Results tagged “protests”

UPDATE 3:49 p.m. Traffic is moving again on K Street NW. Police have concluded their preliminary investigation, moved the van out of the street, and cleared the area.

The District has issued revised regulations that increase the amount of time groups promoting events like anti-war protests may place posters around the city, the Examiner reports today. Previously, event-specific posters could only be up for a total of 60 days, but under the new rules, posters may go up anytime before the event, even a year or more ahead of time, with the only limitation being that they must come down 30 days after the event has taken place. The rules also allow for non-event related posters to be displayed for a total of 60 days, according to the Examiner.

DCist spotted this small protest against sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan moving through the streets around McPherson Square a little after 4:30 this afternoon. There looked to about 75 people marching in total, though the number of official police escorts, many of them on bicycles, easily rivaled the protesters' numbers. The marchers were banging drums and chanting, but appeared totally peaceful, so just keep an eye out for related traffic disruptions on your way home this evening.

The video itself is grainy and hard to make out. Here's what the folks at Tastee have to say about its contents:

"We believe inappropriate behavior is what was going on here and that the discrimination allegations are false. In this video, the couple was sitting right inside the restaurant front door pressed up against each other and during their interaction, one was burying her face in the other's breasts. They were asked to tone it down but responded angrily so they were asked to leave. Nothing more - any couple regardless of gender or sexual orienation would have been asked to leave Tastee Diner in the same situation."

After reviewing the video several times, I'm still not buying Tastee's version of the story here. It looks like the two women were holding each other and hugging, one while seated and the other while standing. Yes, that meant that the seated woman had her face against the other's breasts, but try to imagine instead that the couple was heterosexual, and the woman was seated while the man was standing. Would they have been perceived as being "inappropriate" if they had engaged in the exact same behavior? Definitely not. And if the issue here is face-in-breasts, then let's reverse it: a man is seated and embracing a woman who is standing in front of him. He presses his face against her breasts. Is that couple asked to leave, too? I have a hard time believing that they are, unless the woman's breasts are actually exposed, which doesn't appear to have been the case here.

More protests, and lots more arrests. The AP says 91 people were arrested outside the White House today after some of them chained themselves to the fence in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. These folks weren't hardcore environmentalists, anti-capitalists or Darfur activists. No, a lot of these were people in wheelchairs who were trying to get President Obama's attention about alternatives to nursing home care for people with disabilities. So did the Secret Service actually lock up a bunch of people in wheelchairs? Thankfully, no: these protesters just got written arrest citations and were not taken into custody. The issue, it seems, is that they lacked the proper permit for a group that large. The protest began after 1 p.m., and we've also received reports that some of those who participated had to be treated for heat exposure.

UPDATE 2: DCist's own Mehan Jayasuriya checks in with a report of how things are progressing at the site:

As Martin mentioned this morning, the spring meetings of the IMF/World Bank Board of Governors are this weekend, bringing with them the usual street closures and parking restrictions. We've posted the full list of closures below in case you need to refer to them this weekend, but before you read those, we thought you might enjoy a taste of the press release sent around to every local media outlet in town this morning by some of the folks who are organizing this year's protests. NB: the protesters won't reveal exactly where they'll be until early Saturday morning. Also, we're told to expect the protests to include upwards of ... 30 people. Gotta say, the promise of a group of protesters roughly the size of a second grade class doesn't make for a very impressive announcement.

An autonomous group of D.C. residents will be taking action to disrupt the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings on Saturday, April 25th. Angered by world leaders' handling of the economic crisis and the G20's recent decision to empower the IMF with $1.1 trillion in spite of their longstanding track record of ignoring basic human rights and environmental concerns, this group will engage in a variety of actions including traffic blockades, street theater, and roving street occupations.

Continue reading "IMF/World Bank Protest Details"

Sure enough, today's Teabag protest at Lafayette Square was over well before 2 p.m. By the time DCist checked back at the park at around 1:30 p.m., the entire area had been cleared, including Pennsylvania Ave., by the U.S. Park Police and Secret Service. What had been a drizzle was by then pouring rain, and when asked what had happened, one Park Police officer standing behind a line of yellow caution tape alluded to the weather being a safety concern. But that's not what really happened, according to the Associated Press: "... someone hurled a package in an apparent act of defiance meant to echo the rebellion of the Boston Tea Party and related tax protests around the country." And what was in the package? Why teabags, of course.

. Buddhist monks were joined by a few American sympathizers in their efforts to persuade President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Transit is inherently tied to politics, and as such, involves quite a bit of perspective.

Actually, last year Washingtonians were saved some driving chaos because the protest on the anniversary of the Iraq invasion was held on a Saturday. Not this year, as protesters from every possible anti-war faction will be gathering in D.C. tomorrow Wednesday on actual date of the invasion, March 19.

Boing Boing picked up on a small but adorable protest held in Washington last week that we missed. A Greenpeace activist, dressed in a polar bear suit, was arrested on Jan. 31 after protesting in a paddleboat in a park pond in front of the Department of Interior. Greenpeace set up the boat and costume to protest the Bush Administration’s delay in issuing a final Endangered Species Act listing for the polar bear due to global warming.