Washington Police Quell Anti-Global Protests

On the eve of one of the most heavily guarded meetings in the history of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, police on Saturday used a series of aggressive tactics to keep protesters off guard, at bay or under arrest.

The actions, including the arrest of at least 600 protesters, were intended to prevent a recurrence of the wild disorder that engulfed the world trade summit in Seattle last December. They also reflected the determination of Washington police to maintain control of the streets today, when activists have threatened to prevent IMF and World Bank delegates from attending their meetings.

The confrontations, one day before the official protests even begin, escalated tensions between the police and activists, many of whom are prepared to be arrested for their grievances against the global economy.

Saturday’s tough stance began in an early morning raid on protest headquarters. Police said the facility was a fire hazard and that they had unearthed a Molotov cocktail in the offices.

Confronted late in the day by the spectacle of marchers gathering near target buildings, police arrested more than 250 marchers for “parading without a permit.”

Enraged protesters predicted the actions will backfire.

“This type of repression will never stop a movement like this,” vowed Patrick Reinsborough, 27, of San Francisco, one of the demonstrators who was ejected from their “convergence” center early Saturday by police and fire inspectors. “This will only make us stronger.”

But police, who are closely shadowing protesters and watching groups of activists from rooftops and helicopters, expressed satisfaction with their early-morning raid.

“We’re delighted that discombobulated them,” said Terrance W. Gainer, executive assistant police chief, of the shutdown of the headquarters, adding that the old building was a danger to those who were gathered there.

Protesters had used the convergence site for tactical planning, training on legal aid and for building the props they plan to use in today’s demonstrations. After the shutdown, they fanned out, many finding friendly shelter in churches and neighborhood organizations.

Later, police said they had told a crowd to disperse at least six times before arresting hundreds, including a Washington Post photographer and a few tourists who had stopped to watch. “They are respectful arrestees. They’re going nicely,” Gainer said. “There’s been a lot of good news today.”

Gainer apologized if police had arrested any journalists or bystanders, saying they would be released.

The main demonstrations are set for today and Monday, and seem likely to include peaceful rallies as well as more confrontational efforts by activists hoping to prevent officials from reaching the IMF and World Bank buildings in downtown Washington.

Police Make Their Presence Known

In their bid to prevent a shutdown of the meetings, law enforcement officials have established a highly visible presence in downtown Washington.

By Saturday, news racks and mailboxes had been removed from city streets for fear they could be used to house bombs. Helicopters whirled overhead. Whole sections of downtown were blocked by barricades. Sirens blared. News crews from around the world clogged major intersections.

Police clad in black raincoats declared some 50 blocks off-limits around the World Bank and IMF buildings.

“They’re clearly harassing protesters here,” complained Neil Tangri, 30, field director of a group called Essential Action that pushes for “corporate responsibility” around the world. “The raid [Saturday] morning was an attempt to intimidate, an attempt to deprive protesters of work space, of puppets, of banners, of ways of making their voice heard.”

There were, however, some peaceful encounters.

At dawn Saturday, a group of 18 protesters showed up at the home of World Bank President James Wolfensohn in Washington. There, Tangri said, a contingent of police, private security and Secret Service prevented the group from reaching Wolfensohn’s front door. So they waited outside, singing a Haitian protest song.

The bank president eventually emerged, accepted a letter of protest about the bank’s activities, and was whisked off to the day’s meetings. “He had a very fixed smile on his face,” Tangri recalled.

Finance ministers and central bank presidents from the world’s richest countries tried to send a soothing message in the aftermath of Friday’s record-breaking stock market plunge. They also pledged to move forward with reforms of the IMF and the World Bank, which have sparked the ire of protesters for policies that some say hurt those in poverty and promote economic development that harms the environment.

“Prospects for expansion in industrial countries and the world economy more generally continue to brighten,” the financial officials declared in a statement.

Yet the spring meetings of the bank and IMF have been overshadowed by a protest that is intended to follow the example of Seattle, where a summit of the World Trade Organization triggered wild demonstrations in the street that disrupted the sessions.

Today, by some estimates, 10,000 demonstrators may converge in Washington. Organizers plan a peaceful rally this morning at the Ellipse, which is near the Washington Monument. The organizers also have obtained a permit for an afternoon march near there.

But officials are far more concerned about threats to shut down the meetings of the IMF and World Bank near Pennsylvania Avenue and 19th Street. An uncertain number of activists plan to gather before dawn with the goal of blocking intersections as near to the bank and IMF as they can get, a strategy that is reminiscent of Seattle.

The more radical protesters plan to use coded communications, radio broadcasts and a strategy of constantly changing plans in a bid to stay one step ahead of the police.

“We know we have tremendous odds against us in shutting down the meetings,” said Adam Eidinger, one of the organizers. “Seattle was easier. I don’t think the police had any idea of what they were getting into.”

One Seattle protest veteran described today’s shutdown strategy like this: “Think of a pizza,” he said, with the World Bank and nearby IMF as “the dead center.” Groups of activists, ranging from a handful to perhaps hundreds of individuals, may try to take control of slices of the pizza--sectors surrounding the buildings--forming human blockades that would stop delegates from getting to their meetings.

But the Washington police, backed by the FBI and other federal agencies, have pledged to prevent the meetings from being stopped. They have studied videotape footage of the events outside the WTO meeting, spent $1 million for new riot control gear and held talks with the demonstrators in hopes of convincing them to remain peaceful and allow traffic to pass. They have also collected intelligence on the small number of demonstrators who were most unruly in Seattle, and have been videotaping the early demonstrations this week.

The entire 3,500-member Metropolitan police force is on call for the event. In case a larger crisis erupts, two platoons of police from the suburbs have been deputized, and contingency plans are in place to bring in reinforcements from federal agencies.

Assertive Tactics by Police Worry Some

“We will make thousands [of arrests], if it’s needed,” District of Columbia Police Chief Charles Ramsey said.

The assertive tactics of the Washington police make for a notable contrast with the department’s traditional approach, which calls for restraint as a way to avoid provoking demonstrators. Indeed, a former high-ranking Washington police official cautioned in an interview that while aggressive tactics may “intimidate” some protesters, they can make others angrier.

Before the evening arrests, a separate group of demonstrators had a less-confrontational time outside a Gap store, where they were protesting practices of international business and the use of sweatshops. Protesters with bullhorns chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho, corporate greed has got to go.”

Police hustled away a young man who wore only palm fronds over his loins. He appeared on the street a few minutes later wearing underwear.

Nearby, John Harden, a ponytailed student from Athens, Ohio, said he feared the shutdown of the protesters’ headquarters “could make some people really mad. I hope no one gets out of hand, but some people are really going to think this is unfair.”

John Wright, a schoolteacher from Albuquerque, said he viewed the shutdown of the “convergence center” as no more than a “pretext” to hamper the demonstrators. But Wright, 38, predicted that protesters would maintain an upbeat outlook: “The spirit here is very positive,” he said.

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