It should be noted here that the folks who chained themselves together to block traffic *were* arrested. And considering the level of destruction in past IMF demonstartion's two broken windows would hardly warrent arrrsting 649 people. For that matter, who's to say that the windows weren't broken by a "plant"? The FBI had lots of "plants* in the 60's that went around preachin violence, especially during the month preceeding and following Kent State.
But the folk who were arrested, form evey account I have heard, were just a chunk of folks that were chosen no more than a hunter chooses when he fires #12 bird shot at a group of geese overhead. Ramsey said in his defense, "Well, these folks siad that wanted to shut down the city." Apparently someone said that, plant or not, but the arbitrary nature in which this manuver was pulled off does not square with Ramsey's argument.
Don Firth is very much correct in his warnings that if democracy is to survive it will be because of the strength of the Bill of Rights. This fight should be every freedom loving's citizens fight. This isn't about whether or not Bush has the right to go to war, or airline security. This is about *your* right to express yourself, so long as it is done lawfully. I am not arguing the "Yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater" argument here. I'm talking about your rights.
And Doug, yes, there were some pretty stupid things that went down in the 60's, most notable the street riots in D.C. after the killing of Martin Luther King, but I was involved with many of the anit-war demonstrations and they were almost universally well behaved. My parents, including my Republican father, even marched in the Moritorium.
And lastly, on this point, those of us with some experience in protest ahve been preaching the importance of non-violence all a long. You'll remember a guy a few months ago that I went to battle with for his statement that we needed to destroy property to get attention.