Posted on 11/20/2003 10:10:58 AM PST by finnman69
By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI - Officers and hundreds of demonstrators clashed Thursday near the site of talks to create a free trade zone for North and South America. Police blanketed downtown, remembering trade-related riots in other cities.
Officers clad in riot gear used long batons to restrain protesters, some of whom wore surgical masks or bandannas across their mouths. Other demonstrators carried gas masks. Some tried to pull down restraining fences with large hooks.
Meanwhile, AFL-CIO organizers planned a noontime rally that they said should include more than 10,000 protesters against the proposed 34-nation Free Trade Area of the Americas. They pledged that it would be peaceful.
Officers were using their batons mostly to push back the roughly 1,000 militant protesters, but occasionally used them to strike demonstrators. The confrontation, which continued throughout the morning, was a few blocks from the hotel where the trade meetings were being held. An unknown number of demonstrators were arrested.
In a brief flareup, gas that smelled like rotten eggs was fired by police. A protester scrambled forward and tossed back a canister.
Still, many other protesters kept the peace, carrying puppets, holding signs and chanting, "This is what a police state looks like." One stood in front of the officers waving an American flag.
"At this point, we are holding strong," police spokesman Jorge Pino said at late morning. "We're basically trying maintain the peace downtown, but there are some individuals that are unfortunately trying to disrupt our efforts."
Protester Joshua Xander, 21, of Cincinnati, said the police are "totally doing what they feel necessary. We are doing what we think is necessary — conflict of interests." He was tapping on an African drum.
On Wednesday, negotiators approved a draft text of a free trade pact, choosing a version that allows countries to opt out of more controversial clauses of the agreement. Trade ministers were to spend two days working to finish the text, which so far speaks in generalities.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick denied that the United States was backing away from creating an agreement that would tear down all trade barriers from Alaska to Argentina, which was how the FTAA was originally conceived. He called the buffet comparison inaccurate.
"I look at it as a full-course dinner, but each country has to decide how much to eat with each course," he told business leaders.
Critics of free trade agreements say they take jobs from American workers, exploit workers elsewhere and lack safeguards such as environmental standards.
Near the hotel where the trade ministers were meeting Thursday, several hundred protesters gathered at the fence that blocked them from getting closer. They held colorful signs with slogans such as "Corporate Greed" and "FTAA Contaminates Fish."
Police had escalated their street presence because of violent demonstrations and vandalism at similar free trade meetings, including five days of riots during a 1999 World Trade Organization (news - web sites) meeting in Seattle.
Parts of downtown Miami resembled a police state. Checkpoints with armed officers blocked pedestrians without proper credentials on several streets. Squad cars were on almost every block. Troopers searched vehicles before they could move on.
Business owners shuttered their facades.
"Everybody is scaring us. They say there's going to be trouble," said Sami Virani, who was placing plywood in the window of his shop Watch Time. "It's worse than a hurricane."
On Wednesday, police arrested seven people in a vacant Miami mansion who were allegedly had crowbars, metal chains with locks on them, flammable materials, gas masks and leaflets protesting the trade talks. They were charged with burglary.
If you have to ask to excercise a right, it isn't a right, it's a privilidge.
"Time, place and manner" restrictions have been abused to the point where they should be ignored as an act of civil disobedience. Protesters are routinely confined to a parking lot sometimes miles from the event they want to protest, behind a chain link fence and surrounded by an army of cops just itching to use violence. The idea is "if a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, did it really happen?". The 'forest' in this case is a parking lot in a remote location.
As I type right now, the local Fox affiliate, Channel 7, is broadcasting live shots from downtown Miami, both from TV trucks and helicopters.
The "peaceful" demonstrators are throwing gas canisters to the cops, and the cops have not reacted at all. The cops have stayed put.
The punks keep throwing objects, such as bottles and rocks, to the cops and the cops are doing nothing.
The punks are burning trash in the streets, and the cops are doing nothing.
The "peaceful" demonstrators are throwing gas canisters to the cops
They're throwing them back.
Cops moving past the burning trash toward the punks. Punks retreat and burning trash is put out.Punks keep throwing objects to the cops.
Incorrect.
The punks brought their own gas canisters to attack the cops
Protestors ahead of cops setting up a third pile of trash, presumably to create another fire.
One cop has been taken to the hospital, no punk has been taken to the hospital.
It's an undisputed fact that some protestors brought their own gas canisters to attack the cops, and I saw them throwing gas cans to the cops; the cops have not used gas at this hour.
For the record, I don't support the behavior of some of these protesters. I am merely adamant about the rights of free assembly and free speech.
Look, stick...there is no right to violent protest. If these spoiled little children had not trashed other cities while throwing their tantrums, there wouldn't be any problem with the police. The problem is, peaceful protest doesn't get anywhere near the media attention that violent protest does. And that's the goal of these anarchist p**ks. So don't blame the police for knocking a few heads.
Punks moving pallets and parking logs to create barricades in the middle of the streets.
Punks attack some "commercial" journalists.
The 'domestic terrorist' label is an extremely dangerous thing. And whoever is in power is going to sling it at their political opponents whenever convenient. One day they might sling it at you.
Remember, we're supposedly at war with terrorists. If these protesters are considered terrorists, they could be killed indiscriminately or held as enemy combatants without due process.
Words mean things.
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