By David Morgan
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Protesters scuffled with police, damaged patrol cars and blocked traffic as officers made more than 100 arrests in Philadelphia on Tuesday after demonstrators stepped up efforts to disrupt the Republican convention on its second night.
Four officers were injured in the protests, including two who were sprayed in the face and eyes with an unidentified liquid, police said. Another policeman was knocked down by a protester, a witness said.
About 20 police patrol cars and other vehicles were damaged, including broken windows.
Switching tactics from the peaceful marches and rallies of the last two days, political activists linked arms and blocked key intersections and freeway entrance ramps in the center city, tying up traffic but staying well away from the Republican convention hall.
[a4a: Bit of spin, here -- since when is linking arms and blocking traffic not peaceful?]
Police raided a brick warehouse in the western part of the city where they believed activists were making and storing equipment to be used in the protests, hauling away in plastic handcuffs about 80 chanting and singing protesters inside.
Police also shut down portions of several downtown streets to contain the activists, and were still working to clear intersections during the evening rush hour. About 85 demonstrators were taken into custody in the center city area, police said.
"It's nothing unexpected," Police Commissioner John Timoney said of the confrontational new tactics. "There is no rush, we'll take our time, we'll lock them all up."
At a freeway ramp near downtown, about a half-dozen protesters blocked the roadway by locking their arms inside sealed plastic tubes, forcing police to saw off the pipes and blocking the ramp for hours.
[a4a: Perhaps the hack thinks that's a violent tactic? Doesn't gel with how he portrayed it above.]
At a key downtown intersection near City Hall, protesters linked arms and blocked traffic, chanting: "Who's streets? Our streets. That is what Democracy looks like." Police moved in and made at least 60 arrests at the site, dragging protesters away from the intersection, a witness said.
Police were out in force throughout the downtown area, vastly outnumbering protesters at most locations. There was also heightened police activity around the downtown hotel where vice-presidential candidate Dick Cheney is staying.
"I am really displeased with the protesters' behavior because we have done everything possible to ensure their safety," said Jeremiah Daley, the police commander in charge of dealing with the protests.
[a4a: See below for how they "dealt with" the protesters.]
The actions came after two days of largely peaceful protests by thousands of activists for a variety of causes who staged rallies across Philadelphia.
On Monday, protesters staged a two-hour "economic human rights" march through the city in sweltering heat. Police estimated the crowd at between 3,000 to 4,000.
The march, organized without a permit, came off peacefully, ending with a rally opposite the convention venue on the outskirts of the fifth largest U.S. city.
On the eve of the convention on Sunday, about 5,000 activists rallied to draw attention to corporate money in politics, the death penalty and many other causes in a peaceful protest that failed to live up to its advance billing.
About 15 people were arrested over the first two days of protest, according to police.
Police surrounded the west Philadelphia warehouse after receiving information that equipment to be used in the protests was inside, and moved in after receiving a search warrant.
"We got information earlier today about some things being made inside this location," First Deputy Commissioner Sylvester Johnson told reporters, adding later that police were specifically looking for plastic piping, chicken wire, gas masks, lockboxes, chains and bottles.
[a4a: The above means either police undercover agents or informants ratted out the protesters. Seems that having a base of operations is counterproductive, yes? They've taken to these timely raids now as a standard operating procedure for dealing with protesters.]
All were to be used in the effort to lock down central Philadelphia, Johnson said. "Based on the information we have, all of these things originated from inside this warehouse," Johnson said of Tuesday's events.
Police had feared violent confrontations would break out like those that disrupted the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle late last year. Protesters also tried but failed to disrupt the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington in April.
[a4a: So, according to the "reporter", who relied exclusively on police sources -- balanced coverage, eh? -- the protests went from peaceful to "violent", even though no acts of violence are indicated above.]
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested and five police officers injured when protesters bent on disrupting the Republican National Convention caused traffic gridlock and scuffled with police in the streets.
