[Mb-civic] White House Sidewalk Protest Leads to Arrest of About 370 - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

White House Sidewalk Protest Leads to Arrest of About 370

By Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 27, 2005; Page B01

About 370 antiwar demonstrators were arrested yesterday after planting 
themselves on the sidewalk in front of the White House, a protest that 
stretched out for nearly five hours as police removed them in stages to 
avoid a backlog at a processing center.

The demonstrators, who had stayed in Washington after Saturday's antiwar 
rally and march past the White House, were carted away in Metro buses 
and police vans. Fingerprinting and booking continued late into the 
evening at a U.S. Park Police operations facility in Anacostia.

Those arrested were charged with demonstrating without a permit, a 
misdemeanor that carries a $50 fine and -- like a traffic ticket -- can 
be paid by mail or challenged later in court, said Sgt. Scott Fear, a 
Park Police spokesman.

In an action that they had planned several weeks ago and discussed with 
police, the demonstrators went to the White House gate on Pennsylvania 
Avenue NW about 12:30 p.m. and tried to deliver to President Bush the 
names of all the soldiers and civilians killed in Iraq. When the 
president did not meet with them, they sat down for their protest.

With bullhorns and hoarse voices, they yelled at the executive mansion, 
asking whether the president was peeking from behind a curtain or 
hearing them at all.

"You are a coward! You didn't meet us in Crawford; come meet us now," 
said Beatriz Saldivar of Fort Worth, whose nephew, Army Sgt. Daniel 
Torres, was killed in action nearly eight months ago during his second 
tour in Iraq. In August, Saldivar had joined antiwar activist Cindy 
Sheehan during a protest outside the president's Texas ranch, when 
Sheehan had asked to talk with Bush about the death of her son, Casey 
Sheehan, in Iraq.

Cindy Sheehan, who was among the demonstrators yesterday, was the first 
to be taken into police custody. She smiled at the crowd when police 
lifted her from the sidewalk and escorted her to a van.

At his daily news briefing yesterday, White House spokesman Scott 
McClellan said Bush is "very much aware" of the past few days of 
protests and "recognizes that there are differences of opinion" on the 
Iraq war.

"It's the right of the American people to peacefully express their 
views. And that's what you're seeing here in Washington, D.C.," 
McClellan said. "They're well-intentioned, but the president strongly 
believes that withdrawing . . . would make us less safe and make the 
world more dangerous."

The group arrested yesterday was led by a coalition of religious 
leaders. They were joined by anarchists, military families, Iraq war 
veterans and political activists of various stripes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/26/AR2005092600143.html
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