist," she said. "This is democracy in the streets."

The focus of the protests, initially planned against global financial 
policies of the World Bank and the IMF, had changed since Sept. 11. After 
the attacks, the world bodies canceled their meetings, and some protest 
groups altered their message. They pleaded that the country not engage in 
what they called a "rush to war" and to condemn violent acts of retaliation 
against those of Middle Eastern background. Another rally and march for 
peace, organized by local anti-war activists, are set for 11 a.m. today 
from Meridian Hill Park at 16th and Euclid streets NW.

Yesterday, at a three-hour rally at Freedom Plaza before a march to the 
Capitol to stress those concerns, Leslie Sauer, 55, a landscape architect 
from rural New Jersey, held a sign that read, "8 million Afghan refugees 
need food now, not war and terror." Many protesters criticized U.S. foreign 
policy, which they say has exacerbated tensions in the Middle East.

"We rain bombs on Iraq, then we're surprised we're hated," the Rev. Graylan 
Hagler, minister at the District's Plymouth Congregational Church, told 
thousands gathered there. More rallies were scheduled in other parts of the 
country.
In an earlier march, some protesters seemed intent on fighting aggression 
with aggression. Many wore black bandannas to hide their faces or gas masks 
to protect themselves if the air turned chemical, and some carried sticks 
and black-painted trash can lids as shields.

All the clashes between police and protesters -- including the arrests and 
scuffles in which police used pepper spray on several demonstrators -- 
broke out during the march, organized primarily by a D.C.-based anarchists 
and anti-capitalists group, the Anti-Capitalist Convergence. It had not 
sought a permit for the march, but police accommodated the group and 
escorted marchers from near Union Station to the Pennsylvania Avenue and 
19th Street NW headquarters of the World Bank and the IMF.
Trouble started at 11th and H streets near the Washington Convention Center 
about 10:45 a.m., when a shoving match erupted between police and 
demonstrators after two police vehicles leading the march slowed down but 
protesters would not. Activists swarmed the vehicles, and D.C. Police Chief 
Charles H. Ramsey and other high-ranking officials were among police there, 
batons in hand. Someone leaned from a police vehicle and pepper sprayed the 
surging demonstrators. Police used their batons to push the crowd from the 
cars. Several protesters were knocked to the pavement. One officer also 
fell; fellow officers quickly formed a ring around her, and she was led 
away in tears.

Lisa Fithian, a 40-year-old Los Angeles activist, was pepper sprayed, as 
was Executive Assistant Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer. Ramsey lost his 
left shoe in a brief melee at 15th and H streets, where two arrests took place.
When demonstrators ended their march an hour later at Edward R. Murrow Park 
across from the World Bank and IMF, lines of police prevented them from 
leaving. The park soon became the scene of a sometimes-tense 90-minute 
standoff. Hundreds of police stood shoulder-to-shoulder surrounding the park.

Police officials said the tactic was used to cool off the crowd, but many 
who were detained said the action violated their rights. Protesters' nerves 
were on edge, and many sat down on the grass, while others started chants.
Attorneys for protest groups who were also detained began making plans to 
seek a hearing in federal court, while some protesters talked about why 
they were there.

"I wanted to send a signal to George Bush and Congress and the American 
people that everyone is not cowed into submission, not everyone is about 
unthinking vengeance," said Paul Sturtz, 37, of Columbia, Mo.
Others took things with a sense of humor. "We're actually thinking of 
ordering a pizza," said David Graeber, 40, a member of the New York Direct 
Action Network, who had cell phone in hand. At one point, a Baltimore man 
wearing a devil's mask and a clown nose, who said his name was Vermin Love 
Supreme, read sections of international law -- including Article 33 of the 
Geneva Convention -- through a bullhorn inches from a stern-faced line of 
police.
Police eventually negotiated with the group to march down H Street NW 
toward Freedom Plaza at 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, where the 
second march was assembling at noon.
At that march, organized by a new anti-war, anti-racist coalition called 
International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism), speakers addressed 
the crowd for three hours before thousands of protesters streamed down 
Pennsylvania Avenue NW.