By the time we got near the bridge, police were in the area. To the south, a line of helmeted police and bicycle officers blocked one way, and to the north, a line of bicycle officers blocked the other way. This was a situation ripe for conflict, since the one thing you can't convince a marching crowd to do is reverse direction and head back in the direction they came.
Sure enough, within a few minutes, two or three young male protestors decided it would be a smart idea to shove their way through the line of bike cops and proceed northward.
It wasn't. They were wrestled to the ground and placed under arrest.
Following the arrests, many of the protestors grew even angrier, shouting at and trying to provoke the cops. Probably the clearest (and goofiest) example of the latter behavior was the young fool on the right in the picture below.
He kept lunging at the cop yelling "Spray me! Go on, spray me!" The officer then complied with his request, spraying him. Sometimes it's really embarrassing to be associated with schmucks like that.
After a little while, the bicycle cops to the north withdrew, allowing us to march north, then circle around and head towards the south park blocks, around Park and Salmon, passing Pioneer Courthouse Square on the way.
Along the way, we found police presence along the new route very thin. Until now, whenever we'd turned a corner, it had been because a line of cops was there to direct us. On our way towards the south park blocks, though, we were pretty much navigating as a body without benefit of police guidance.
Here, the entire march takes a left turn, without a cop in sight.
Once we arrived at Park and Salmon, however, things once again started getting ugly.