Some of these guys will be in jail for a while :-)
Anti-War Groups Throw Protests Into High Gear
Thursday, March 20, 2003
By Liza Porteus
NEW YORK — Anti-war protesters are living up to their promise to ramp up demonstrations after the United States launched the introduction to its full-blown attack against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
But some experts say the demonstrations may compromise homeland security, particularly when the nation is on high alert.
"If it takes 30 to 40 police officers to keep order at a demonstration and arrest people for civil disobedience … they're not out on the street looking for the bad guys," David Cid, a former FBI counterterrorism expert and current president of Salus International security firm, told Foxnews.com.
"As we escalate this threat level, the public safety response is really to have a larger police presence on the street," he added. "Anything that takes away person hours from that effort certainly can be problematic."
When the bombs started flying in Baghdad Thursday morning, anti-war leaders launched their own next phase of attack.
District of Columbia police closed down the Key Bridge in Georgetown Thursday after protesters on foot and on bikes jammed traffic. Reports indicated that as many as 150 protesters were involved and that police may have used pepper spray. Arlington, Va., police arrested at least six people.
In San Francisco, thousands descended on the Financial District and other locations. Protesters stalled firefighters trying to respond to emergencies, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
Firefighters also assisted police by using bolt cutters on protesters who had locked their arms together in metal sleeves. At least 350 people were arrested after blocking streets across the city.
About 400 demonstrators tried late Thursday morning to close the Bay Bridge but 40 California Highway Patrol officers blocked their way.
All of these demonstrations, particularly the disruptive and violent ones, are drawing attention away from other homeland security efforts, some experts say.
"I think it's almost certainly the case that people are being distracted by these activities," Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, told Foxnews.com. "To the extent that some of these people may actually try -- as they have threatened to do -- to be disruptive, that could actually cause an actual problem.
"More than just minding them, we've got to try to prevent them from doing harm. At [a] time of war, that can translate into aiding and abetting the enemy -- that crosses a potentially important line."
But others say the danger posed by these protests during war don't outweigh the importance of upholding their rights.
"There has always been dissent, and dissent must be protected if American freedoms are going to be protected," Dave McFadden, chairman of the history department of Fairfield University in Connecticut, said on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor Wednesday.
"It's a major feature of the Bill of Rights, freedom of speech and it's been struggled for many years … protecting that right is absolutely critical to protecting American freedom."
But McFadden acknowledged it's "wrong at the moment to commit civil disobedience" and said people who participate in activities like blocking traffic should be arrested.
The San Francisco police department shored up its staff to handle the expected spike in arrests and updated phone lists so that all the department's 2,300 officers could be roused to hit the street.
"We're going to keep the city streets open," said Alex Fagan, assistant chief of the San Francisco Police Department.
In Los Angeles and other cities, police went on 12-hour shifts to keep officers on the street.
In West Los Angeles Wednesday, police in faceshields and flak vests arrested 35 protesters for failure to disperse during an afternoon demonstration.
Two blocks of busy Wilshire Boulevard were closed for two hours and dozens of protesters laid down in the middle of the street. Police bound arrestees -- including an elderly woman in a wheelchair -- with plastic handcuffs.
A spokesman for the Washington, D.C., police department told Foxnews.com that no one was arrested by his department Thursday.
"We're used to protests in the city and it's nothing that we haven't handled before," the spokesman said, adding that he couldn't elaborate on what resources are available or are being used.
In New York City, protesters converged on Times Square at rush hour, calling for peace and snarling traffic. And earlier in the day, several hundred people gathered in the city's Union Square to protest.
"If we say nothing about it, obviously we agree with it," said Monique Barber, explaining why she walked out of her 10th-grade science class at Paul Robeson High School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to attend the rally.
She said her uncle was stationed in Kuwait and had not seen his newly born granddaughter.
Protesters are planning to infiltrate the coastal property of Vandenberg Air Force Base near Santa Barbara on Saturday. They will converge on a nearby field and determine the best way to break into the military installation. Officials at the base said they will "shoot to kill."
Vandenberg conducts ballistic missile tests over the Pacific Ocean, polar satellite launches and conducts top-secret surveillance and weapons guidance for soldiers in Iraq and across the globe.
A dozen protesters were arrested Thursday morning in Binghamton, N.Y., when they blocked the entrance to the federal building. Across the street, two men shouted their support for the war.
Demonstrators marched through the streets of Philadelphia Thursday morning to the federal building, where about 100 were arrested and hauled away.
But there were also demonstrators showing support for the United States.
Lawrence D'amour, a veteran who collects military equipment, parked his mobile artillery jeep on the capitol plaza in Concord, N.H., Thursday morning and set up signs supporting the president and the troops. His son is a Marine on the border with Kuwait and Iraq.
One group gathered in front of the Municipal Building in Ogden, Utah, Wednesday night around a bright red Marine Corps flag, chanting: "Get off your tush. Support George Bush."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
