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| POLICING THE PROTESTS | |
 August 3, 2000  |
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After this background report, Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney discusses protests and the police response during the week of Republican National Convention.
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RAY SUAREZ: As convention week began, protesters in Philadelphia were peaceful and unified.
RAY SUAREZ: More than 5,000 people from as far away as California walked, danced, and chanted through Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon. Organizers said they did not know what to expect. MICHAEL MORREL, Unity 2000 March Organizer: We had no idea what to imagine. It's like, you know, you plan a party, you do all the work. You invite people. You clean the house. You prepare the food. We did something similar. We made out the invitations. We didn't know how many people would show up. But a lot of people came. So it appears we have a lot of friends. RAY SUAREZ: Philadelphia police watched from the sidewalks and made few arrests.
RAY SUAREZ: At city hall, the next morning, activists called for economic equality and an end to poverty. More than 3,000 protesters said they'd march without a permit down Philadelphia's main thoroughfare, Broad Street, to the Republican convention hall. PROTESTERS: Hey, hey, ho, ho... RAY SUAREZ: After negotiations, police allowed the march and even helped direct traffic. In return, protesters agreed to divert the march to a park a mile away from the convention site. On Tuesday, protesters turned up the heat, staging multiple rallies against the death penalty and against what they called a "criminal injustice system." Activists, chained together, blocked on-ramps to highways and city streets while police scooped them up and arrested them. Near city hall, about 200 protesters turned over garbage bins and vandalized more than 20 police cars. Police on horseback pushed the crowd to a side street. Then officers and protesters battled and police tried to regain control. In one incident, a protester sprayed a police officer with an unidentified chemical and he reacted. |
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| Protesters and police clash | |||||||||||
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PERSON SHOUTING: Put your guns down.
PERSON SHOUTING: Put the guns down. Put them down. RAY SUAREZ: Several officers reported that protesters sprayed chemicals into their eyes. In all, 12 officers sustained minor injuries. After a few more confrontations, police calmed the protesters and had control of the crowd, emptying some downtown streets by filling the lockups. A spokesman for the protesters tried to justify the escalation in tactics. TERRY MARSHALL: They were practicing civil disobedience and they were practicing direct action. And the meaning of that is when you are feeling such injustice, you have to stop it, you are willing to throw their bodies on the line -- and that is what those people were doing yesterday. They were throwing their bodies on the line.
JOHN TIMONEY: We knew things were going to change yesterday. We knew it was a different type of demonstrator coming in. They were not interested, even slightly, in issues like the First Amendment right to free speech. They were coming in here with the intent of disrupting the life of the city, with the intent on assaulting police officer, with the intent on destroying police cars, and doing a whole host of other activities. And they fulfilled most of those promises. RAY SUAREZ: Yesterday, more than 400 protesters held a rally across from police headquarters calling for the protesters' release. Police say many of those arrested refused to give their names to police to delay their processing. Protesters have accused the police of human rights abuses and police brutality, while police deny any wrongdoing.
RAY SUAREZ: Today, the sit-in across from the police station continued even after some protesters were released. |
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PROTESTERS:
Not the church, not the state, women will decide our fate. 
DEMONSTRATORS:
Hey, hey, ho, ho, party leaders have got to go. 
PERSON
SHOUTING: Don't use the gun. 
RAY
SUAREZ: By the end of the day, police had made more than 250 arrests.
The next day, Police Commissioner John Timoney said this group of protesters
were not the same ones from earlier in the week. 
PROTESTERS:
No justice, no peace until our people are released. 
