The first thing I noticed when I got close to the corner of Park and Salmon was the presence of a pair of television news crews, with their clean-scrubbed anchors and tired-looking cameramen.

As more protestors showed up, though, the poor guys were promptly surrounded by endless shouts of "Fuck the corporate media!" and similar sentiments clearly intended to persuade the journalists to portray the protest in a positive light. At one point, a chant of "Tell the truth!" was so loud it prevented them from being able to broadcast anything. Think about that for a minute.

Halfway down the block to the east was another barricade, and as we approached it, it was quickly manned by more riot cops.

I noticed this guy alongside me. Now, if you spend the time necessary to make a six-inch-thick styrofoam shield before coming to a protest, you're saying something about the kind of behavior you expect from the police. There is, sometimes, too fine a line between expecting a fight and looking for a fight.

Things took a slightly disturbing turn here; the riot cops at the barricade were replaced by state troopers.

Now, there's two problems with this. First, if any trouble arises, the responsibility buck is passed from local authorities down to Salem, introducing more obstacles for anyone lodging a complaint. Second, you will note that the state troopers do not have any nametags at all. Just anonymous guys with what look suspiciously like axe handles.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, the block we were on was declared an "emergency zone" by the big truck with the speakers visible in the above photo. We were ordered to clear the area. And, predictably, on came the cops.

My apologies if the following sequence of photos appears a tad confused. To avoid distorting the events, I'm putting them in strict chronological order, and it was a confusing couple of minutes.

One of the first things I saw was this guy absorbed into the line of cops and arrested.

I was snapping shots as fast as my camera would allow, to catch any misconduct on film. I've omitted shots that have no useful information or are blurred beyond any clarity.

I think, though I am not sure, that the mustached cop wielding the pepper spray in that shot may be the same guy who was the first to use spray at Fifth and Taylor. If so, he had changed into riot gear at some point, but still had a pepper-spray canister in each hand and that unfortunate mustache.

A moment later, a couple more people were not pushed back by the police, but pulled in and arrested.

The police continued pushing us back, sometimes roughly, to the corner.

Note in the background, more riot police carrying the metal barricades forward. Soon they had reestablished them at the corner of Park and Salmon. (I should note that I didn't note the street signs at the time; I've gotten the intersection name from a map, and it is not impossible that I might have it wrong.)

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At this point, the protestors were good and pissed. Again, I was struck with the notion that those who missed out on their chance to get beaten up by the police (and thereby gain street cred) were subconsciously hoping that they might get hit or sprayed, thus ensuring their sexual future for at least a year or so. This is, perhaps, an uncharitable notion arising from my own notorious cynicism, and it doesn't take into account the many protestors who continued calmly waving their signs and chanting "Peaceful protest!" From down in front near the barricades, it seemed like all I saw was teenage boys spitting at the cops and screaming in their faces.

After a while, I couldn't take it any more. I was tired, footsore, bruised, (the fault of that clown with the rubber bullets) hoarse, (same clown's fault, pepper spray) sunburned, (my own stupid fault, forgot my sunscreen) and I badly needed a restroom. Also, I was seriously concerned that if I had to listen to one more sophomoric cry of "Fuckin' fascist pigs!" I was going to slap somebody upside the head.

Thus, around 7:30 PM, I wandered off. As I left, I saw the following graffito chalked on a door, summing up the actions of the police quite neatly.

My feelings on the behavior of the protestors, and a call to more mindful action, I later posted on the indymedia site. If I may be forgiven the blowing of my own horn, I repost it here, slightly edited.

...I felt that the police and the protestors were, behaviorally, mirrors of each other. The police officers were mostly acting within decent bounds, and the protestors were mostly peacefully making their views known. However, just as the police had a few unprofessional punks who felt compelled to spray and shoot at protestors, so did our side have its share of adolescent morons who thought it was a good idea to spit at the cops, throw things at them, try and force their way past them, and generally try to provoke violence. As some of the asinine "kill a cop" "they are subhuman" sentiments one hears clearly show, our side cannot claim to be free of infantile, violent cretins, much as we might like to believe it.

It is time to be serious-minded, friends. All the best things about this nation are under assault, and we have lost a great deal of ground already. We have mostly lost it through shortsightedness, internal bickering, and an annoying habit of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. We need to stop acting as though "smash the state, stick it to the Man" is anything other than a child's point of view. We need to take actions that will have a real effect, supporting candidates who can win even if they're not 100% ideologically perfect, forming alliances with people who might not share every one of our pet issues, and generally approaching this problem as adults in the real world approach problems. Our freedoms will not be won back in the streets by dashing young revolutionaries. Get that image out of your mind. Our freedoms will be won back by dull people at city council meetings, by policy wonks in congressional office buildings, by months and years of painful, uninteresting, and EFFECTIVE work.

So, my fellow activists, you are now faced with a choice. You can continue sitting around talking about how great it's going to be when the Revolution comes and making your lists of who's going to be first against the wall; Bush and his cronies would love it if you do. Or you can get out and do something useful. Maybe volunteer for a political campaign. This is an election year, and lots of underfunded Democratic campaigns need volunteers. (Not being the party of the rich, they can't simply buy them.) If you really think the Democrats are no better than the GOP, well, I disagree, but there's still a lot you can do. The Green Party is doing a lot of great work on a local level, even though they haven't won much in the way of major national office yet. Support a Green candidate for city council, state Senate, board of education. Every community we improve is another important step towards making this country the place of freedom and humanity that it can and should be. Write letters to the editor of a local paper, talking to people who don't necessarily already agree with you. Preaching to the choir is easy, but converting people to the essential rightness of our cause is harder. You'll have to sound reasonable, you'll have to acknowledge other people's points of view, you'll have to tone down the rhetoric a notch. But you can do it. We can all do it. Protesting is just one of the actions we can take, and not the most important. And when it seems like your actions are pointless and you don't know why you bother, always remember the words of Gandhi: "What you do may seem insignificant, but it is of vital importance that you do it."

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and may we all apply our efforts where they'll do the most good.