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Protesters miami cops clash during ftaa demonstrations { November 20 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.ctnow.com/news/custom/newsat3/sfl-1120ftaatalks,1,4982211.story?coll=hc-headlines-newsat3http://www.ctnow.com/news/custom/newsat3/sfl-1120ftaatalks,1,4982211.story?coll=hc-headlines-newsat3
From the Sun-Sentinel South Florida
Protesters, Miami cops clash during FTAA demonstrations
5:10 PM EST,November 20, 2003
The Associated Press & sun-sentinel.com
MIAMI -- Police officers in riot gear fired rubber bullets and bean bags and used long batons, plastic shields, concussion grenades and stun guns in clashes Thursday with hundreds of demonstrators opposed to ongoing talks aimed at creating a hemisphere-wide free trade zone.
The clashes came before and after a peaceful march organized by the nation's labor unions, which are also opposed to the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 marchers took part, saying the 34-nation FTAA would take thousands of jobs to other countries, reduce workers' rights by exploiting cheap labor and drain natural resources.
Soon after the march ended, several dozen protesters resumed battling with police, pushing up against police lines and throwing water bottles at officers. The demonstrators had tear gas and rubber bullets fired at them by officers after they set small trash fires in the street. Thirty six protesters were arrested.
Tear gas and rubber bullets were fired in the late afternoon when some protesters began pelting police with rocks. They later began breaking up into smaller groups.
As dusk neared Thursday evening, police appeared worried about losing what they called their overhead superiority -- police helicopter intelligence and surveillance -- in the darkness.
Police set up a perimeter around the protesters, marching toward them in waves and firing more rubber bullets to force them back. The protesters tried to establish their own barricades with wooden boards, cement parking blocks, trash bins and other materials.
Protester Orlando Mendez was bleeding from an abrasion he said was caused when a rubber bullet hit him in the chest. ``I was just taking pictures and they fired at me,'' he said. Several others were also struck by rubber bullets. It was not immediately known how many people were injured.
During earlier clashes, at least 1,000 protesters _ many wearing bandannas across the bottom half of their faces, surgical masks and blue batting helmets _ battled with officers who used their batons mostly to push the demonstrators back, but occasionally used them to strike the protesters.
The officers also used a spray that smelled like rotten eggs to disperse protesters and displayed stun guns. The demonstrators sprayed a cream on at least one officer and tossed objects at others. Some officers were struck by a white substance. Police had at least two armored vehicles at the scene.
Police said two officers suffered minor injuries during the early clashes and were transported to a hospital. Injured protesters were also seen.
Jackson Memorial Hospital received one of the officers and three female demonstrators with injuries related to the protest, hospital spokeswoman Lorraine Nelson said. One of the women was released, and the other two were in good condition, she said.
Thirty-six demonstrators were arrested on charges including obstruction, battery, aggravated assault, unlawful assembly, resisting arrest, trespassing and burglary.
Miami police chief John Timoney said the ``rough start'' to the day's protests came because police were trying to clear non-permitted demonstrators from blocking streets.
``The result was certainly, initially, it caused a bit of a headache, but once we got the parade started,'' tensions calmed down, Timoney said. He was not immediately available to discuss the later clashes.
But Lance Stelzer, a Miami lawyer who works on police-related issues, said authorities overreacted to the protests because of rioting outside the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle and at other free-trade meetings worldwide.
``When you have that kind of police presence dressed up in storm trooper garb and a mentality of `Let's close off the entire city because we had rowdies in another city' ... it has a tendency to incite problems that might not otherwise exist,'' Stelzer said.
Arrested demonstrator Michael McLean, 20, of Bergen County, N.J., said he was walking into an amphitheater, which was filling up with union protesters before the parade, when he tripped and was zapped with a stun gun.
``They haven't told me what I did,'' said McLean, who sat with plastic handcuffs around his wrists. An armed officer watched him closely as onlookers shouted ``Let him go.''
``Anybody that doesn't look like they're in the union were targeted. I think I was,'' he said.
A protester who called himself an anarchist and identified himself only as Worm, carried a hammer and spray paint under his jacket and wore a gas mask as he roamed the streets.
``I'm tired of things that have been forced upon us, like the FTAA,'' he said. Police said no significant vandalism was reported during the early clash.
Indeed, most of the protesters were peaceful, carrying puppets, holding signs and chanting ``This is what a police state looks like.''
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 a Djembe, an African drum.
A man who gave his name as Paul Revere wore a minuteman's hat while riding a large tricycle festooned with American flags and a sign with a photo of President Bush holding his hand out with the words: ``What's wrong with corporate greed?''
``We have to make the point to these people that people, cultures, labor and especially the environment are more important than corporate profits,'' the man said.
The clashes delayed the start of the AFL-CIO's march, and its leaders complained that police were preventing buses carrying marchers, some of them elderly, from reaching the staging area. The labor group has designated 800 parade marshals who it said would help authorities make sure the parade is peaceful.
``Everybody is just letting their feelings known in a peaceful way,'' said William Vargas, a member of the Federation of Public Employees in Fort Lauderdale who served as a parade marshal.
The labor protest included huge puppets of dolphins and sunflowers, people walking on stilts and many chanting slogans such as ``Just Say No Way to George Bush's FTAA.''
Bob Wessell, a 49-year-old member of the steel workers union from Batesville, Ind., said his job making hospital beds may be lost because of cheaper manufacturing in China.
``I am here to save American jobs and make the world a safer place to live,'' Wessell said.
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