Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in San Francisco yesterday to
mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war.
The protests took place at several downtown locations, with reported brief
clashes between demonstrators and police, witnesses said.
The main group of protesters carried signs, shouted slogans and blasted music
as they roamed the Financial District. Some threw play money in the air and
waved pink flags.
About 150 people were arrested by mid-afternoon as police tried to clear some
locations of the protesters, according to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.
One scuffle took place after about two dozen demonstrators staged a "die-in"
in the intersection of Market and New Montgomery streets about 12:15 p.m. and
were surrounded by 80 police officers in riot gear.
After more than two hours of protests -- and about 100 arrests -- authorities
finally cleared the intersection and reopened Market Street to traffic at 2:30
p.m.
As protesters were arrested, more demonstrators from the scores who were
watching from the sidewalk rushed to fill their place. Among those taken away
were 20 people, calling themselves Act Against Torture, who were wearing orange
jumpsuits with black hoods over their heads, said the report.
"We're here to get arrested," said Leslie Mullin, 63. "The people have to
step into this war because none of the government officials want to do it for
us. We've gone all over town and people are saying, 'Good for you.' "
Left-wing activist Daniel Ellsberg told the crowd, "The symbolism of people
lying in death appears to symbolize the life and death seriousness as we enter
the sixth year of this crime against the American people." He soon sat down in
the street and was himself arrested.
No injuries were reported in the protests, which began around 8a.m.
Across the bay in Berkeley, about 100 demonstrators gathered at the Martin
Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park at noon to hear peace activist Cindy Sheehan
speak. About 80 people marched afterward to the Marine Corps recruiting station
on Shattuck Square, where demonstrators had gathered earlier, said the report.
After a short rally at the recruiting station -- which has been the focus of
a weeks-long protest mounted by the anti-war group Code Pink, a group of
protesters marched to the campus of the University of California in Berkeley,
according to the report.
Organizers said they have planned a larger-scale march from Civic Center to
the Mission District, beginning from 5 p.m.