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The Inaugural Police State
by Jim
Of the people who continued on the march to protest Bush’s inauguration the vast majority did not make it through the 14th Street checkpoint on time.
I joined the march from Malcolm X park after attending the "Cost of War" gathering at the United Methodist Church. The march split at a park along the way and some people stayed for the Left.org Ball. Of the people who continued on the march to protest Bush’s inauguration the vast majority did not make it through the 14th Street checkpoint on time.
The entire parade route was fenced in with very heavy and tall metal barriers. At the checkpoint there was a narrow opening in the fence where people could enter single file. The fence opening was guarded by soldiers who instructed everyone to unzip their jackets, leave behind bags, and protest sign sticks. Behind the opening was a white tent that everyone had to go through. Inside the tent TSA workers frisked each person individually, making it a very slow process.
The sluggish rate at which people were being let in caused tensions between the protesters and the soldiers that were staffing the fence openings. The inaugural planners knew that there would be friction between the mass amounts of protesters and the few people staffing the checkpoints. I think they decided to use soldiers in the place where they thought there would be the most friction in order to provoke conflict between protesters and the soldiers. Why else would they use soldiers to staff the fence openings? They had plenty of cops present that could have served the same purpose.
I think the inaugural planners hoped that things would get out of hand between the protesters and the soldiers, because that would give the anti-war movement very bad publicity. I don’t know a single person in the anti-war movement that is against the troops, but if someone were to punch a soldier it could be used by the Bush propaganda machine to paint a very negative picture of the anti-war movement.
Due to the slowness of the checkpoint thousands of the marchers did not make it through on time to protest Bush along the parade route. We did have a very loud and enthusiastic crowd of several hundred anti-Bush protesters at the 14th and Pennsylvania. We were located between two large stands of bleachers that were presumably full of Bush supporters. We were there for over and hour, chanting most of the time while we waited.
Speakers were placed up on the light posts to announce both irrelevant trivia about past inaugurations and the President when he came through. When the announcer tried to rev up the pro-Bush crowd to cheer for Bush he was met with loud booing from. When Bush finally drove through we were yelling, “Not Our President,” with both fists and birds in the air.
The crowd of anti-Bush demonstrators began to disperse after Bush drove by. We had to wait for a long time to get out of the checkpoint, because we all had to go through the narrow opening in the fence. I could see wealthy people in fancy buildings with chandlers drinking their inaugural cocktails, while we waited out in the cold to leave. I didn’t see any conflicts between anti-Bush protesters and Bush supporters even though we were all mixed together in the same crowd. There was some chanting back and forth, but it was otherwise peaceful.
After we finally got back out through the checkpoint the crowd was peacefully dispersing, when twenty riot cops with batons marched in and formed a police line back to back in the middle of the road. The crowd noticed the riot cops moving in and gathered back into the streets with cameras drawn. About a hundred people followed the cops back to the checkpoint to see what was happening. “What are they doing?” people wondered aloud. Another twenty riot cops marched in and extended the length of the police line and then another 20 after that. There were people on both sides of the police line in the street trying to figure out what the police were guarding. With no warning the police used their batons to swiftly shove people out of the road. This angered what otherwise would have been a peaceful crowd of dispersing people.
The riot police blocked off a section of the street, but did not have enough riot cops to completely block it off. In defiance of the belligerent riot cops people began to move off the sidewalks to sit down and stand in the street. I don’t know how the stand off ended, because I ran out of time and had to leave. If anyone knows... please post the details.
The crowd did not provoke the treatment that they received and would have dispersed on their own if it weren’t for the heavy-handed actions taken by the police. There was no reason for the police to clear the streets, because the street was a dead end with the inauguration barriers blocking off 14th Street. By blocking off the street, the police were slowing down the rate at which people could get out of the checkpoint. If anything, the police were causing more of a traffic jam than the crowd leaving the inauguaration, because they filled the roads with their police cars for blocks and blocks.