mark
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Police arrested some 600 protesters in the U.S. capital Saturday in a clear show of force ahead of mass rallies planned against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, but protest leaders said they were undeterred.
Decked out in riot gear and backed by armored cars and buses, police corralled hundreds who had been demonstrating without a permit in a drizzling rain about half a dozen blocks from the White House.
After about a 90-minute standoff with more than 100 police during which protesters pleaded to be allowed to leave the area, officers started the mass arrests.
They took demonstrators away one by one, their hands cuffed behind their backs with plastic restraints, and put them on yellow school buses.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post photographer Carol Guzy and an unidentified tourist who had been in the crowd were among those taken away by police, reporters on the scene said.
Chief of police Charles Ramsey told a news conference the 600 were charged with conducting a parade without permit.
"They were peaceful at first and we simply monitored them but at one point they became disorderly and were told that they would have to cease the parade. They were given warnings and refused to do so and we made the decision to arrest," he said.
Ramsey expected most of those arrested to be released Sunday morning after being charged and fined.
----- Original Message ----- From: Marta Russell <ap888 at lafn.org>
> This is from the LAAMN Los Angeles independent media list serve:
>
> Washington DC: 7pm. Hundreds of protestors have just been
> arrested and are now being loaded onto school buses and
> driven off by police.