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CNN Saturday Morning News

World Economic Forum is Braced for Protests

Aired February 02, 2002 - 08:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Americans will see business unusual for upcoming sports events. From the Super Bowl to the Olympics, people will see unprecedented security measures.

But let's go to the World Economic Forum, where police are bracing for protests there. So far, things have been relatively quiet. CNN's Jason Carroll is live in New York with the latest.

Hello, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Miles, and certainly the New York City Police Department is feeling pretty good that things have been relatively quiet so far for the World Economic Forum, which is being held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, which is located just about a block from where we're standing.

If you take a look right across the street here, you can see that a number of protesters have already started to gather right there across the street. Again, we're about a block from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel where the World Economic Forum is being held.

You can see some of the folks there are already starting to pull out their signs. They're already starting to set up here. There are about 4,000 police officers that have been assigned to the World Economic Forum. Security is extremely tight. In addition to all the officers that are out here, there are empty buses waiting over on the East Side of Manhattan, just in case they're needed to take people away.

But so far, there hasn't been any need of that. We've seen several protests for the World Economic Forum so far. All of them have been peaceful.

Yesterday, an environmental group held a demonstration in front of the Gap Flagship Store. That's on Fifth Avenue, just a few blocks from the Waldorf. At one point, police did ask the demonstrators to move to an area that had been set up for them. They did that without incident.

Today, more protests are planned, including one later on this afternoon. Police are expecting that one to be a rather large demonstration by a group called ANSWER. That stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.

But again, Miles, so far the demonstrations have been peaceful. Back to you.

O'BRIEN: We're glad to hear that. CNN's Jason Carroll reporting to us live from New York.

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