Hundreds Arrested In D.C. Protest

The executive director of Greenpeace is among the more than six-hundred people arrested today during protests against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. John Passacantando says he was just riding his
bicycle to work when police made more than two-hundred arrests near
a park just outside of the extended White House security zone.

A lawyer for the environmental group says Passacantando has been taken to the D.C. Metropolitan Police training facility at Blue Plains in Southeast. That's where police have been processing those arrested at various demonstrations around town.

Attorney Tom Wetterer says the Greenpeace executive expects to be cited for unspecified charges. He also says Passacantando is likely to be released after he posts a bond of 75 dollars or less.

Demonstrators chained themselves together, bicycled through downtown streets and harassed police with false 911 calls Friday as financial ministers from around the world began a weekend meeting.

By mid-afternoon the number of arrests from today's protests has topped 600. A D.C. police spokeswoman says sporadic arrests are still occurring.

Most were charged with blocking sidewalks or entrances to buildings or parading without a permit, although 65 were charged with rioting.

Ramsey said one protester was injured slightly.

The financial meetings began without interruption — surrounded by fences, closed streets and lines of police — while protesters were scattered elsewhere.

At one downtown intersection, protesters chained themselves together, and police had to cut the chains to arrest them. Others danced through the street with mud and leaves smeared on their hair and clothes. Fire trucks were called to put out a few tires set ablaze on the outskirts of town.

Protesters broke windows at a Citibank office and tossed smoke bombs during a clash with police.

"This is not a police state, we have a right to demonstrate," chanted a group of mostly young people, some wearing bandanas over their faces. After police led dozens away, the sidewalk was littered with their personal items — jackets, gas masks, helmets, goggles, a journal.

In a grassy area a few blocks from the White House, officers on motorcycles, horseback and foot corralled together about 200 protesters who banged on drums and plastic buckets, and police began the process of formally taking them into custody.

Among those arrested: a nude woman chanting slogans against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Police officers threw a sheet around her before she was taken into custody.

Braced for two more days of protests around the financial meetings, Ramsey said his officers wouldn't interfere with lawful demonstrations.

"As long as they're peaceful, they'll be OK, but we make a judgment call," he said.

The district's police force received 1,700 reinforcements from around the country.

Dozens of other protesters rode bicycles through the city. The Anti-Capitalist Convergence said they were protesting the Bush administration's environmental policies, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and "corporate greed." Others were there to voice their opposition to war against Iraq.

Many emergency calls proved false. "It's another protester tactic," Officer Tony O'Leary, a police spokesman, said of the calls. "It's something we're prepared for."

Dan Ueda, 25, said he was nervous as he awaited the signal to lock arms with fellow protesters for a "snake march" through the city.

"We're hoping not to get arrested in the first five minutes," said Ueda of Cliffside Park, N.J.

Said Andrew Pearson, 25, of Chapel Hill, N.C., "I wish more of our movement concentrated on its message than its tactics, like running through the streets."

Many commuters heeded officials' advice to avoid driving into the downtown area and, with only a few exceptions, traffic kept flowing.

In April 2000, police arrested about 1,300 people during similar, but generally peaceful demonstrations.