East Coast Activists Protest Vieques Arrests

Political activists angered by the arrest of protesters on Vieques Island near Puerto Rico disrupted rush-hour traffic in downtown Philadelphia on Friday.

About 200 people gathered outside a Navy recruiting office to protest the federal raid Thursday that dislodged 216 protesters from the Navy’s bombing range on Vieques Island.

After standing by for about an hour, police arrested 15 protesters who were sitting in the middle of Broad Street, a major thoroughfare. A city councilman was among those arrested.

“That today we can witness this bombing is horrible,” said protester Pedro Rodriguez, of Philadelphia. “The Navy still has the mentality of the Cold War.”

In Boston, about 40 people pitched tents in front of the John F. Kennedy Federal Building late Friday, and an organizer said about half planned to stay through the night. No arrests had been made.

In New York, the Yankees-Orioles game was interrupted briefly Friday night when eight protesters ran onto the field at Yankee Stadium, waving Puerto Rican flags. Security guards tackled them and escorted them from the field.

Puerto Rican protesters had occupied the Navy’s 60-year-old Atlantic fleet training range on Vieques in April 1999 after a civilian Navy guard was killed in an accidental bombing.

Opponents of the military presence on Vieques maintain that the military is responsible for environmental degradation, abnormally high rates of cancer and other illnesses among the island’s 9,300 civilians.

The Navy argues Vieques is vital to national security because it is the only place where air, land and sea forces can train simultaneously with live munitions before deploying abroad.