[a4a: If the police come to break your heads, that's called a "scuffle" in the press -- your head ran into their batons, naturally.]
After two days of peaceful protests, when police and demonstrators cooperated to avoid the violence seen at world trade talks in Seattle last year, activists spent Tuesday afternoon trying to bring the city to a standstill and prevent delegates from reaching the convention.
Estimates of the size of the protests ranged from more than 1,000 to as high as 4,000, as protesters blocked roads and tied up downtown traffic in the early evening rush hour. But they failed to disrupt the convention.
"It got a little ugly," said Deputy Police Commissioner Robert Mitchell, head of the city's security for the convention. "There were large numbers of marauding gangs going through Center City, terrorizing the daylights out of people."
[a4a: The police certainly appeared to be marauding gangs. The DP Commissioner has it right! Oh, wait -- he's talking about the protesters....]
Police said 282 people had been arrested.
Although the day was largely free of violence, there were isolated clashes and some vandalism, including slashing the tires of numerous police cars.
In one incident, two officers were sprayed in the face and eyes with what eyewitnesses described as paint or dye. One officer had to be treated at a hospital while several others were accosted and pummeled by passing crowds of mainly white, college-aged youths.
[a4a: An interesting new spin -- trying to alienate the readership even more; Philadelphia has a large minority population, so that last bit about "mainly white, college-aged youths" tries to split readers along race, class, and age lines.]
Police Commissioner John Timoney said one officer was seriously injured. "They beat him over the head with my bike," the commissioner said.
"The goal is disruption as a means to make people ask, 'What would motivate people so strongly,"' said George Lakey, spokesman for Philadelphia Direct Action Group.
Small bands of protesters attacked about 20 police cars, smashing windows, slashing tires and spraying graffiti, while others turned dumpsters and outdoor planters over into streets. Witnesses said demonstrators also surrounded buses and sprayed graffiti on the vehicles while scared passengers sat inside.
[a4a: What witnesses? They're unnamed, and who says the people were scared? That's a bit of editorializing, or propagandizing, again trying to frame the audience's perception of this event. More likely they'd be curious or annoyed, but that doesn't serve the editorial agenda here.]
City leaders had feared that violent confrontations would break out like those that disrupted the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle last year. Protesters also tried with less success to disrupt the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington in April.
A Reuters reporter covering the protests and a photographer for U.S. News and World Report magazine were detained by police for several hours but were released without charge.
The day's events represented a switch in tactics from the peaceful marches in previous days. Small bands of protesters, called "flying squads," tried to draw the attention of police while others blockaded intersections and highway ramps. Meanwhile, hundreds of police on bicycles shadowed wandering crowds through a maze of downtown side streets.
[a4a: Here again is party line, spinning the story -- "a switch in tactics from the peaceful marches..." implying, without directly saying, an embrace of violence. Drawing on a bus as violence? I don't think so. Homey don't play that.]
At one point, about 100 cycling police officers rushed to a downtown square, forming a barrier three deep to keep activists from reaching the hotel where former President George Bush and his wife, Barbara, were staying.
"It's nothing unexpected," Police Commissioner John Timoney said of the confrontational new tactics. "We'll take our time, we'll lock them all up."
[a4a: A repeat of that quote from the day before. Either the pull chain in the guy's back got stuck, or his cue cards got mixed up, or the "reporter" was lazy.]
In the downtown jail where activists were taken, the youths arrived in high spirits, still chanting, but some were bloodied from their scuffles. One protester was injured when a spooked police horse fell over.
[a4a: This is careful writing -- "some were bloodied from their scuffles" -- very passive voice; nobody bloodied or beat them -- it just happened, cuz of their scuffles. The hack can't say "the police beat the crap out of the protesters" cuz that'd be too close to the reality. Even the last bit about the horse is written in painfully passive voice -- the horse simply fell over, injuring the protester. No more details. Contrast that with the more vivid images of what happened to some of the cops, above.]
