One thing it doesn't adequately go into, I think, is the positive reaction we got from the people whose traffic we were snarling: honking, smiling, peace signs, taking leaflets, etc. The people on the roads were overwhelmingly anti-war and were mainly not pissed at us for what we were doing.
My estimate would be about 1000 arrests, on the basis of the info below. When we came back on Chicago Ave. to Michigan, between the French embassy (!) and the pumping station, the police sealed off Chicago at Michigan with a massive double line of police. There was a standoff there from about 8:30 to 9:00, during which time some of us left. There were about 2000 of us left occupying the block of Chicago Ave. east of Michigan.
Around 9:00 pm I tried to leave going east, but ran into another line of police. I was told by the police I couldn't go that way, only to the west. The police at the western blockade said I couldn't go that way, only to the east. It was soon pretty obvious that they had sealed us in and were giving us deliberate bullshit and they weren't going to let anyone out. Not even some 'innocent shoppers' who were also trapped in there.
The understanding of this started to work its way through the crowd. Meanwhile they were massively reinforcing both the eastern and western blockades, so there were about 150 cops at least at each end of the block, with riot helmets. Then they distributed clubs to all the police in the front lines; an officer came by with a handful of clubs and gave them out to cops who didn't have one. They also distributed those noose-like white plastic cord things for tying your hands when they arrest you.
There was chanting and drumming going on all this time, and since people couldn't go anywhere, about half of the people in Chicago Ave. sat down in the street; of course the sidewalks and muddy planted areas north and south of the road were also packed with people. Then the cops made a move from the west on the people who were sitting there. A few went limp and took busts, but they grabbed some who didn't intend it; people jumped up and remained standing from this time on.
During this time people were on their cell phones trying to explain to people how they were probably going to be arrested for the crime of being on this block at this particular time, they were not being allowed to leave the area or disperse, etc. A woman next to me said, "The Superintendent's office is just lying. They say the police are begging people to leave but they won't."
For the next hour or so they pressed the lines in from the east and west, cramming us standing up into a smaller and smaller area, and ducking into the crowd and picking us out to be arrested in ones and twos, without any pattern that I could see. Except I think they were less likely to get you if you were on the sidewalk. But there was no way everyone could have stood on the sidewalk at that point. Up until about 10:30 they whittled our numbers down to about half, which is why I think there were 1,000 arrests. Then, they stopped making arrests, and they began to let the remainder of us out through the eastern barricade, spaced out at maybe 10 or 15 per minute. I got out at maybe 11:00 pm.
LP