Clashes mar free-trade demonstrations

MIAMI -- Police in riot gear used batons, plastic shields, concussion grenades and stun guns in clashes Thursday with hundreds of demonstrators protesting talks aimed at creating a hemisphere-wide free-trade zone.

At least seven demonstrators were arrested. Police said one officer suffered minor injuries. Injured protesters were also seen, but no immediate details were available.

The clashes delayed for more than an hour a march organized by the nation's unions, which are also opposed to the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. About 10,000 marchers were taking part, and organizers promised it would be peaceful.

During the clashes, at least 1,000 protesters -- many wearing bandanas across the bottom half of their faces, surgical masks and blue batting helmets -- approached lines of police blocking downtown streets.

The officers used their batons mostly to push back the protesters but occasionally used them to strike the demonstrators.

Police also displayed stun guns and used a spray that smelled like rotten eggs to disperse protesters.

The demonstrators say the 34-nation FTAA would take thousands of American jobs to other countries, exploit cheap labor and drain natural resources.

"We are holding strong," police spokesman Jorge Pino said. "We're basically trying maintain the peace downtown, but there are some individuals that are unfortunately trying to disrupt our efforts."

Lance Stelzer, a Miami lawyer who works on police-related issues, said authorities overreacted to the protests because of rioting outside the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle and at other free-trade meetings worldwide.

"When you have that kind of police presence dressed up in storm-trooper garb and a mentality of 'Let's close off the entire city because we had rowdies in another city,' it has a tendency to incite problems that might not otherwise exist," Stelzer said.

Arrested demonstrator Michael McLean, 20, of Bergen County, N.J., said he was walking into an amphitheater, which was filling up with union protesters, when he tripped and was zapped with a stun gun.

"They haven't told me what I did," said McLean, who sat with plastic handcuffs around his wrists. "Anybody that doesn't look like they're in the union were targeted. I think I was."

A protester who called himself an anarchist and identified himself only as Worm carried a hammer and spray paint under his jacket and wore a gas mask as he roamed the streets.

"I'm tired of things that have been forced upon us, like the FTAA," he said.

Most of the protesters were peaceful, carrying puppets, holding signs and chanting, "This is what a police state looks like."

Near both the confrontations and the trade ministers meeting, more than 1,000 members of the United Steel Workers union marched peacefully down Biscayne Boulevard toward where the larger parade was to begin. They carried blue flags with their union logo on it and chanted, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, FTAA has got to go."

Bob Wessell, 49, of Batesville, Ind., said his job making hospital beds may be lost because of cheaper manufacturing in China.

"I am here to save American jobs and make the world a safer place to live," he said.