S.F. police play catch-up Protesters roam in small, swift groups to stall
city traffic Joe Garofoli and Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, March 21, 2003 San Francisco -- It took three hours for anti-war
activists to cripple downtown San Francisco using hit-and-run civil
disobedience tactics to an extent never before seen in the Bay Area.
The city that nursed the sit-ins and be-ins of the counterculture
protesters of the 1960s was gummed up by a form of demonstration that
relies on the whims of small knots of activists, who flitted from block to
block instead of lumbering with the predictability of a mass march.
Although a loosely knit affiliation of small groups called Direct Action
Against the War coordinated Thursday's demonstration, even its organizers
didn't know where the hydra was going.
"We don't really know how many people are out there or where they're going
next," Ladan Sobhani, an organizer with Direct Action Against the War, said
shortly before noon. "People make that decision on their own."
At the 11 a.m. peak of the protests, activists had shut down 30
intersections, blockaded a dozen buildings and forced police to ask
motorists not to come into downtown.
Fostering this kind of organized chaos was one of the coordinators' goals --
and the challenge for police who admitted to being a step slow.
Often, police would encircle the demonstrators only to find themselves
encircled. Sometimes as few as 25 demonstrators shut down an intersection
and stifled traffic for blocks.
"It's a cat-and-mouse game," said Deputy Chief Rick Bruce, who heads the
Police Department's special operations bureau.
"We're in a totally reactive mode," he said. "We just respond to illegal
activity. It's tough. They are moving faster than us. They shut down all of
Market Street this morning. As soon as we would reopen a section, they
would shut down another one."
Protester Justin Williams of Oakland said police inadvertently helped
demonstrators seal off streets.
"When we block a street for 20 minutes, the cops come and block it for
another half an hour when they surround a few people and block off the
corners, " said Williams, who said he had helped clog 10 intersections
before noon -- but always moved before officers could arrest him.
"They're slower than us, so they compensate with total overkill," Williams
said. "There will be 50 cops arresting five people. But hundreds of us move
on. "
Capt. Kevin Dillon said demonstrators move faster than police "because they
can violate the law. It our job to enforce the law. If we disperse them
illegally or make an illegal arrest, it will haunt us. They just move as
fast as they want."
Even protest coordinators were in poor position to predict its effects.
There were no leaders -- merely "pied pipers" who escorted activists from
the dispatch point at Justin Herman Plaza to where reinforcements were needed.
Many of the protesters belonged to one of two categories -- affinity groups,
dozens of clusters of five to 25 friends or like-minded individuals who had
been planning their initial demonstration target for months; and
free-lancers who showed up with no set destination in mind.
The affinity groups promptly fanned out to more than two dozen points,
blocking intersections, encircling buildings or blockading entrances.
Yet few stayed put.
At 7 a.m., Rachel Kennedy and her two Oakland roommates started at Fell
Street and Van Ness Avenue. Soon, they were off to the Transamerica
Pyramid. When the police began arresting people, they left. Soon, they
returned. Then they went to "a couple other places" along Market Street,
Kennedy said, before lighting at Sansome and Market.
"The large demonstrations are great, too," said Kennedy, a 21-year-old
Laney College student. "But we've been doing them, and obviously people
haven't been listening. With this, people can't just view them from afar.
(People inconvenienced by them) have to stop and think about what's
happening in the world."
The other wave of protesters included thousands who landed in San Francisco
without a first stop in mind. They were directed to Justin Herman Plaza for
a quick tutorial on nonviolent civil disobedience.
During their 10-minute orientation, protesters learned the legal hot line
number -- and to write it on a part of their body where it wouldn't sweat
away,
so they wouldn't lose it. They were told to bring identification if they
wanted to get out of jail more quickly, or not to flash an ID if they
wanted to linger in a "jail solidarity."
Orientation leader J.C. Callender advised those who had come alone to link
up with a buddy for the day who could get them out of jail. They were even
told to think of something pithy to say for the TV cameras.
"You may want to start thinking of your sound bites now," one trainer told
her charges.
Officer Drew Cohen, who was documenting the police response on his
camcorder for the department, said he came away with a respect for
demonstrators' tactics.
"They succeeded this morning -- they shut the city down," Cohen said.
"They're highly organized, but they are totally spontaneous. I think police
are doing a great job, but the protesters are always a few steps ahead of us.
"Our success will come when we arrest so many of them we have depleted
their ranks," Cohen said. "Otherwise, we can only play catch-up."
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