Early in the afternoon, police raided a warehouse in west Philadelphia where activists were congregating in what appeared to be an effort to thwart the civil disobedience. Police searched the property for plastic pipes, chicken wire, gas masks, chains, bottles and lock boxes.
About 80 chanting and singing protesters inside the warehouse were taken into custody in plastic handcuffs.
Police also shut down portions of several downtown streets to contain the activists.
At a freeway ramp near downtown, about a half-dozen protesters blocked the roadway by locking their arms inside sealed plastic tubes, forcing police to saw off the pipes and blocking the ramp for hours.
At a key intersection near City Hall, protesters linked arms and blocked traffic, chanting: "This is what Democracy looks like." Police moved in and made at least 60 arrests at the site, dragging protesters away.
"Anybody who would make the case that somehow these are peaceful protesters who are only exercising their First Amendment rights, really should have their head examined," Police Commissioner Timoney told a late night news conference at which he appeared with Mayor John Street.
Police said demonstrators stretched metal wire across one intersection with the apparent aim of injuring officers on motorcycles or bicycles.
"The police department and the city were in control of this thing," said Mayor Street, who said the protests had not delayed delegates from reaching the convention venue.
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Protests on the fringes of the Republican National Convention turned peaceful as the city recovered from Tuesday's clashes that tied up traffic across downtown and led to hundreds of arrests.
Police said they arrested 50 people on Wednesday, adding few details except to say the arrests were scattered across various locations through the city of about 1.4 million people. The police said there were 290 arrests on Tuesday, down from their earlier estimate of about 350.
On Wednesday, about 400 activists in a park across from the city jail demanded the release of those in police custody, while demonstrators picketed a downtown bank and a gathering of anti-abortion Republicans. A separate march called for women's rights.
The subdued tone of the day's events contrasted with that of Tuesday, when activists blocked downtown intersections, injuring at least 15 police officers and vandalizing 28 police and city vehicles.
Police largely succeeded in keeping the situation from becoming as chaotic as that seen at trade talks in Seattle last year when protesters brought that city to a standstill.
"They were folks who came here hell-bent on causing disruption," Police Commissioner John Timoney said. "The Philadelphia Police Department is in control of the situation. Make no mistake about that."
Most arrested were not cooperating with police and did not give their names -- something likely to keep them behind bars until after the convention ends on Thursday, Timoney said.
An activist with the organization that planned much of the civil disobedience said police arrested many of the organization's key members early on Tuesday before they took to the streets, contributing to the day's lawlessness.
"We did everything within our power to organize a day of nonviolence, and what happened instead was that our organizers and our peacekeepers were taken off the streets," said Amy Kwasnicki with the Philadelphia Direct Action Group.
Elsewhere, the sounds of a brass quintet competed with chanted slogans as a group of about 50 abortion rights activists picketed a lunch of abortion opponents attended by former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes.
"The government has no place getting involved in a woman's private decisions," said Leslie Anastasio, executive director of the National Abortion Rights Activist League of Pennsylvania.
Protesters marched around police headquarters later in the afternoon, but they did not block traffic and police made no arrests. They spent most of the rest of the day in a park across from City Hall, waving signs at rush-hour traffic, playing soccer and staging puppet shows.
Organizers of Sunday's Unity 2000 rally removed files from the offices of a downtown legal center for protesters, saying there was an intimidating buildup of police on the street outside.
"This is outrageous intimidation," said Mike Morrill, who organized Sunday's peaceful rally of about 5,000.
City Managing Director Joe Martz said Philadelphia was disappointed by Tuesday's events.
"We literally rolled out the red carpet," Martz said, noting how amenable police had been to protesters and that the city had provided buildings they could use as temporary accommodation. "I'm enormously disappointed that people would come here and do the amount of damage they did."
