Photo by philliefan99.

Yesterday’s Occupy DC march to the Key Bridge was as peaceful as anyone could have hoped for, even more so when compared to some of the Occupy-related protests that took place throughout the country.

D.C. police escorted marchers to the Key Bridge, allowed them to protest and made sure that commuters could make it in and out of the District with relative ease. Most importantly, they did so without seeming like an occupying force — yes, the Park Police had a helicopter hand and the Coast Guard even had a boat in the Potomac River, but the officers escorting the marchers were dressed in their normal day-to-day uniforms. (Once they approached the bridge, police used a line of motorcycles to funnel marchers to the sidewalk.)

The same can’t be said about Arlington County Police officers, who lined the Virginia side of the bridge in full riot gear. (ARLnow has more good pictures here; just take a look at what each officer was carrying.)

You could argue that Arlington’s cops were simply preparing for any eventuality — like the newly formed Occupy NoVA protesters that were marching down Wilson Boulevard towards the bridge — or you could say that their show of force was a little over the top. There were more cops than Virginia-based protesters, after all.

But part of the fight between Occupy protesters — or any protesters throughout history — and the target of their complaints ends up being about how police have responded. (Just look at New York.) The District, meanwhile, has largely given demonstrators nothing to complain about; how can you argue with a fully escorted and traffic-free route every time you march?

Obviously, nothing happened yesterday, so the riot gear seems even more heavy-handed than usual. One could argue that the riot gear helped to prevent any problems; conversely, one could say that there weren’t any problems to begin with that would have required cops to wear riot gear.

Either way, the image remains — and it doesn’t seem to make Virginia seem very welcoming.