Derar
21st April 2002, 00:36
By DAVID HO, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Marching with puppets and placards and armed with many messages, tens of thousands of protesters joined forces on a warm spring Saturday to demonstrate peacefully against everything from U.S. policy in the Mideast to globalization and corporate greed.
Protesters massed at sites across the city, then swarmed down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, in an eclectic crowd that mixed young communists, Black Panthers and "Raging Grannies." People came in busloads from around the country to show there is active political opposition in the United States.
Six-year-old Kira Appleman of Silver Spring, Md., came with her mom and held aloft a sign that said, "Palestinian children have rights, too."
After starting the day with separate protests around the city, the various groups converged for a concluding rally that brought their causes together. Authorities do not provide official crowd figures for demonstrations in Washington, but by midafternoon Police Chief Charles Ramsey gave a rough estimate of 35,000 to 50,000.
Police with wooden batons and their riot gear close by kept watch, standing shoulder to shoulder along the marchers' route. Helicopters transmitted video to police headquarters for use in deciding how to deploy officers on foot, horseback, motorcycle and in patrol cars and buses.
The various protests are "all connected in the sense that it's all part of how the world economic structure works," said 24-year-old Brad Duncan of Detroit.
At the financial institutions' spring meeting two years ago, police made 1,300 arrests during the week.
This time, one of the biggest groups sought to show solidarity with the Palestinians and protest U.S. policy that demonstrators said was tilted toward Israel.
Protesters marched with two open wooden coffins bearing young sisters of Palestinian descent. When 7-year-old Philastine Mustafa was overcome by the heat, a young boy quickly took her place.
"My people back home her age are being killed," said Anwar Mustafa, 33, of Philadelphia, the father of the girls. "Me and my daughters can spend a little time in the heat to show people who don't know."
In a counterdemonstration, about 100 people gathered on the mall to show their support of U.S. policies. Some carried signs that said "Peace through superior fire power."
Officers patrolled outside the barricaded buildings of the IMF and World Bank, where world financial powers were meeting.
Across the street from the glass-and-chrome building, a 30-foot-tall inflated Earth bearing a "For Sale" sign and the Citibank logo was erected.
"It's becoming a global doomsday economy," said 22-year-old Rob Fish of New Jersey.
Not all the groups were in perfect agreement. When Black Panthers chanting "jihad" and "holy war" hoisted a Palestinian flag next to a picture Osama bin Laden , a Palestinian activist urged them to take the flag down.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Marching with puppets and placards and armed with many messages, tens of thousands of protesters joined forces on a warm spring Saturday to demonstrate peacefully against everything from U.S. policy in the Mideast to globalization and corporate greed.
Protesters massed at sites across the city, then swarmed down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, in an eclectic crowd that mixed young communists, Black Panthers and "Raging Grannies." People came in busloads from around the country to show there is active political opposition in the United States.
Six-year-old Kira Appleman of Silver Spring, Md., came with her mom and held aloft a sign that said, "Palestinian children have rights, too."
After starting the day with separate protests around the city, the various groups converged for a concluding rally that brought their causes together. Authorities do not provide official crowd figures for demonstrations in Washington, but by midafternoon Police Chief Charles Ramsey gave a rough estimate of 35,000 to 50,000.
Police with wooden batons and their riot gear close by kept watch, standing shoulder to shoulder along the marchers' route. Helicopters transmitted video to police headquarters for use in deciding how to deploy officers on foot, horseback, motorcycle and in patrol cars and buses.
The various protests are "all connected in the sense that it's all part of how the world economic structure works," said 24-year-old Brad Duncan of Detroit.
At the financial institutions' spring meeting two years ago, police made 1,300 arrests during the week.
This time, one of the biggest groups sought to show solidarity with the Palestinians and protest U.S. policy that demonstrators said was tilted toward Israel.
Protesters marched with two open wooden coffins bearing young sisters of Palestinian descent. When 7-year-old Philastine Mustafa was overcome by the heat, a young boy quickly took her place.
"My people back home her age are being killed," said Anwar Mustafa, 33, of Philadelphia, the father of the girls. "Me and my daughters can spend a little time in the heat to show people who don't know."
In a counterdemonstration, about 100 people gathered on the mall to show their support of U.S. policies. Some carried signs that said "Peace through superior fire power."
Officers patrolled outside the barricaded buildings of the IMF and World Bank, where world financial powers were meeting.
Across the street from the glass-and-chrome building, a 30-foot-tall inflated Earth bearing a "For Sale" sign and the Citibank logo was erected.
"It's becoming a global doomsday economy," said 22-year-old Rob Fish of New Jersey.
Not all the groups were in perfect agreement. When Black Panthers chanting "jihad" and "holy war" hoisted a Palestinian flag next to a picture Osama bin Laden , a Palestinian activist urged them to take the flag down.