Get the scoop here.
http://nyc.indymedia.org/
Its enough to make one very angry.
By Thursday it wont be just against the Republicans it will be against the
cops.
On 9/1/04 12:44 AM, "Liza Sabater" <[email protected]> wrote:
> 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
http://nyc.indymedia.org/ Hundreds Are Arrested as Protests Escalate
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Type: discussion