Politics

Heavy Turnout For Demonstrations

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 20, 2001 / 11:20 AM EST / CBS

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the rain-soaked streets of the nation's capital Saturday to boo Bush's inauguration, holding signs such as "Hail to the Thief" as they championed causes from abortion to electoral rights.

There were protests across the country as well. More than 5,000 gathered on the lawn in front of San Francisco City Hall protesting the swearing, for example, and there were reports of demonstrations in other cities across the country.

One group in Washington, D.C., taunted Bush supporters shouting, "You're racist, you're sexist, you must be from Texas." To which the supporters shouted back "George W. Bush, George W. Bush."

Amid the tightest-ever security measures for a presidential swearing-in, police said they had arrested nine protesters and charged them with disorderly conduct. Some protesters said they were clubbed although this was denied by police.

Organizers said upward of 20,000 people had come to protest but the groups were dispersed throughout Washington's downtown area. Police did not provide an estimate.

Protesters loudly booed the inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue, shouting, "shame, shame, shame," as some made obscene gestures at parade marchers.

As Bush's limousine passed by, some supporters were looking dejected as protesters screamed abuse at the new president, including chants of "racist, sexist anti-gay: Bush and Cheney go away."

The shouts rose to a crescendo, with protesters shouting "no justice, no peace" and shaking their fists while Bush supporters cheered.

The crowd was boisterous but mostly orderly as it was kept in check by thousands of police.

Protest organizers said beforehand that rain might keep their numbers down. There was no independent confirmation of the 20,000 estimate. Police stopped giving crowd estimates after disputes of counts for the 1995 Million Man March.

Officers in riot gear and on horseback watched protesters, joined by thousands of uniformed Secret Service agents.

Bottlenecks developed around the 10 security checkpoints set up by security forces to search anyone entering the parade route, which angered some impatient demonstrators.

Police asked protesters to line up in an orderly way.

More than a dozen law enforcement agencies, with the Secret Service at the helm, were out in the city's streets to ensure there would not be a repeat of violent demonstrations that marred the World Bank's April 2000 meetings in the capital.

Some demonstrators wore masks and costumes bearing likeness to the five Supreme Court justices who voted to stop the recount of votes in Florida, which ultimately gave Bush his electoral victory over Democratic candidate Al Gore.

Rick Bromberg, a 51-year-old lawyer from Fairfax, Va., carried a placard that spelled "Supreme Court" with derogatory comments added after each letter about the new pesident. "The Supreme Court stole the election for Bush," he said.

Police had prepared for the largest number of inaugural demonstrators since Richard Nixon's 1973 swearing-in when about 60,000 people turned out to protest the Vietnam War and some hurled fruit and pebbles at the presidential limousine.

"We're expecting trouble and that's why we're prepared," said Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey as he stood at 14th and K streets, a fair distance from the swearing-in but where several hundred protesters had gathered. The crowd dispersed when confronted by police in riot gear.

Helicopters circled overhead.

Protester Samantha Knowlding said police were using clubs.

"I was pushed over by a policeman with a baton," Knowlding said. She said she saw protesters being taken away in a bus and said police harassed a group of activists dressed in black, the traditional color worn by anarchists.

At Freedom Plaza at 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, lawyer Marina Colby, 32, compared a screening spot where people were being patted down to Checkpoint Charlie, the passage during the Cold War between East and West Berlin.

"I think its very undemocratic - a way of keeping people from expressing their views," said Colby, a legal observer for the National Lawyers' Guild.

Bush supporter Whitman Rimes said she was so angry with the protesters she could "hit them. I'm really angry. They've had their day in the sun."

Another Bush supporter, Sherry Larawill, said the protesters were a distraction from the ceremony and that they had been very rude. "They are judging us when they don't know who we are."

Washington DC Mayor Tony Williams said he wished protesters would "give the president-elect a break," and allow Bush his inauguration, calling the protesters' presence "spiteful." Though Williams did add he understood they had a right to protest.