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Sept 27 02 dc { September 27 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,64240,00.htmlhttp://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,64240,00.html
World Bank Protests Under Way
Friday, September 27, 2002
WASHINGTON — Protesters chained themselves together, set tires on fire, and harassed police with false 911 calls Friday in an effort to shut down the nation's capital as financial ministers from around the world began a weekend meeting.
City police, who brought in reinforcements from as far away as Chicago and Lowell, Mass., arrested 21 demonstrators who chained themselves together in a busy downtown intersection, jamming morning commuter traffic, police Capt. Ralph McLean said.
Fire trucks were called to put out tires set ablaze on the outskirts of town, and protesters broke windows at a Citibank office and tossed smoky flares during a clash with police at another intersection. "This is not a police state, we have a right to demonstrate," the protesters chanted.
Police also prepared for a flood of bicyclists riding through the city. The Anti-Capitalist Convergence said they were protesting the Bush administration's environmental policies, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and "corporate greed."
Many other emergency calls proved false. "It's another protester tactic," Officer Tony O'Leary, a police spokesman, said of the calls. "It's something we're prepared for."
Dan Ueda, 25, said he was nervous as he awaited the signal to lock arms with fellow protesters for a "snake march" through the city.
"We're hoping not to get arrested in the first five minutes," said Ueda of Cliffside Park, N.J.
City police cordoned off an area around the World Bank, and U.S. Park Police were putting extra emphasis on protecting Washington's monuments. Officers stood guard outside the Lincoln Memorial and a fleet of tow trucks assembled at the base of the Washington Monument, ready to move any obstructions brought by protesters.
"Those people that are apprehended will be missing several protests because they are going to be behind bars," Police Chief Charles Ramsey said Thursday, as his force prepared for protests around three days of World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings.
City employees carted away newspaper machines and garbage cans to prevent them from being used as projectiles.
In April 2000, police arrested about 1,300 people during similar, but generally peaceful demonstrations.
Protest organizers arranged places for out-of-town demonstrators to eat and sleep, as well as day care for their children. There were trained medics to help flush any tear gas from their eyes.
On Thursday night, the 164-year-old Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church hosted an interfaith service that called for richer countries to cancel the debt owed by poorer nations.
The keynote speaker, the Rt. Rev. Peter Njenga, a Kenyan bishop, said debt was strangling his country.
"For every shilling we spend on education, we spend 13 to service our debts," he said. "It has reduced us to paupers."
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