Three police officers suffered serious injuries, one with a broken arm, one a concussion and the third a severe gash.
[a4a: Again, note the details above. These cops weren't "bloodied from their scuffles" -- instead, you get humanizing details. Why don't the protesters get that treatment?]
Police said they impounded a red London-style bus containing snakes, poisonous spiders and toads that they suspected activists planned to throw at police. Activists said the bus was not theirs.
[a4a: I don't know what the hell that's all about. I seriously doubt environmentally-conscious protesters would use animals in that way. This seems like just so much smoke.]
For information on sources, please contact Brian at the R2K Legal Office. 215 925 6791
[a4a: The last part of this, regarding the super-high bail amounts, is revealing. Usually, you only see terrorists with $1 million bail; but the State is flexible in its application of the law.]
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Philadelphia's police chief said on Thursday that federal authorities should investigate radical groups that have targeted two presidential conventions, the World Trade Organization and World Bank for mass protests.
"I intend on raising this issue with federal authorities," Police Commissioner John Timoney told a news conference.
"Somebody's got to look into these groups," he said. "I don't think you should have people out there who are going to hang around and plan to come into a different city time after time to assault police officers, engage in serious property damage and destruction. That ain't cricket."
At the same time, defense lawyers for hundreds of protesters jailed this week in Philadelphia claimed city officials were keeping their clients behind bars illegally by setting bail at exorbitant levels for relatively minor charges.
Among those arrested was John Sellers, head of the Berkley, California-based Ruckus Society, which trains activists in nonviolent civil disobedience. On Thursday, his bail was set at $1 million for what his attorney described as a number of misdemeanor charges. Sellers has denied any wrongdoing, the attorney said.
On Tuesday, thousands of protesters tried but failed to bring the host city of the Republican National Convention to a standstill by blocking key intersections during their only act of mass civil disobedience.
Police won accolades from city leaders for thwarting the disruptive aim of the demonstrations, while managing to make 369 arrests without provoking widespread violence of the kind seen last year during the WTO meeting in Seattle.
Protesters, representing a wide range of organizations including anarchist groups, called off "direct action" campaigns planned for Wednesday and Thursday, saying they would instead mark the last night of the convention with a peaceful candlelight vigil outside a facility holding their jailed comrades.
Sixty jailed protesters had been released by Thursday afternoon. But the criminal justice process was being slowed by detainees who refused to provide their names or other personal details in a show of jail solidarity.
Protest organizers maintain that their intentions are purely nonviolent and say their ultimate aim is to forge a new political movement out of a series of high-profile protests that have now struck several cities in the United States and Canada.
But Timoney blamed protest leaders for sporadic violence in which 15 Philadelphia officers were injured and nearly 30 city vehicles vandalized. He said those responsible were the same outsiders who had organized both the Seattle protests and violent demonstrations at the World Bank in Washington last April.
A similar coalition plans to hold potentially larger demonstrations later this month in Los Angeles, during the Democratic National Convention.
The Philadelphia police commissioner mentioned the U.S. Justice Department as a federal agency with possible jurisdiction.
"My hope is that the DOJ will take the request -- not to investigate the protesters but the police and law enforcement actions," responded New York-based civil rights attorney Ron McGuire, who is representing jailed protesters.
Arrests on Tuesday and Wednesday included 19 people charged with felony offenses, such as assault. More than 270 others faced misdemeanor charges while 10 received summary charges.
Timoney shrugged off claims that leading protest figures including Sellers were arrested while simply walking the street with cellular phones. Civil rights lawyers had a different version of events, however. "What we are seeing in Philadelphia is a civil rights catastrophe of the first order," said McGuire.
He said the city was imposing bail of more than $15,000 in cases that would ordinarily merit only a couple hundred dollars in an apparent bid to keep protesters in jail until after the Republican convention had ended.
Police confirmed bail had been set at $50,000 for one suspect charged with misdemeanor offenses.