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CNN Saturday Morning News
Anti-War Protesters Expected to Pack Streets of Washington
Aired October 25, 2003 - 09:09 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Discontent over the war in Iraq is bubbling up throughout pockets of the U.S. And in just a couple of hours, tens of thousands of antiwar protesters are expected to pack the streets of Washington.
CNN's Patty Davis joining us now from the nation's capital with the latest on that. Good morning, Patty.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Heidi.
They're going it start here at the Washington Monument and rally. Then they're going to march down to the White House, take a turn, and go past the Justice Department, and come back here to the Washington Monument.
What they want, they say, is for the U.S. to get out of Iraq. They are also demonstrating against the Patriot Act, which they say is overreaching, and they also consider it an invasion of privacy.
Now, this is expected to be the largest antiwar demonstration here in Washington, D.C., in some time.
Now, we're joined by Sergeant Scott Fear of the United States Park Police.
How many are we expecting here, sergeant, today?
SGT. SCOTT FEAR, U.S. PARK POLICE: Well, they put between 40,000 and 50,000 on their permit. And we believe, our expectations, they're going to reach those numbers today and possibly surpass those numbers.
DAVIS: What about the peacefulness of this? Are we expecting any violence, are we expecting a peaceful demonstration?
FEAR: We have been meeting with the organizers over the past weeks, and they say that there's not going to be any civil disobedience. They say it's going to be a peaceful demonstration.
But we've also got word that splinter groups may come in and try and disrupt the demonstration. They may try and add some civil disobedience.
So in that case, the United States Park Police are prepared to make mass arrests if needed.
DAVIS: Right. What kind of preparations have you made over time, cameras, things like that, what are you ready for?
FEAR: You said it. We have a lot of overtime today. All our officers are working today. We've canceled days off, we're not granting any leave. We have all our horse-mounted officers, plainclothes officers, you'll see everybody out there today.
Also our cameras are up and running, the Metropolitan Police Department cameras are up, the United States Park Police cameras are up. It gives us extra eyes in case there's a problem in some area that we can't see, we'll get over to that there by the cameras, by use of the cameras. We'll have someone see that. We'll go over there and make sure we solve that problem.
DAVIS: Well, how many police officers would you say you've got here covering this? I mean, you've got 40,000, 50,000 protesters. Hard to make mass protests -- make mass arrests without a lot of police officers.
FEAR: Well, there's hundreds of United States Park Police officers, and then also the Metropolitan Police Department has a large contingency. And U.S. Capital Police, because there's a demonstration down at the Capitol also today.
So you're going to see a lot of police officers down here. And it's a balance that we try and make so the demonstrators can come down, get their First Amendment rights heard, but also people can come down and enjoy the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
DAVIS: All right, thanks a lot, Sergeant Scott Fear of the United States Park Police.
An interesting coalition here gathered today for this protest. Two of the major antiwar groups, one of them International ANSWER, the other, United for Peace and Justice, but also Black Voices for Peace. And there are going to be some 50 families of U.S. military members who are in Iraq right now. Their families are expected to be here. That is giving this demonstration, or will give this demonstration, a real personal touch.
Now, we're also expecting at some point a counterdemonstration. That group, called Free Republic, expected to be here about the same time. And we may see some confrontation. We have to see what happens, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Patty Davis, live for us this morning in Washington. Thanks so much.
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Aired October 25, 2003 - 09:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Discontent over the war in Iraq is bubbling up throughout pockets of the U.S. And in just a couple of hours, tens of thousands of antiwar protesters are expected to pack the streets of Washington.
CNN's Patty Davis joining us now from the nation's capital with the latest on that. Good morning, Patty.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Heidi.
They're going it start here at the Washington Monument and rally. Then they're going to march down to the White House, take a turn, and go past the Justice Department, and come back here to the Washington Monument.
What they want, they say, is for the U.S. to get out of Iraq. They are also demonstrating against the Patriot Act, which they say is overreaching, and they also consider it an invasion of privacy.
Now, this is expected to be the largest antiwar demonstration here in Washington, D.C., in some time.
Now, we're joined by Sergeant Scott Fear of the United States Park Police.
How many are we expecting here, sergeant, today?
SGT. SCOTT FEAR, U.S. PARK POLICE: Well, they put between 40,000 and 50,000 on their permit. And we believe, our expectations, they're going to reach those numbers today and possibly surpass those numbers.
DAVIS: What about the peacefulness of this? Are we expecting any violence, are we expecting a peaceful demonstration?
FEAR: We have been meeting with the organizers over the past weeks, and they say that there's not going to be any civil disobedience. They say it's going to be a peaceful demonstration.
But we've also got word that splinter groups may come in and try and disrupt the demonstration. They may try and add some civil disobedience.
So in that case, the United States Park Police are prepared to make mass arrests if needed.
DAVIS: Right. What kind of preparations have you made over time, cameras, things like that, what are you ready for?
FEAR: You said it. We have a lot of overtime today. All our officers are working today. We've canceled days off, we're not granting any leave. We have all our horse-mounted officers, plainclothes officers, you'll see everybody out there today.
Also our cameras are up and running, the Metropolitan Police Department cameras are up, the United States Park Police cameras are up. It gives us extra eyes in case there's a problem in some area that we can't see, we'll get over to that there by the cameras, by use of the cameras. We'll have someone see that. We'll go over there and make sure we solve that problem.
DAVIS: Well, how many police officers would you say you've got here covering this? I mean, you've got 40,000, 50,000 protesters. Hard to make mass protests -- make mass arrests without a lot of police officers.
FEAR: Well, there's hundreds of United States Park Police officers, and then also the Metropolitan Police Department has a large contingency. And U.S. Capital Police, because there's a demonstration down at the Capitol also today.
So you're going to see a lot of police officers down here. And it's a balance that we try and make so the demonstrators can come down, get their First Amendment rights heard, but also people can come down and enjoy the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
DAVIS: All right, thanks a lot, Sergeant Scott Fear of the United States Park Police.
An interesting coalition here gathered today for this protest. Two of the major antiwar groups, one of them International ANSWER, the other, United for Peace and Justice, but also Black Voices for Peace. And there are going to be some 50 families of U.S. military members who are in Iraq right now. Their families are expected to be here. That is giving this demonstration, or will give this demonstration, a real personal touch.
Now, we're also expecting at some point a counterdemonstration. That group, called Free Republic, expected to be here about the same time. And we may see some confrontation. We have to see what happens, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Patty Davis, live for us this morning in Washington. Thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Washington>
