http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jan2001/wash-j17.shtml
Massive police buildup in preparation for protests at Bush inauguration
By Paul Scherrer
17 January 2001
A massive police presence will greet the demonstrators who plan to come to
Washington this Saturday to protest during George W. Bush's presidential
inauguration ceremonies. Coordinated by Republican Party officials and law
enforcement agencies, the well-publicized police buildup provides a preview
of the undemocratic measures the Bush administration will use to suppress
public dissent.
Police from 16 federal, state and local agencies will line the parade route.
In addition, police in helicopters, sharpshooters on rooftops, and police on
horseback will watch over the protests. Plainclothes officers will be
circulating among the crowds.
For the first time in history, people participating in the protests as well
as the inauguration in general must pass though checkpoints. All bags and
purses will be searched and individuals frisked. Two stops of the capital
city's subway system will be closed, along with large sections of the city's
mall from the Washington Monument to the Capitol.
A dozen organizations representing a broad range of views—from those opposed
to the violation of voting rights in Florida, to opponents of the death
penalty and continued sanctions against Iraq, to the National Organization of
Women—have obtained permits along the parade route. Representatives from
several of these groups have denounced the police build up as an effort to
restrict their freedom of expression.
“This is intentionally being done to try and scare people from coming,” said
Louis Posner, chairman of VotersMarch.org, one of the groups that has
obtained a permit to protest. “It took us forever to get a permit and now
they are trying to scare people away,” he said.
The police buildup is the largest ever undertaken for a presidential
inauguration. The number of police on duty will be more than twice the number
as were present when Bill Clinton took the oath of office in 1997. For the
first time an inauguration has been declared a “national special security
event,” which means that the US Secret Service is in overall charge of
security arrangements and will direct the activities of the other police
agencies involved.
No special security concerns have been cited to justify this high level of
security other than the fact that the largest number of protesters are
expected since the 1973 inauguration of Richard Nixon, which took place
during the Vietnam War. Instead authorities have claimed the measures are
necessary because of so-called violence during protests at the World Trade
Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle in late 1999 and the World Bank meeting
in Washington DC last spring, as well as the national conventions of the
Democratic Party in Los Angeles and Republican Party in Philadelphia last
summer.
In most cases, the incidents of violence at the previous demonstrations were
carried out by police against peaceful protesters and those practicing civil
disobedience. Moreover, several organizations reported that police spies and
provocateurs had infiltrated their groups in order to create a pretext for
police action.
Last week the Secret Service invited the press to witness a mock attack on a
motorcade designed to reconstruct the type of limousines that Bush and his
entourage will be riding in during the inauguration parade. The protesters
attacking the vehicles in the demonstration used rockets and automatic rifles.
The press and police have mounted a concerted campaign to depict the
protesters as violent in order to justify a police crackdown. The same
rationale was given for the conduct of police at the WTO protests as well as
at the Democratic and Republican conventions. Police provoked and attacked
demonstrators outside the Democratic National Convention last August, and
earlier at the Republican National Convention hundreds of peaceful protesters
were arrested and many were held in prison for several weeks.
In preparation for Saturday's protests, the Secret Service has stated that it
has plans in place for mass arrests, including the transportation of large
numbers of people to detention and judicial centers.
Police will set up 16 checkpoints that all people attending the inauguration
will have to pass through, where bags, signs and other materials will be
inspected. Six of these checkpoints will be used for the 42,000 people with
tickets given out by the Republican inauguration committee. Everyone else
taking part in the protests or watching the inauguration will be required to
pass through the other 10 checkpoints, creating the potential for a huge jam
of people entering the event.
“This is a coordinated police-media campaign to make us out as outsiders,”
said Shara Sloan, a staff organizer with the International Action Center,
which is protesting for the freedom of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Ja
