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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Police repeatedly attack peaceful AWIP marchers during WEF protests |
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by via Chicago IMC
(No verified email address) |
02 Feb 2002
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This afternoon, New York cops have repeatedly attacked peaceful protesters, as protesters attempted to proceed along a legally permitted street march convened by Another World Is Possible (AWIP) to oppose the World Economic Forum meetings in New York. The attacks included mass pepper spraying and physical attacks on peaceful marchers. |
This afternoon, New York police officers attacked peaceful protesters at 5th Ave. and 59th St., and again later at Lexington and 57th, as protesters attempted to proceed along a legally permitted street march convened by Another World Is Possible (AWIP). The attacks began at around 2:15 p.m. EST, and included mass pepper spraying and physical attacks on peaceful marchers.
According to CIMC reporters, police have harassed protesters routinely during the AWIP march, typically under the guise of enforcing an obscure 'anti-masking' ordinance. Law enforcement appears to be targeting people wearing black or red, as well as protesters wearing scarves or masks, although other unmasked protesters have been caught up and sprayed or injured in the police action, as well. According to street medics on the scene, a number of peaceful protestors had been bludgeoned by police wielding battons, although as of about 3:30 p.m. EST, no life-threatening injuries had been reported.
Both RTS and Black Bloc participants had agreed before today's action that their affinity group participants would treat the AWIP march as a 'green' action -- that is, a peaceful, legally permitted street march in which no autonomous civil disobedience was planned. Thousands of marchers had convened behind RTS banners in Central Park earlier this afternoon, and marched to join the main AWIP action.
One protester reported overhearing a police seargent along the main march route tell fellow officers to look for people in 'masks' and to 'get them.' A New York IMC source indicated this afternoon that police plan to target Bloc participants, who are currently scattered throughout the main march column, for attack and arrest. A CIMC reporter says a number of police buses -- likely designed to hold protesters -- have been spotted near the march route. As of 3PM EST, arrests for the action were estimated to number at least half a dozen. Phalanxes of cops and barricades parallel much of the main route, and medics on the scene are reporting numerous incidences of unprovoked pepper-spraying and minor physical injuries, including several instances of bludgeoning about the face and neck by cops wielding billy clubs.
The police attack at 5th and 59th began at around 2:15, according to witnesses. One peaceful protester, Sonia Sayers, a professor at Cooper Union, said that police started pushing violently against protesters, knocking Sayers to the ground. Fellow demonstrators grabbed her and helped her move away from the police charge to avoid being trampled.
According to CIMC reporter Kathy Rosenfeld, at 59th and 5th cops suddenly began pushing people onto the sidewalk in what appeared to be an aggressive bid to split off and break up a portion of the march that included people from the RTS column. Black Bloc participants reportedly responded defensively, linking arms and moving to press police lines back so marchers could continue with the permitted action. Police eventually retreated somewhat, and CIMC reporters said that by about 2:45 p.m. -- after repeated police attacks on the march contingent -- roughly 1,000 protesters cut off by the police pincer action appeared to have largely rejoined the main AWIP column. AWIP's march was proceeding along their legally permitted march route, which circles around the Waldorf-Astoria, the site of World Economic Forum activities, back toward the final main rallying point across the street from the hotel.
At around 3:15 p.m., police wielding batons at around Lexington and 57th again moved to attack and arrest people, in what is believed to have been another police attempt to split up the march. Protesters toward the front of the march turned around and marched back to the area of the police attack, chanting "The whole world is watching!" and protesters again began linking arms in defensive actions to prevent further police attacks. The march was continuing again along the permitted route by about 3:30 p.m. EST.
New York IMC posts have reported that the joint AWIP/RTS march may number over 8,000 people, an estimate confirmed by CIMC reporters on the ground.
CIMC reporters Kathy Rosenfeld, Dawn Roberts and Chris Geovanis contributed to this report.
Check the Newswire at NYC IMC for the latest info: |
See also:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/
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