If you need legal assistance, call the National Lawyers' Guild at (202)
530-5630.
7:06- Lafayette Square at H Street - Police vans and paddy wagons arrive on
the scene.
7:03- The police's permit runs out at 7:30 for the people in the street.
The police will then give one warning. Some protesters plan to be arrested.
Others plan to stay all night on the sidewalk. The police are blocking H
Street on both sides of protesters with motorecycles, white vans, bicycles
and there are officers in riot gear. A group of women are holding a
candlelight vigil. Behind them are officers in riot gear. A lot of people
have left but approximately 100 people remain.
6:38 - H Street in front of Lafayette Square - A group of about 60 people
are lying in the street in the formation of a peace sign. Police officers
move in and start negotiating with the National Lawyers' Guild. The Police
warns that the protesters must disperse or face arrest. The protesters
stand up and form a circle. They do not appear likely to disperse. The
police are in the process of surrounding the group.
6:11 From CNN news, 2 US camps in Kuwait - there are 2 separate incidents
of "terrorism" with grenades. 10 wounded, 8 very seriously. The unknown
assailants tried to kill the camp commander, with the 101st airborne in
kuwait. It appears to be officer's tents that were targeted.
3:50: The march is at the north end of Lafayette Park. A protester tells
the DC IMC that she's there not just to protest the war, but because she
doesn't believe the story from the government about who was responsible for
9/11, and she refuses to be ruled by fear. A medic says that they are not
getting blocked in. People are coming and going via 16th St. There are 300
people, and no one is currently being harassed. A medic reports that there
were two arrests at 18th St.
3:48: The march is close to 16th and I St NW. There are a lot of police at
I St. People are cheering and making noise at H St. The march is returning
to Lafayette Park. Motorcycle police are blocking 16th and H, so the
demonstrators are forced to go east on H St. Twenty mounted riot police are
waiting at Lafayette Park. Fifty others are on foot and in riot gear. These
officers appear to be Park Police, while it had been Metro Police escorting
the marchers through the city. People are stopping at the north end of
Lafayette, chanting, "The people united will stop this war." The west end
and east end of the march are blocked off, and protesters might be blocked in.
3:45: Report from a Madhatters IMC (Danbury, CT) reporter on a bicycle: The
march is going south on 16th St NW. There are about 350 people, some of
which have joined at various points in the city. The police are determining
the route by blocking all exits but one. A legal observer was watching the
march on 18th, and a police officer pulled her off her bike and arrested
her. She was doing nothing but observing. One person thought that it might
be because the legal observer is notorious for talking back and acting
unafraid of the police during earlier actions in DC. Other protesters
surrounded the officer and legal observer, and they were hit with batons.
The remaining legal observers got the badge numbers of the officers in the
incident. They are Metro Police.
The march is now on 16th and L Sts NW. They are turning, or getting turned,
past the Hilton. The police are escorting them somewhere. The demonstrators
are spirited and chanting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Bush's war has got to go!"
and "This racist war has got to go!" While in Columbia Heights and Adams
Morgan, they chanted in Spanish and received support from bystanders, many
thumbs up and cheers. A lot of people have joined this roving march.
3:27: When the procession reached 18th and Columbia, the crowd began to
disperse. Protesters are blocking 18th and 16th Streets. Abusive police
behavior and possible arrests have been reported at 18th and California.
3:10: A procession of 2,000 is heading to 18th and Columbia NW.
2:27: The march on 15th and Rhode Island is now going up 14th Street to
join the rest of the protesters.
2:12: DC Police have announced that they will lead the march from 15th and
Rhode Island.
2:02: A metrobus has been dispatched for mass arrest at 15th and Rhode Island.
1:40 The march on 15th and Rhode Island NW is getting stopped by police. We
are not sure if this the same march that started from Lafayette Park. A
former government contractor from Reston, Va. who quit his job in protest
reported that officers penned in the protesters.
1:22: Multiple marches are converging into Thomas Circle at 14th St, with
the crowd estimated at 1,000. Protesters have taken 14th street and are
proceeding up the street against traffic.
1:13: The march is approaching Farragut Park.
1:10: A motorcycle officer is hitting people at 15th and H.
1:08: People are moving into the street and blocking traffic at 15th and H
St NW.
1:06: The march is proceeding from Lafayette Park. Protesters are
surrounded by mounted police.
Police sealed Lafayette Park but left an opening for people to leave.
Twenty to thirty protesters didn't leave immediately. At first nothing
happened, but then the police told them to leave as the park was closed for
the day. Lafayette had been closed since the start of the war, and today
was the first time it was open. It is unclear what policy the park police
was applying for today's actions.
1:03: 22 Mounted police and Park Police are at the west boundary of
Lafayette Park. It looks like they're beginning to move in toward protesters.
12:42: Brian Becker of International ANSWER held a discussion with police
and negotiated that the police would try to "clear out the park."
12:34: Another group of marchers at Madison, headed by 5-6 masked people
with black flags, led a contingent back through the barricades into
Lafayette Park.
12:30: Approximately 350 protesters in front of the Treasury building have
broken the barricades and are advancing to Lafayette Park, chanting "Bush's
war has got to go."
12:00 - Clarendon Metro Station, Arlington - A couple dozen Northern
Virginians gathered Saturday at the Clarendon Metro station in Arlington to
express their opposition to the war in Iraq. They held banners and signs
urging the Bush Administration to bring U.S. troops home from the Middle
East and handed flyers to passers-by as drivers honked and cheered in
support. This was the fourth straight weekend that the group, Northern
Virginians for Peace, held the Clarendon rally. "We're trying to make a
presence in Northern Virginia," said an activist who would identify himself
only as Todd. He has relatives who work for the Pentagon, he said, and he
doesn't want to create family tensions. "We want people to know it's not
just a mass in D.C. It's local people in Northern Virginia who feel this
way." As he spoke, a man in black spandex pants who had been standing with
the protesters, started to leave, saying: "I'm thankful to you. If I didn't
have to pick up my son I'd stay longer." "Northern Virginia is where the
CIA is, where the Pentagon is," said the coordinator for Saturday's vigil.
"I was frankly a little nervous," about holding a vigil the day after the
war started he acknowledged. But, he added, "We're getting a very positive
response." A woman making her way to the Metro stopped to pick up a copy of
On Tap. Todd handed her a flyer. "I'm from Minnesota but I support what
you're doing," she said. "Well you can still take a flyer." "OK."
http://dc.indymedia.org/
