washingtonpost.com
Police Consider Legal Action In Effort to Disrupt Protests
By Manny Fernandez and David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 21, 2002; Page B01
Law enforcement authorities are considering legal maneuvers against groups planning disruptive or violent demonstrations during next weekend's World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer said yesterday.
Gainer, asked about the protests during a congressional hearing on the region's general emergency preparedness, said he and D.C. police had met with the U.S. attorney's office and the Department of Justice to discuss protest plans that include trying to shut down the District, clog the Capital Beltway and vandalize stores and police cars. The major street protests are scheduled to begin Friday.
Authorities had discussed whether such activities "are so deleterious to security efforts that we ought to take proactive action, whether there are violations of the law that are so potentially egregious that they outweigh the First Amendment rights of someone to come in and speak with their life and shut down our intersections," Gainer said.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office said the protests were discussed at a regular meeting with law enforcement, but he declined to say what subjects the meeting included and would not talk about Gainer's remarks.
Protesters reacted with indignation to Gainer's remarks and said they would not be cowed.
A statement issued yesterday by the Anti-Capitalist Convergence, the group calling for a shutdown of the city Friday, said police have been "spreading lies about the nature of the demonstrations and the actions planned. Thus far, the ACC has mainly been planning and publicizing marches on K Street and bike rides and anti-war leafleting and theatrical production." The statement said accusations that the group is planning violence are "reckless and unfounded."
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, an attorney for the District-based Partnership for Civil Justice, dismissed Gainer's comments. She said her group and the National Lawyers Guild plan legal support for activists. "This is their standard demonization tactic," she said. "There has been no call for violence by any of the people in organizations who are coming to Washington to protest."
"The police department is once again demonstrating their contempt for the constitutional rights of protesters in this city," she said. "Frankly, when they talk about preemptively shutting down protests and First Amendment speech, that is a hallmark of a police state and a repressive government."
She predicted that "more and more people will take to the streets to oppose [President] Bush and [Attorney General John D.] Ashcroft if they try to shut down protests in the city."
After the hearing, Gainer said that no legal action had yet been taken against protesters and that the option would be further discussed next week.
"I don't know why we have to wait until after they've inflicted damage," Gainer said after yesterday's hearing.
Police officials have voiced concern for days about the protests, raising the possibility that they might serve as cover for terrorist activities, and some businesses are being urged to let their employees telecommute, although the mayor's office is urging people to go about their business as usual.
D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said commuters should stay off District roads, or expect to sit in traffic jams Friday.
Demonstrators plan five days of marches, teach-ins, vigils and civil disobedience beginning Wednesday to protest the meetings of the World Bank and IMF at the institutions' Foggy Bottom headquarters next Saturday and Sunday.
Ramsey and Gainer have said they are most concerned about a planned "People's Strike" on Friday and calls to shut down the city that day. The ACC is encouraging activists to block downtown intersections and Metro stops, slow down Beltway traffic, stay away from work or school, and protest at specific government and corporate offices.
Ramsey's concerns have led the Greater Washington Board of Trade to advise firms to let employees who cannot get to work by Metro to use phones and computers at home. A spokesman for Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) said people should still go to work but should take Metro.
Law enforcement officials intend to establish a security perimeter and, although they have not said how large it will be, have indicated that it will take in the White House, the IMF and World Bank offices and surrounding blocks.
Protesters target the World Bank and the IMF as proponents of globalization, which they say leads to socially and environmentally destructive policies.
But the protests are expected to include a variety of voices, from those against war with Iraq to pro-labor and pro-environment groups. The Mobilization for Global Justice, a coalition of D.C.-based activists that helped organize demonstrations in Washington in April 2000, plans a downtown march Saturday.
The number of participants expected is unclear in a protest movement known for leaderless coalitions and seat-of-the-pants planning. "We know that thousands of people are coming," said coalition organizer Patrick Reinsborough, 30. "Will it be 10,000? Will it be 20,000? We don't really know."
Many demonstrations are permitted events that organizers say will be loud but peaceful. But Friday's action, protesters said, is intended to be disruptive. Nevertheless, "this isn't a plan to burn down the city," said Mike Wilson, 19, a Georgetown University sophomore and organizer for the Anti-Capitalist Convergence. "It's a plan to show that there a lot of people fed up with the way things are going."
Organizers said they plan to have dozens of motorists drive at or below the speed limit on the Beltway on Friday to slow traffic. State police in Virginia and Maryland will have extra troopers on the Beltway.
Metro Police Chief Polly Hanson said her officers are ready for any event in and around Metro stations. Metro plans regular service next weekend but expects that some Metrobus routes will be detoured.
One Web site has particularly rankled police. It announces a "scavenger hunt," suggesting the awarding of points for radical tasks, such as occupying offices of a K Street public relations firm, smashing a McDonald's restaurant window or puncturing a police car tire.
Ramsey said, "Obviously, some of that stuff is outright criminal."
But ACC members said they do not endorse the scavenger hunt or the Web site, run partly by an ACC founder who is not organizing with the group.
It was unclear yesterday exactly what sort of legal action authorities could take against the Web site's owner or against others.
Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the government would have to meet a high burden of proof. One hurdle, he said, would be to convince a judge that the plans were certain to lead to serious mayhem.
Staff writers Spencer S. Hsu, Neil Irwin and Lyndsey Layton contributed to this report.
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