Absent President Bush, convention protests are smaller than expected

ST. PAUL — The absence of President Bush didn’t stop thousands of anti-war demonstrators from marching Monday from the state capitol to the site of the Republican National Convention (RNC).

Still, the number of protesters did not come close to matching the hopes of organizers, who had suggested tens of thousands of protesters would descend on the first day of the convention.

{mosads}While block after block of marchers chanted and peacefully waved signs, some bands of protesters splintered off and smashed windows at Macy’s and a downtown bank building.

Hundreds of cops, sweltering in heavy riot gear on a hot day, swept in to block streets and protect delegate buses as the St. Paul police requested help from 150 National Guard troops by Monday afternoon.

More than 100 people were arrested, dozens were pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed and St. Paul hospitals reported nine minor injuries and several heat-related cases in emergency rooms.

Protesters came from across the state and the country on what was expected to be the largest demonstration of a week filled with protests.

They marched after a sun-drenched noontime rally on the state capitol lawn, snaking down a route negotiated for months, and circled in front of the Xcel Energy Center as delegates arrived for a session cut short by Hurricane Gustav.

Organizers’ hopes of 50,000 fell short and some were disappointed by the turnout, wondering if the 90-degree heat, strong-arm police tactics and President Bush’s cancellation thinned the crowd.

“I’m disappointed — this is far too few people,” said Lennie Major, a teacher from Mounds View. “We needed 10 times this many to make an impact — this will only be a blip.”

But P.J. Goodette, who came from San Jose, Calif., smiled as he waved a turquoise flag with a peace symbol and high-fived a line of Minneapolis police officers standing by their bicycles.

“I can feel it in the air,” he said. “Things are changing and I’m here because I want to be part of it.”

The peaceful, carnivalesque atmosphere lasted until about 2 p.m., when several groups broke off and turned violent. At 3 p.m, about 300 members of a self-proclaimed anarchist group locked arms to block delegate buses near Robert Street and Kellogg Boulevard.

Police warned them to disperse or they would be tear-gassed. When they refused, about 150 police officers responded by tossing tear-gas canisters into the group.

Earlier, near Sixth and Wacouta streets, protesters dropped bent nails into the intersection.

The group swelled to more than 200 as they turned up Fourth Street, tossing garbage cans and newspaper kiosks into the road.

At that point, a few marchers broke off and threw objects, shattering three windows in the First Trust Co. bank building at Fourth and Minnesota streets. As sirens screaming in the distance drew closer, drowning out the shouting crowd, a masked marcher threw his bike in front of the lead squad car.

Others continued up Sixth Street, closely pursued by more than a dozen slow-moving police cars. A few officers walked in front of the cars, clearing the barriers the marchers had thrown in the street. By Sixth and Cedar streets, many of the marchers had moved to the sidewalk, and were beginning to disperse. A few smashed out windows of the Macy’s store at Wacouta Street.

Some marchers scattered; others continued to Market Street, where they turned left toward the main march and right toward Kellogg Boulevard. Marchers, in dark clothing, and with bandanas still over their faces, milled about at Seventh Place, among downtowners and others wearing RNC credentials.

One marcher, who declined to offer his name, said a police officer sprayed him and struck him in the head with a pepper spray can when he stopped to try to help a fellow marcher who was being sprayed.

Protest organizers had said their passion would remain strong even though President Bush and Vice President Cheney skipped the convention’s first day because of Hurricane Gustav. Cheney is leaving on a trip abroad, but Bush may still make an appearance at the convention.

Members of local anti-war movements in the Twin Cities formed the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War when the GOP announced it would hold its convention in St. Paul. The group said it would coordinate about 50,000 protesters from 125 organizations to march on the opening day of the convention.

St. Paul and Minneapolis police conducted several raids of anti-war protest workspaces and residences in the days leading up to the conventions in what demonstrators said was an effort to silence them.