[Dryerase] IMF DC protests

[Shawn G]

Asheville Global Report
www.AGRnews.org

Reprinting permitted for non-profit organizations, and members of the 
dry-erase news wire

Hundreds arrested at DC IMF/World Bank protest

By Nicholas Holt, with
Rae LeGrone and AGR Staff

Washington, DC, Oct. 2 (AGR)— Thousands gathered in Washington, DC last week 
to protest and disrupt the joint meetings of the International Monetary Fund 
and the World Bank.
On the morning of Friday, Sept. 27, several affinity groups took to the 
streets and moved around the city, some with the intent of disrupting 
traffic, others simply to make their presence known and their message heard.
The Anti-Capitalist Convergence (ACC), a Washington, DC-based group had 
called for a “day of non-compliance and resistance” in the city and for 
activists to creatively disrupt the day’s business. Several groups marched 
through the streets around the city, bicyclists filled streets with a 
“critical mass” group ride, and tires were set alight on commuter routes 
into the city, backing up traffic.
Hundreds of police, many of whom had been shipped in from other areas of the 
country, were present, nearly all dressed in full or partial riot gear. They 
closely followed the protest groups around the city by foot, motorcycle, 
bicycle, and car, and tracked them with helicopters.
In one incident, a crowd of about 100 protesters gathered in front of a 
Citibank branch office. After police began making arrests, two rocks were 
thrown through windows and the police pepper-sprayed the crowd. Smoke bombs 
were then thrown at the police. The Washington, DC Independent Media Center 
(IMC) reported that a protester was thrown against a window by police 
officer with such force that the window cracked.
Another group of about 30 protesters, who confined their loud march to 
sidewalks, were detained by a large group of police and had their 
identification checked and recorded and their bags searched. All members of 
the group were released shortly after, even those without identification.
Two activists dropped a banner inside the IMF building.
A giant inflatable pig was set up in the middle of one downtown street. 
Although the blower malfunctioned and the pig did not fully inflate, police 
treated the battery used to power the blower as a bomb and shut down two 
blocks for about 90 minutes.
Shortly after 9am, marchers from around the city, as well as participants in 
the critical mass bicycle action, arrived at downtown Pershing Park. Some of 
those gathered moved into the streets, but were pushed back by police. 
Protesters and journalists diffused into the park, where conversations, 
chants, drumming, and dancing commenced.
At 9:45, without issuing any orders of dispersal, the police on foot, 
horseback, and bicycle, surrounded the perimeter of the park and refused to 
let anyone present leave.
Lt. JD Herald of the DC Metro Police advised everyone trapped in the park to 
“sit down, relax, and do what you were gonna do.”
He then explained that some of the police officers present had been working 
16 hours a day for the previous four days and that those being detained in 
the park might get “a little attitude” from them.
The detainees spent the next hour and a half confined in the park. Broadcast 
news journalists described the situation live to their listeners, while many 
of the protesters gathered in small groups to make plans for what appeared 
to be an inevitable mass arrest.
Those arrests came as police suddenly began moving in on the detainees. Some 
being held were told they could leave on the opposite side of the park, but 
instead found themselves trapped on all sides by baton wielding law 
officers. Metro buses arrived, and police began roughly handcuffing and 
dragging people away and loading them on the buses.
Across the street more protesters, separated from the park by horse mounted 
police, loudly chanted “Let them go!” and raised fists in support of those 
being arrested
Shortly after, DC Metro Police Chief Charles Ramsey spoke to reporters.
Those arrested, he explained, were being charged with “blocking a sidewalk 
... failure to obey a police officer, parading without a permit, those kinds 
of things.”
The version of events he described bore little resemblance to those 
experienced by those held in the park.
The protesters “were in the street, they were ordered out, they refused, we 
got them out ... and now that we got our transport vehicles, we’re taking 
care of that,” he claimed.
Among those arrested throughout the day were several legal observers, 
present to document police and protester interaction and police misconduct.
Zachary Wolf, a national vice president of the National Lawyers Guild and a 
member of the DC-based Partnership for Civil Justice said the legal 
observation and support team would be “aggressively litigating the false 
arrest charges.”
Wolf also noted that “There has been a fair amount of police brutality, 
[police] using their batons without cause against people who are essentially 
peaceful protesters.”
Police continued loading the arrested onto Metro buses. Arrestees were then 
taken far from downtown to the DC Police Academy. DC-IMC reported that some 
buses took as long as 12 hours to reach their destination, and that some 
were still being processed as late as 3am Saturday morning.
There were also reports of one individual, a man who participated in the 
critical-mass bicycle ride dressed in drag, being removed from the Metro bus 
he was being held on to a police van where he was badly beaten.
As of Friday night, police reported 649 arrests, the vast majority of which 
occurred at the Freedom Park gathering.
At a televised press conference, DC Mayor Anthony Williams praised Chief 
Ramsey’s work and said that although he and Ramsey, as African-Americans, 
owed much to the history of civil disobedience in the US, those protesting 
in DC that day were not part of that tradition.
The ACC released a statement critical of the actions of the police:
“We are disheartened by the violence which was perpetrated today by the 
police. Hundreds of people were arrested for doing nothing more than 
expressing their political beliefs using legal, nonviolent forms of protest 
and civil disobedience. Protesters and onlookers were shoved, beaten, and 
pepper-sprayed by the police, who seemed determined to prove their ‘control’ 
of the situation by hurting innocent people.
“We cannot let our freedom to dissent be taken away, and we will not stop 
speaking out until we live in a world where everyone is free from 
exploitation and oppression, a world where one’s survival and access to 
human needs aren’t determined by one’s economic means.”
On Saturday, thousands gathered near the Washington Monument for a rally 
against the IMF and World Bank coordinated by the Mobilization for Global 
Justice.
Preceding the rally was a march organized by ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition To 
Unleash Power) demanding third-world nations be released from debt and that 
the funds of the international finance organizations be utilized to fight 
the spread of AIDS and help those living with it.
The rally featured consumer advocate Ralph Nader, musician Michelle Shocked, 
and numerous activists from around the world who shared stories of their 
struggles against corporate domination of their countries.
About a dozen counter-protesters, separated from demonstrators by twice as 
many police, held signs reading “I love capitalism” and boasting of 
conservatives’ employment and obedience to law.
That afternoon, marchers walked from the Washington Monument to North Murrow 
Park, near the IMF and World Bank buildings. They then paused for musical 
performances. Police in riot gear moved in to block one side of the park, 
refusing to let anyone move directly across the street, but making an 
exception for two expensively dressed shoppers who explained they were 
trying to reach the Starbuck’s coffee house.
With memories of the previous day’s mass arrest still fresh, tensions were 
high. When an American flag was set alight, many protesters fled in fear of 
police retaliation, but police reported only about 6 arrests.
Though the IMF and World Bank delegates met without disruption, the 
Mobilization For Global Justice released a statement expressing satisfaction 
with the events of the weekend.
“We won. Yes, we really did. How? We, the movement, helped make the meetings 
of the World Bank and the IMF into a news story where their policies and 
practices are examined, scrutinized and criticized,” the statement read. “It 
is one of the few times a year when media in America pay attention to these 
institutions and as just by speaking truth to power with our message about 
globalization and corporate greed we help form popular consensus among those 
who are just learning of this struggle.”




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