Protests, Tight Security Line Bush Parade Route

Thousands of chanting protesters massed along the inaugural parade route Saturday, jeering at the motorcade of President Bush and transforming an event that is traditionally a spectacle of national unity into a display of political dissent not seen in nearly 30 years.

Protesters outnumbered--and sometimes outshouted--parade-watchers in places along Pennsylvania Avenue, waving banners that accused the new president of stealing the election even as nearby Bush supporters cheered him on.

There was no official count of the demonstrators, but organizers put the number at about 20,000. The turnout was the largest show of protest at a presidential inauguration since 1973, when an estimated 60,000 people demonstrated against the Vietnam War during the inauguration of President Nixon.

“We wanted to make sure our voices were heard,” said Andy Padrutt, 20, a student at Kent State University in Ohio. “I couldn’t imagine watching this from home. I’d have broken the TV.”

In a day that featured the tightest security measures ever seen for an inauguration, police helicopters hovered loudly near the parade route. A few demonstrators tossed bottles and tomatoes before the arrival of the slowly moving limousine procession. Political activists reported several instances of protesters being clubbed by police, and demonstrators were not allowed to bring props, such as stilts and giant puppets, past security checkpoints.

Despite the tense confrontations and some rowdy displays, police reported only five arrests as of Saturday evening.

While Republican planners had chosen a theme of unity for Inauguration Day--”Celebrating America’s Spirit Together”--Washington’s cold, wet streets reflected a society with many subcultures, from elegantly coiffed Texas Republicans in furs and cowboy hats to pierced and tattooed protesters demanding justice in the global economy to environmentalists dressed as reindeer and polar bears.

For the most part, they managed to coexist, but not easily.

One group near the parade route taunted Bush supporters, shouting, “You’re racist, you’re sexist, you must be from Texas,” to which supporters simply shouted back, “George W. Bush, George W. Bush.”

Bitter feelings engendered during the campaign and its aftermath still rang strongly as the new president took the ceremonial ride to his new White House quarters.

“Bush stole the election!” yelled a contingent on one side of Constitution Avenue, at the parade’s start. Across the street, Bush supporters hurled their retort: “Our team won! We got the country back!”

Peggy Wheeler of Georgetown, Del., sided with the pro-Bush crowd. “Our fake leaders are gone. Our real leaders are here now,” she said after the motorcade cruised by. “Dignity is back in the White House.”

As the motorcade passed, the new president could be seen flashing a thumbs-up behind the tinted windows of his limousine.

Earlier in the day, demonstrators gathered at several sites in Washington and then drifted toward the parade route, often encountering police barricades and sparking a few tense moments.

Doris Haddock, 91, attended one of the rallies near downtown Washington. Haddock, who goes by the name “Granny D,” gained fame for trekking across the country--from Pasadena to Washington--in the name of campaign finance reform.

On Saturday, her cause was frustration with inequities in America. “There are many angry people in America these days,” Haddock said. “Anger is a normal and healthy reaction to . . . injustice.”

As she spoke, many in the predominately youthful crowd sipped coffee to ward off the chill from temperatures that hovered near freezing. Their signs included such slogans as “Say Thank You to the Nice Supreme Court, Georgie,” “Hail to the Thief” and “Supreme Injustice.”

Nearby, two men dressed as giant bananas held signs that read “Banana Republicans for Bush” and posed for pictures. “We wanted to let people know that the notion of a Banana Republican is not dead,” explained one of the men, Doug Ward, 35, of Brooklyn, N.Y. “Bush needs to know that people think his coronation is based on a house of cards--nothing credible.”

Soon after, many in the crowd headed toward the parade route, where they immediately ran into a barricade of police officers. Other police officers dashed behind them, setting up a line that penned in the group of several hundred for several minutes before letting them go. Frustrated and confused, protesters began chanting, “Let us march!” At one point, a protester climbed a light pole and set a small flag on fire, prompting cheers. But, under orders from police in riot gear, many demonstrators retreated onto sidewalks and continued making their way to the parade route.

“It was pretty tense,” recalled Mark Finkelpearl, 33, a television producer. “No one was really sure why they wouldn’t let us keep going. . . . It was like they wanted to slow us down, and control and disperse the crowd.”

Moments before the parade began, a cold rain sent shivers through the crowd. “This is devotion,” said Bush supporter Hannah Campbell of Havertown, Pa. “But I’ve waited eight years for this moment.”

Steve Millwee, who runs an outdoor advertising business in Dallas, agreed. “It’s fabulous. We’d be here no matter what the weather. I think we had such a bad moral situation in the White House leading the country for eight years, and I’m glad the moral majority finally got up from their easy chair and voted.”

Hostile, face-to-face confrontations between Bush supporters and detractors appeared to be surprisingly few. Still, each side offered biting observations about the other.

“You should look at what some of these people look like who are holding those signs,” said Millwee’s wife, Rita. “Just weird: old hippies with hippie-type clothes.”

Demonstrators, meanwhile, taunted the Republican faithful as “Bush’s rich people.”

Some protesters, wearing polar bear suits, were opposed to Bush’s pledge to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. Others focused on issues related to the election, with some expressing concern about the treatment of some black voters in Florida.

“A lot of issues need to be addressed and Bush is bringing them to the forefront,” said Julie Abbate, a law professor at the University of Baltimore. She was wearing a sticker that read, “Stop the Racist Death Penalty.”

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Times staff writer Alissa J. Rubin contributed to this story.