This afternoon, New York cops have repeatedly attacked peaceful protesters as they attempt to proceed along a legally permitted street march convened by Another World Is Possible (AWIP) to oppose the World Economic Forum meetings in New York. Attacks have included mass pepper spraying and physical attacks on peaceful marchers.

This afternoon, New York police officers attacked peaceful protesters at 5th Ave. and 59th St., and again later at Lexington and 57th, as protesters attempted to proceed along a legally permitted street march convened by Another World Is Possible (AWIP). The attacks began at around 2:15 p.m. EST, and included mass pepper spraying and physical attacks on peaceful marchers.

According to CIMC reporters, police have harassed protesters routinely during the AWIP march, typically under the guise of enforcing an obscure 'anti-masking' ordinance. Law enforcement appears to be targeting people wearing black or red, as well as protesters wearing scarves or masks, although other unmasked protesters have been caught up and sprayed or injured in the police action, as well. According to street medics on the scene, a number of peaceful protestors had been bludgeoned by police wielding battons, although as of about 3:30 p.m. EST, no life-threatening injuries had been reported.

Both RTS and Black Bloc participants had agreed before today's action that their affinity group participants would treat the AWIP march as a 'green' action -- that is, a peaceful, legally permitted street march in which no autonomous civil disobedience was planned. Thousands of marchers had convened behind RTS banners in Central Park earlier this afternoon, and marched to join the main AWIP action.

One protester reported overhearing a police seargent along the main march route tell fellow officers to look for people in 'masks' and to 'get them.' A New York IMC source indicated this afternoon that police plan to target Bloc participants, who are currently scattered throughout the main march column, for attack and arrest. A CIMC reporter says a number of police buses -- likely designed to hold protesters -- have been spotted near the march route. As of 3PM EST, arrests for the action were estimated to number at least half a dozen. Phalanxes of cops and barricades parallel much of the main route, and medics on the scene are reporting numerous incidences of unprovoked pepper-spraying and minor physical injuries, including several instances of bludgeoning about the face and neck by cops wielding billy clubs.

The police attack at 5th and 59th began at around 2:15, according to witnesses. One peaceful protester, Sonia Sayers, a professor at Cooper Union, said that police started pushing violently against protesters, knocking Sayers to the ground. Fellow demonstrators grabbed her and helped her move away from the police charge to avoid being trampled.

According to CIMC reporter Kathy Rosenfeld, at 59th and 5th cops suddenly began pushing people onto the sidewalk in what appeared to be an aggressive bid to split off and break up a portion of the march that included people from the RTS column. Black Bloc participants reportedly responded defensively, linking arms and moving to press police lines back so marchers could continue with the permitted action. Police eventually retreated somewhat, and CIMC reporters said that by about 2:45 p.m. -- after repeated police attacks on the march contingent -- roughly 1,000 protesters cut off by the police pincer action appeared to have largely rejoined the main AWIP column. AWIP's march was proceeding along their legally permitted march route, which circles around the Waldorf-Astoria, the site of World Economic Forum activities, back toward the final main rallying point across the street from the hotel.

At around 3:15 p.m., police wielding batons at around Lexington and 57th again moved to attack and arrest people, in what is believed to have been another police attempt to split up the march. Protesters toward the front of the march turned around and marched back to the area of the police attack, chanting "The whole world is watching!" and protesters again began linking arms in defensive actions to prevent further police attacks. The march was continuing again along the permitted route by about 3:30 p.m. EST.

New York IMC posts have reported that the joint AWIP/RTS march may number over 8,000 people, an estimate confirmed by CIMC reporters on the ground.

CIMC reporters Kathy Rosenfeld, Dawn Roberts and Chris Geovanis contributed to this report.

 http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=17858&group=webcast

Police Use Divide and Conquer Tactics To Stifle Protest, Harass Participants of Permitted Marches. A compilation of prior posts by others IMC open newswire and WBAI/WBIX radio coverage.

NYPD Uses Box-In Methods And Stop Permitted March

The New York Police Department, enforcing a 19th Century law against hoods and masks stopped an permitted march that was trying to join the International ANSWER rally in New York City. Witnesses say 200 Police lined up, batons barred across their front and rushed the march, forcing them to back up into a wall of police behind them. Cornered, some protestors pushed back trying to defend their own space and some tried to leave. The police began a mass arrest.

The cops proceeded to separate those wearing all black and all red, and make arrests. Some of those who tried to leave the area boxed in by police, instead of continue to march were pepper spray. Reporters from the Atlanta Indymedia Center say that the cops began to arrest those who stayed in march formation, who chanted "March! March!"

The incident began to occur around the Plaza Hotel and 59th street, and at the fringes of the rally at the Waldorf Astoria. At the moment is is not clear if the march will continue, even though it is permitted. Many people are vowing to march in defiance of the police to the rally point, peacefully.

The mass arrests are based the color of clothing and the choice of some to wear masks, bandanas or hoods. The uniform clothing is meant to both conceal identity to police provacatuers and to symbolize anonymous solidarity, free of race or personal indentity, with oppressed groups - such as the Zapatistas in Mexico - all over the world.

From Seattle to Washington, DC the police have been known to use "divide and conquer" tactics to prevent permitted rallies from growing to their full potential, despite all legal permits for routes and rally points often having already been agreed upon by the city. IMC reporters, International ANSWER spokespersons, and radio broadcasters on WBAI report that permits were indeed obtained for this particular march

Reports on the NYC Indymedia Center website also indicate that at least some cops have acted together to block their own badge numbers. Some question why cops can conceal their indentity, while protestors who choose to cannot.

A 13 year old was arrested last night for taking photos of police arresting and beating other protestors, he was charged with burglary and released, according to the teen and his father this afternoon on WBAI [wbai.org].