Beltway Area Indymedia

On Sunday, June 10th, marchers commemorated the 40th anniversary of Israel's armed conquest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. While over a thousand gathered on the US Capitol West Lawn, Capitol Police fought to forcibly exclude the SDS feeder march.

Probably the Capitol Police are still sore from the asswhipping they got on Jan 27th, when a 700 strong SDS bloc of shield-bearing anarchists defeated them and stormed up Capitol Hill, leaving behind chalked slogans. That led to one of the "least effective" GOP Congressmen calling for a massive federal investigation of antiwar protesters.

None the less, excluding a contingent from a protest based on who they are is an explicit violation of the First Amendment. Here's how it went down:

The SDS march got from Dupont Circle all the way to 1st street without any problems, only to encounter a wall of motorcycle and bike cops blocking 1st street, the most direct way to get to the main rally. SDS had decided to join the main march after hearing that they were sort on numbers-a report had been received of only a few hundred people at the rally, but by the time we saw it the rally had grown to over a thousand strong, maybe more.

The cops stormed up, saying marchers had no permit to protest on the Hill-even though SDS was seeking to join a permitted event! In response, marchers attempted to flank the Capitol cops and get around them by going to 3ed st, but were followed off the hill.

At 3ed st, further progress that way was blocked by the Pride festival, which responded to the police attack by closing their gates(though that gate only blocked the route backstage). As protesters turned south on 3ed st, Capitol cops tried to block movement in ANY direction, but finally agreed to let SDS march along 3ed st and join the march as it left the rally site, never entering Capitol grounds.

Energy in the main march was fantastic, despite hecking along the route from supporters of the occupation.