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While the leaders warned the group not to be distracted, one of the demonstrators got into a shouting match with him that nearly led to blows. As the young man stomped away from his tormentor, bored reporters circled the old man with their pads and cameras drawn. "Media, don't be distracted by that spectacle!" yelled the young man who called himself Vision. "There are some real issues here to talk about!"

The old dissenter was just the beginning. As the demonstrators made their way to toward the Press Club building, cops started to multiply -- and get nasty. Turned back from one entrance by police, the group made its way to a side street where officers in riot gear blocked the sidewalk and drew their batons. "I'm here to practice my First Amendment rights," Vision explained. But the cops were unmoved. They wouldn't let any of the young protesters down the sidewalk.

Middle-aged men in suits, however, were allowed to pass, as were tourists and others who seemed unlinked to the demonstration. The cops gave those people a quick nod and let them go about their business. But a young protester who made his way around the police line was shoved back with the rabble. "Don't verbalize!" one cop told another who looked as if he were about to speak kindly to the protesters.

Frustrated, the protesters doubled back, and ended up on a corner facing the Press Club. There, the cops seemed at a loss for who to stop and who to let pass. Yellow police tape penned in the demonstrators, while press people and bystanders were allowed to roam around at will. Reporters gawked at the protesters as if they were zoo animals, and the group looked at the media with increasing resentment. "How come they're allowed on that side of the line?" The cops gave no explanation, and, though the demonstrators complained, they started out treating the yellow tape as if it were an electrified fence.

Under other circumstances, the police could have been credited with being thorough protectors of the public order. But they weren't especially fastidious. No one checked the press passes of those on the free side of the yellow tape. Pulling out a writing pad and looking studious seemed sufficient identification for Washington's finest. After a time, it became clear that the police at best didn't know what they were doing, and at worst were giving street-crossing rights on the basis of perceived political neutrality.

This came to a head when a young blond woman standing on the press side of the line, echoed back one of the protesters' chants about exploitation and free speech. Suddenly, she was deemed dangerous. The police surrounded her, and tried to force her behind the tape with the protesters. "But I'm press!" she shouted, showing them a media pass. That wasn't enough for the cops. "Do you have some other identification?" they asked. After she told them that her press pass was her I.D., an officer grabbed her elbow, but by that time, weary reporters had surrounded the scene like sharks, and cameras clicked away as the police hassled the tiny woman. Sensing a public relations crisis, the cops relented.

Discipline fell apart among protesters and cops alike. One officer lifted the yellow tape and allowed the demonstration to cross the street, but once there, another officer ordered the protesters to stay put. Soon, the once-orderly demonstration blocked two sidewalks. Some cops let the clean-cut office people cross the streets for lunch. Other cops glowered and cursed anyone who dared approach their makeshift positions. Soon they officially forbade anyone from crossing the street at all. Cops stood two deep along the sidewalks, which forced all pedestrians to brave the traffic in the street.

By this time, Moore was no longer the issue. The protesters persisted simply to prove that they could while the officers continued to protect their territory. Nearly a dozen officers devoted themselves to containing Rachel, a pink-haired teenager talking about the environment, globalization and her right to cross the street.

"What do I have to do to get my rights recognized?" she whined. An officer broke the no-talking rule and looked her in the eye. "You should've stayed home," he said.
salon.com | April 14, 2000

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