Hundreds Are Arrested as Protests Escalate

FYI, I have reports the police were arresting people as they were
coming out of the subway stations around 42nd street. Not even a
confrontation, just right out arrests with no charges, which is
consistent with the air of desperation that is clouding the NYPSD. Too
many bored kids with guns and nowhere to go on a hot summer day.



On Wednesday, Sep 1, 2004, at 00:36 America/New_York, Lee Wells wrote:

>
> ———————————————————————–
> -
>
> September 1, 2004
> DEMONSTRATIONS
>
> Hundreds Are Arrested as Protests Escalate
> By DIANE CARDWELL and MARC SANTORA
>
> series of demonstrations rippled across Manhattan last night when
> protesters
> tried to converge on the Republican National Convention, as a day of
> planned
> civil disobedience erupted into clashes with police officers and led
> to the
> arrest of at least 565 people.
>
> The wave of confrontations - which included a brawl with the police at
> the
> New York Public Library, marauding crowds cursing at delegates in
> Midtown
> and the detention of hundreds of protesters near ground zero - created
> a day
> of disorder in a convention week already marked by sustained protests
> against the Bush administration and the war in Iraq.
>
> Yesterday's incidents stood in contrast to the enormous, mostly orderly
> antiwar march that drew hundreds of thousands of people to Manhattan on
> Sunday. Many of those protesting yesterday had purposefully avoided
> seeking
> permits for their rallies but had publicized their plans well in
> advance,
> leading hordes of police officers in cars, bikes, scooters and vans to
> flood
> various parts of the city primed to pre-empt disorder before it could
> occur.
> The day's arrests brought the convention-related total to more than
> 1,000.
>
> The protesters gathered at various locations, many with the goal of
> descending on the convention site at Madison Square Garden. But at the
> various staging areas - near ground zero, in Union Square, in Herald
> Square
> near Macy's, and outside the New York Public Library - the police began
> making arrests, sending the crowds into a frenzy. These confrontations
> followed several other events, some of which went off without
> incident, and
> the police said their aggressive actions prevented even more widespread
> disruptions.
>
> "Today a number of anti-R.N.C. activities failed to materialize,
> including a
> takeover of the lobby of the Warwick Hotel, perhaps because of the
> police
> presence there," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly told reporters
> at an
> early evening news conference.
>
> Protesters and civil liberties lawyers expressed concerns over what
> they
> said had been unfair and overzealous tactics in dealing with
> demonstrators
> who may not have had permits but were not violent.
>
> "It's an example of the police suckering the protesters," said Donna
> Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union,
> referring to the arrest of some 200 protesters who said they thought
> they
> were abiding by an agreement they had negotiated with the police as
> they
> marched from ground zero on Fulton Street.
>
> "It was a bait-and-switch tactic," she added, "where they approved a
> demonstration and the protesters kept up their end of the bargain. They
> undermined people's confidence in the police, and that's a serious
> problem
> as we go forward."
>
> The day, loosely organized by an anarchist collective called the A31
> Action
> Coalition, began slowly, with highly anticipated events proving less
> than
> fractious. Indeed, the cat-and-mouse between the protesters and the
> police
> started early.
>
> Responding to word that anarchists planned to somehow disrupt the
> morning's
> trading, hundreds of police officers flooded the blocks surrounding
> the New
> York Stock Exchange before 8 a.m.
>
> Roughly an hour later, dozens of officers responded to an obscure
> corner
> near the exchange at South William Street and Mill Lane, where
> protesters
> had stretched a ball of yarn across the street.
>
> Within minutes, 14 young people sat handcuffed and seated with their
> backs
> to a wall near the short pedestrian mall, surrounded by three or four
> times
> as many police officers. Several balls of red and yellow yarn were
> strewn
> about the street, and a boom box sat nearby with a sign on a bedsheet
> reading "Celebrate the Power of Money." One of the protesters wore a
> pinstriped suit and a beret.
>
> Paul J. Browne, a police spokesman, said of the protesters, "A lot of
> them
> are from out of town, and I think it was reflected in the choice of
> intersections."
>
> But the protests gained intensity throughout the day, and by late
> afternoon,
> the tenor had clearly changed as the police appeared to adjust their
> tactics
> to deal with the spontaneous eruptions throughout the city and the
> crowds of
> demonstrators grew increasingly volatile as the arrests mounted.
>
> Indeed, the turning point appeared to come as several hundred
> protesters
> with the War Resisters League tried to begin a march up Fulton Street
> that
> organizers had negotiated with police, although they did not have a
> permit.
>
> Ed Hedemann, one of the organizers, said their understanding was that
> if
> they stayed on the sidewalk and did not block foot traffic or
> vehicles, they
> could proceed toward Madison Square Garden.
>
> But within minutes, the protesters were confronted by a line of police
> officers who told demonstrators they were blocking the sidewalk and
> would be
> arrested, although they did not appear to be blocking pedestrian
> traffic at
> that point.
>
> A commanding officer, telling the crowd of about 200 "you're all under
> arrest," ordered other officers to bring the "prison van" and the
> "orange
> netting" with which to enmesh the protesters.
>
> "We don't know why we are being arrested, we were just crossing the
> street,"
> said Lambert Rochfort, who was among the protesters. "We were told if
> we
> don't do anything illegal we would be allowed to march on the sidewalk
> and
> we did just that. Then they arrested us for no apparent reason."
>
> Later in the afternoon, a clash erupted on the steps of the New York
> Public
> Library after two women tried to hang a protest banner over one of the
> lions
> atop the library steps. After the police pinned the women to the
> ground, a
> crowd of protesters struggled with police, answering requests to move
> with
> chants of "Oink, oink, oink."
>
> People coming off the subways were thrown to the ground and the steps
> of the
> library were left littered with chairs and debris.
>
> As protesters converged on Herald Square in the evening, the police
> tried to
> contain the increasingly raucous crowds. Hundreds of protesters seemed
> to
> get too close to the buses of delegates and the crowd became unruly as
> the
> police moved in metal barricades and used scooters to try to push the
> crowd
> back.
>
> Those who would not move were arrested, and each time the police moved
> in to
> make an arrest, they were swarmed by protesters.
>
> The demonstrators at Herald Square, frustrated by their lack of
> ability to
> move closer to Madison Square Garden, began breaking off in clusters of
> hundreds or so and storming the streets and avenues in Midtown,
> throwing
> cones and other objects at cars and windows as they ran.
>
> As police drew close, they tried to scatter. Police tackled them in
> streets,
> corners and in front of stores. Innocent bystanders were also caught
> up in
> the maelstrom.
>
> In one instance, about 200 people broke away from the larger group in a
> chase that went all the way from 33rd Street and Broadway to 27th
> Street and
> Park Avenue, before being tackled by police. At 27th Street and Madison
> Avenue, protesters set fire to a large pile of trash near the Carlton
> Hotel
> as delegates and other guests made their way to the convention.
>
>
> Reporting for this article was contributed by Randal C. Archibald ,
> Michael
> Wilson, Mary Spicuzza, William K. Rashbaum and Colin Moynihan.
>
> Copyright 2004