c.m. writes "Notes from Washington
SEPTEMBER 26 On Wednesday night metal barricades
blocked off streets surrounding the World Bank and
IMF, and police wearing black and orange rain gear
stood in a steady downpour, turning away people who
tried to pass through streets they had designated as
off limits. At the corner of Pennsylvania and 18th
Street a bus full of police stood at a curb next to
the World Bank Infoshop. Inside the shop were
paperweights, umbrellas, ponchos and the like, bearing
the white and blue World Bank logo. Outside, a cop
carried a case of soda from a van into the bus.
September 27, 2002
6:00am DOWNTOWN NEAR FRANKIN PARK I began roaming
around downtown Washington. There werenít many people
on the streets but there were several guys who
appeared to be undercover cops. (I saw some of them
later in the day and found out they were indeed
police.) I was followed for three blocks by a man who
at first glance appeared to be destitute or homeless,
then I sat down on some steps and watched him pass.
He was wearing a torn tattered raincoat and dirty
pants, but his boots, which were in good condition,
suggested that the rest of his outfit was a disguise.
He passed me and walked into Franklin Park, where that
morning starting around 7:00 am, some 200 or 250
people gathered. They milled inside the park, while
police stood around the perimeter. Some of the people
inside were dressed all in black. Some wore bandanas
that obscured the lower half of their faces. Others
carried red and black flags. A man held up a sign:
ìEnd Corporate Greed.î A red and black banner,
perhaps six feet by twelve, read ìGlobal Liberation
Not Devestation.î By 7:30 several people, some
masked, others wearing black hard hats began beating
homemade drums, blowing whistles, clanging cymbals and
shaking rattles. Others danced nearby. At 7:35, the
group moved out of the park, heading into the
intersection of 14th and K, proceeding west and
blocking traffic, while chanting ìNo banks, no tanks,
end the war on the poor.î They turned on Vermont and
headed toward L street, but were blocked by police on
motorcycles. The group turned around and headed back
down Vermont, some holding their fingers up in a peace
sign. The motorcycles followed. At Vermont and K
there was another police line, and the motorcycle cops
following the crowd got off their bikes and unsheathed
long wooden sticks. At that moment I heard two sharp
sounds and saw that projectiles of some sort had been
hurled through the window of a Citibank branch at the
corner of Vermont and K, creating large, gaping holes
in the glass. More police arrived, wearing helmets
and carrying sticks and by 8:10, the crowd was backed
up against the Citibank window and surrounded by
police, who began taking people out of the throng one
by one. Arestees kneeled on the sidewalkas they were
searched and handcuffed, then led onto a large city
bus. Someone up the street slightly, on Vermont,
appeared to be badly injured and was carted off in an
ambulance. By 8:30, the trapped demonstrators ñ about
80 to 100 of them -- had all been arrested.
Backpacks, water bottles, homemade drums, a skateboard
and a hard hat lay scattered on the sidewalk behind a
line of police wearing visored helmets, shin and knee
pads, padded vests and long padded gloves extending to
the elbow. They all carried long wooden sticks and as
the last of the demonstrators boarded a bus, some cops
beat out a martial rythym on their shinpads with the
sticks.
9:00am ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE IMF /WORLD BANK
Greyhound buses bearing delegates and escorted by
police cars blaring their sirens sped through empty
streets and drove through a guarded gate into the
complex where the meeting were to take place. TV and
radio reporters stood across the street looking bored.
I asked one tall man what had been going on there
that morning and he answered, weirdly, by telling me
there was a Brittany Spears concert going on behind
the barricades.
9:30 am CONNECTICUT AVENUE BETWEEN K & L Police
surrounded and arrested 40-odd people walking in an
apparently peaceful and orderly fashion on the
sidewalk. One of those being arrested held up a large
white puppet in the shape of a dove. A man wore a
crown of leaves on his head. Some in the crowd had
painted faces and some carried branches of leaves.
ìWeíre protesting war, globalization, the willingness
to kill for oil and companies who privatize water,î
said Baruch Zeichner, from Vermont. ìThe police told
us to walk on the sidewalk, we did, and they moved
in.
PERSHING PARK, PENNSYLVANIA & 15th 10:00am
Sometime
earlier, police on foot and on horseback surrounded
about 350 people, including participants in an earlier
bicycle demonstration, and accredited reporters, then
refused to allow anyone to enter or leave the park.
AT 10:15 a city bus, to be used for arrests, arrived.
A crowd of about 250 who were watching from across the
street began yelling ìLet them go!î Police wearing
visored helmets moved in on those in the park, herding
them toward the bus. Those inside the park chanted
ìLet us free, let us free, this is not democracy.î
The police response to this cry was to force the
people back further so that they were packed tightly
together. In some cases, police pushed roughly
against people, using the ubiquitous wooden sticks to
force them backwards and causing some demonstrators to
slip and fall on a rainslicked grass slope. As I took
notes, a tall youthful looking man wearing wire rimmed
glasses stood next to me and craned his neck to get a
look at the action in the park. "What are they
doing?" he asked. I told him the police were getting
ready to arrest those in the park. "I think they're
making it worse," he responded. "Why don't they just
let them leave?" Well, I said, I think the police
want to arrest as many as they can today and simply
leaving is not an option for people in the park. We
stood next to each other for a while, exchanging
observations. Before leaving the man introduced
himself and explained that he worked in The White
House as a military advisor. I said that sounded like
a busy job these days. He agreed, then added: "It's
pretty quiet right now. The President is off at the
ranch." By 11:45 seven buses had driven off, carrying
some 350 people from inside the park. As I got ready
to leave the scene I locked my bicycle to a post and
entered the White House Visitors Center, planning to
use the bathroom. Upon entering the building a
uniformed woman asked if I was "with the protest." I
asked if it mattered one way or the other. A guard
looked quizzically at a long wrench I had with me to
remove and replace bike pedals, then asked me if I had
a knife. Last, my bag was to be put through an x-ray
machine of some sort. The uniformed woman at the door
warned the guards that some people were trying to
"sneak in water." I spoke up and stated that I had a
water bottle in my knapsack but wasn't trying to hide
it from anyone. Rather, I told the guards, that's
where it was easiest for me to carry the bottle. A
guard acknowledged my rationale then told me that no
food or drink was allowed inside the center. I'd have
to pour the bottle out on the street, he said. I
asked for the return of the wrench and told them I'd
find another bathroom to use."
