Police Chase and Club Revelers at
Impromptu Block Party on P Street

[from November 2001 issue of TheInTowner]

By Larry Ray*


On Saturday afternoon of October 27, Keith Bennett had just walked out the door of Mr. P's to return to his apartment directly across P Street. At that moment he was, as he told The InTowner, "confronted with a police line marching West. I was hit by a baton on the leg and shoved so hard I almost knocked over the cop in front of me." The blow he received left him with a large welt on his lower back. "I do not support the Reclaim the Streets organization. I know nothing about them. I do know they were nonviolent, friendly people causing no apparent harm."

What had been going on while Bennett was inside the neighborhood bar?

Scores of revelers from the organization Reclaim the Streets DC had marched around Dupont Circle and then took over the 2100 block of P Street west of the Circle on that afternoon. They drove three vehicles, donated to them according to Reclaim the Streets representatives, into the block. They let air out of the tires of one vehicle, a 4x4, effectively blocking traffic. On the 4x4, they wrote "Smash Me!" At the other end of the block, they tipped one of their other cars on its roof and began dancing on it. They chalked the street pavement, creating hop scotch, rope-jumping and Frisbee areas. Wearing Halloween costumes, they danced to music coming from speakers hoisted on top of a white van which they had parked in the driveway of one of the condominium buildings on the street, blocking access to the garage.

Scores of on-lookers had various perspectives on the impromptu carnival and street closing. One business patron declared that this Halloween week was a perfect time for such an event. Others complained about the traffic and parking blockage. Several businesses, including the Barcelo Hotel, called the police.

One resident, known in the neighborhood as the "mayor of P Street," was not amused by the van blocking the condo building garage driveway. He was observed walked up and down the street urging the police to do something about removing the van. One witness reports that the man told him that he did not care what they did in the street as long as his parking garage entrance was unblocked.

Soon the police arrived, surrounding the revelers. For an hour, they seemingly waited for orders for what to do. They officially closed-off the 2100 block. Then, at about 5:30 pm, police in riot gear with batons at the ready, began to march and then chase after the revelers who also began to flee. The police clubbed the legs of revelers and anyone else who happened to be on P Street. After the chase, for a half hour, police formed a line allowing no one to enter the block.

The police clubbing assault shocked many of the on-lookers from nearby businesses and residences. Dan Fox of Soho Café at 22nd and P Streets declared the police were not only unprofessional, but sadistic: "They threw one male on the hood of a car and hit him damaging both the car and the man. The police even hit a Soho employee who was cleaning the sidewalk café tables."

Another P Street businessman, Daniel Finan, told The InTowner that an innocent jogger on P Street "was actually leveled by the out-of-control police officers." Bennett, the Westpark resident who had been hit and violently shoved by the police, commented, "Instead of protecting and serving, they harass the very people who pay their salaries. I might look into this Reclaim the Streets group. I don't know what their charter is, but if it is anti-police brutality they cannot be all bad."

When one witness asked a senior police officer why no warning had first been given for people to disperse before charging the crowd, his response was, "Just seeing us should have been enough warning."

Another witness, however, had little patience for the attitude of the police, commenting to The InTowner, "When police using violence, over-react to a marginal event that does not seriously threaten public safety, then it is the police themselves who are creating an atmosphere of terror."

Onlookers loudly objected to what they saw as police brutality, declaring that there needs to be better ways for DC police officers to release their anger and stress other than beating on innocent citizens.

Among those arrested were two persons who were charged with "incommoding the sidewalks"--police regulation legalese applicable to three or more persons blocking a sidewalk so that others must walk around the group.

DC Second District Commander Peter Newsham explained that the police are in a difficult situation: "If the police do nothing, citizens complain; if they take action, citizens complain. Without a permit, the Reclaim the Streets group disrupted a busy business block. Drivers trying to progress on P Street as well as nearby hotel guests and managers had expressed their anger to the police for this blocking. The police warned the group to disperse. Once the group is warned, members can be arrested. When the police broke formation and chased the group members, they were chasing after potential arrestees." Commander Newsham said that he had heard no reports of injuries from this action. "The police are out to assist DC citizens, not injure them. This gathering was not an innocent party. They were disrupting businesses, drivers and hotel guests. It is the responsibility of the police to resolve this disruption."

(Additional eye-witness reports have been extensively documented by the DC Independent Media Center, and may be viewed at its website, www. dc.indymedia.org.)

What is this organization Reclaim the Streets? Their flyers and websites (www.reclaimthestreets.net and www.2wrongs.net/rts-dc) state that they are part of a global movement formed in England in 1991. They are an anti-road, anti-automobile and pro ecology. Their methods vary from roadblocks to street parties to strikes on corporations. This is the second Reclaim the Streets action in DC.

Vicky Kostic, a legal observer, stated that the police seemed to be on the verge of similar intervention during the first Reclaim the Streets action which occurred this past summer in Adams Morgan, at 18th Street and Kalorama Road. During that event, the revelers decided to depart rather than risk police intervention; the police had been lined up in their riot gear, ready for action.

There is speculation that the difference in police action between the two events may be attributed to the heightened terrorism alert since September 11. Reclaim the Streets has been mentioned as a potential terrorist organization.

In his Congressional Statement for the Record, dated May 10, 2001, Louis J. Freeh, then director of the FBI, listed Reclaim the Streets as a potential domestic terrorist organization. He testified on "The Threat of Terrorism to the United States" at hearings held by the Senate Committees on Appropriations, Armed Services, and Select Committee on Intelligence. Among other things, Freeh stated, "Anarchists and extremist socialist groups--many of which, such as the Workers' World Party, Reclaim the Streets [emphasis supplied], and Carnival Against Capitalism--have an international presence and, at times, also represent a potential threat in the United States. For example, anarchists, operating individually and in groups, caused much of the damage during the 1999 World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Seattle." (For more, visit
www.fbi.gov/congress/congress01/freeh051001.htm.

Reclaim the Streets DC declares there will be more of such actions.

*Larry Ray, an attorney/mediator and resident of the Shaw neighborhood, previously resided in Dupont North and served as a commissioner on the Dupont Circle ANC. Additionally, InTowner writer David Barrows contributed to this report


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