August 1, 2000

THE STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA

A Peaceful, Policed Protest

By Herbert Lowe

Philadelphia-What was to be a protest march from City Hall to the site of the Republican National Convention yesterday ended up as an unwanted, slow dance between police and up to 4,000 activists.

"Whose street? Our street!" the protesters declared throughout the dance, which lasted 3 1/2 hours and four miles amid a renewed summer heat.

In the end, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, a local antipoverty group demonstrating against homelessness, and the Philadelphia Police Department could claim control over South Broad Street.

Without a permit and threatened with mass arrests, the group just about made good on its promise, made months ago, to march from downtown to the First Union Center.

The marchers initially got within a couple of blocks, or as far as police, who escorted them the entire route, would let them. Not to be deterred, however, march leaders took the throng around some Navy barracks and through nearby F.D.R. park to a chainlink fence just across Broad from the complex.

Top police officials approved the detour, apparently willing to compromise to the end, as long as the march remained peaceful and activists followed orders.

Police Commissioner John Timoney, an avid biker, monitored the march for a short time as he cruised on his Trek mountain bike in shorts and a golf shirt. His second-in-command, Deputy Commissioner Sylvester Johnson, guided the protest the entire way.

The drama had been building for days as city and police officials refused to grant a permit for the march. They said the congested thoroughfare could not be shut down, especially with so many extra people in town and expected to head that way to the convention.

Neither side appeared ready to back down on Sunday, and the American Civil Liberties Union had warned that police might stage mass arrests if the protesters blocked traffic.

At 11:30 a.m. yesterday, organizers decided to go ahead with the march, even with 20 police officers mounted on horseback just to the left of City Hall. Another two dozen officers were on bicycles, in plain view a block away on Chestnut Street.

The organizers first sent out children and then men and women in wheelchairs. The group's executive director, Cheri Honkula, and local union leaders then squeezed behind a banner and began inching down South Broad Street toward the First Union Center.

It seemed the march wouldn't even get to that first block, but not because of police. No one could move because of media determined to take pictures.

Ironically, it was plainclothes officers who stood between the protesters and the media, plowing a path.

When it was over, everyone offered praise.

"We're very happy," Johnson said. "We didn't lock anybody up, and nobody got hurt."

Ray Jones, a city deputy press secretary who also followed the marchers, said near the end: "The police have worked real hard to make sure it went off without any trouble. They wanted to let people have their say without anyone getting hurt or property being damaged, which is their job."

Standing by the chainlink fence, Pete Matthews, head of the local municipal workers' union, applauded Honkula and the group for not giving in.

"I was just following my leader," Matthews said. "She might have done it in a roundabout way, but she got us here."

For her part, Honkula said the march was a victory over those who warned against confronting the police.

"Today we learned if you aren't inside the boxing ring, don't tell us how to fight," she said.