ep 30, 2002 Cops corral student protesters By Jason Flanagan and Debra Kahn Senior staff writers WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 - After hanging subversive banners off bridges, throwing "dance parties" in the street and disrupting the District's daily flow, a group of about 12 university students was encircled and arrested along with more than 600 others in Pershing Park for banging drums and dining hall trays and singing. The banners and the blockades were part of the weekend's protests of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings. The World Bank and IMF give loans to developing countries, which they struggle to pay back. Protesters suggest this promotes sweatshops, dictatorships and lowered standards of living. The university protesters took the Metrorail to the Shaw-Howard University stop at 7 a.m. and, after meeting with other activists, proceeded to unfurl banners reading, "Capitalism closed, go home" and "There's enough food; problem = distribution." They hung one banner off a bridge on Thomas Street, then ran into traffic near 1200 Vermont Ave., dodging cars and chanting. "If we were hanging an American flag that s--- would stay up for months," sophomore government and politics major Dan Levitan said. As they blocked one street near the Farragut North Metro station, shouting "Hey! Capitalism sucks!" in imitation of the popular university cheer, one man in a Ford Focus veered dangerously close to them, and one protester kicked the side of the car. The driver, a large, cursing man, pulled over and got out angrily. The protesters ran, their typical reaction to opposition on this day. "They try to run you over because you're in the street. What kind of logic is that?" sophomore government and politics major Simon Fitzgerald said. When asked why they were disrupting people who were just trying to get to work and had nothing to do with what they were protesting, senior computer science major Jason Castonguay explained, "Our goal is not to screw up the lives of everybody in D.C.; we just want to screw up business in certain parts of the city." The group was followed all the way to Freedom Plaza, their intended final destination, by police cruisers. There was to be a percussion rally at the Plaza, for which the Anti-Capitalist Convergence had a permit. On their way, they passed troops of police dressed in riot gear, a tank and a cadre of cyclists escorted by officers, seemingly one for each biker. There were more police than protesters. Despite their overwhelming presence, the police were not the protesters' target. In fact, many of the protesters were sympathetic to the officers' plight. Most of them worked more than 12-hour shifts, and others worked consecutive shifts on little to no sleep. "It sucks for them," Levitan said. "[Their hostility is] totally understandable. They've worked all night." When the group arrived at Freedom Plaza, they encountered a line of officers, resplendent in riot gear, blocking off the plaza and redirecting them to Pershing Park, at 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. There they joined hundreds of other protesters, singing, dancing and beating drums. Sophomore letters and sciences major Ryan Holmes and several others used dining hall trays and utensils as percussion instruments. Unbeknowst to them, they were walking into an ambush. Before the group arrived, protesters were blocking the streets around Freedom Plaza and disrupting traffic. Sgt. Joe Gentile said officers moved the protesters from the streets into neighboring Pershing Park. Within 10 minutes the police had surrounded the park and were closing in on the crowd. "I watched a guy get two ribs fractured, and I would have been hit in the chin if I hadn't had my lunch tray," Holmes said afterward. Everyone in the park - including some members of the media, legal observers and innocent bystanders - were eventually arrested, charged with failure to obey. Most were sent to the D.C. Police Training Academy for detainment. Gentile said the arrests were aimed at the protesters who were there to "shut down the city;" the students happened to walk in at the wrong time. "A majority [of the protesters] came to demonstrate in a peaceful manner," Gentile said. "We respect and defend that. But there are a handful bent on destuction. We took action against them ... I'm not going debate right or wrong; that's why we have courts." As the officers closed in on the mass, people chanted, "We would like to leave this park peacefully," while observers outside the park pleaded for their release. Though not in Freedom Plaza, some of the protesters, including sophomore sociology major Kristen Bricker, found their situation ironic. "It's an uncomfortable feeling ... No one wants to have their freedom taken away in Freedom Plaza," she said.