Posted by Rosa Harris on August 25, 2008

Following are two articles with breaking news from Denver and the protests at the Democratic National Convention. Live feed from the Denver Post camera can be found here.

Police spray protesters in confrontation in Denver
By Judith Kohler and Colleen Slevin Associated Press Writers

DENVER--Police in riot gear used pepper spray on protesters about a mile from the site of the Democratic National Convention on Monday night.

The confrontation erupted in front of the Denver City and County Building as police tried to disperse a crowd of about 300 that was disrupting traffic, authorities said.

It was believed to be the first time police used any kind of force against protesters since demonstrations began on Sunday, a day before the convention.

Police Lt. Ron Saunier said he didn't know if anyone had been arrested, but officers on the scene led at least two people away as the crowd chanted "Let them go!"

"The situation is still very fluid and active," Saunier said.

Kaycee Ryann and Eric Finch said they were in the crowd marching through Civic Center Park, which lies between the City-County Building and the state Capitol, when police tried to split the crowd into smaller groups.

Finch said he was struck by rubber pellets and a baton.

"There was no warning. We weren't coming at them. They were coming at us," he said.
Polly White of the Joint Information Center, a command set up by city, state and federal authorities to field media inquiries during the convention, said she had no reports of police firing rubber pellets.

Ryann and Finch described themselves as anti-capitalists who were protesting ecological devastation. They said others in the crowd were protesting other issues.

Earlier Monday, protesters wearing jail-style orange jumpsuits and black hoods over their heads marched along a downtown pedestrian mall chanting "Stop the torture, stop the war."

The protesters, estimated at several hundred, were at a rally at Civic Center Park near the state Capitol when they began pouring down the mall at midday, hours before the convention started.

Some were dressed like inmates at the infamous Abu Graib prison in Iraq. ...

The march from Civic Center to the old federal court house, organized by Recreate 68, was against the U.S. detention of people protesters called political prisoners, including American Indian activist Leonard Peltier and five Cuban men who are behind bars in the United States for espionage. Peltier is serving a life sentence for killing two FBI agents during a 1975 standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The Cubans say they were monitoring terrorist groups in Miami they feared could attack Cuba.

When they arrived at the old federal courthouse, the crowd listened to a recording by Mumia Abu-Jamal, in prison for killing a police officer 27 years ago in Philadelphia. Activists in the U.S. and Europe have rallied in support of the former Black Panther's clams that he is the victim of a racist criminal justice system.

"Here, democracy is on life support," Abu-Jamal said on the recording.

An appeals court in March upheld Abu-Jamal's murder conviction but said jury instructions in the death penalty phase of his trial were flawed. It said he must get a new sentencing hearing or be sentenced to life in prison.

Speaker Pam Africa of Philadelphia's MOVE Organization let loose a string of profanities, lashing out at police and government. People in the crowd pumped their fists in the air and cheered. A couple dozen federal officers stood at ease in a corner while she accused them of being traitors for working for the government.

An officer shook his head no when asked if anyone in the group wanted to respond.

Earlier, a small group of protesters marched to the demonstration zone outside the Pepsi Center, where the convention will be held, complaining they are being treated like political prisoners.

It was the first time members of the Recreate 68 Alliance had visited the fenced-off zone, and they vowed not to return because they oppose the limits on where they can demonstrate.

Protesters derisively call the 47,000-square foot zone the "Freedom Cage." It's separated from the parking lot around the convention hall by metal fences atop concrete barriers.

They complained it is about 700 feet from the Pepsi Center entrance. Secret Service spokesman Malcolm

Wiley said the entrance is 770 feet from the demonstration zone, but the distance is irrelevant because protesters will be within sight and sound of the delegates, which is required by law.

The city, which won a federal lawsuit challenging the demonstration zone and other security measures, has emphasized that a pathway delegates can take to the area is about 200 feet from the fenced-in area. Sue Cobb, Mayor John Hickenlooper's spokeswoman, said delegates could get within 8 feet of protesters in the area.

"We're being treated by the city of Denver and the Secret Service like political prisoners, like pariahs," said Recreate 68 organizer Mark Cohen. ...

At one point about 30 lost volunteers, wearing credentials and green T-shirts, wandered into the protest area in search of the Pepsi Center. They refused the protesters' literature.

Police force back protesters in Civic Center
By The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 08/25/2008 08:34:29 PM MDT

Riot police using pepper spray forced a couple of hundred protesters out of Civic Center and then blocked them before they could reach the 16th Street Mall.

Police surrounded the protesters along 15th Street between Court Street and Cleveland and then moved up reinforcements, including at least two armored vehicles. They have made at least one arrest and perhaps as many as nine.

Shortly before 8:30 p.m., police began to let some of those trapped leave in the direction of Civic Center.

They walked out between lines of police, chanting as they left and raising their arms in triumph.

Protesters and police had originally lined up across from one another in front of City and County Building about 7 p.m., the police wearing their full riot gear and holding batons, chanting "move back, move back."

Police used pepper spray before the mass of marchers moved back across the park and were cut off by police behind the Sheraton Hotel.

On protester said police had used the spray "like a supersoaker" in front of the City and County Building. Pepper spray was used again on 15th Street.

A police spokesman said that they had massed their forces in the park based on intelligence about the protesters' actions.

One demonstrator, who would not give his name, said the confrontation began when "a bunch of us were supposed to have a direct action march."

Several downtown hotels were reported to be on lockdown.

Curiousity seekers stood outside the police cordon, outnumbering the marchers.

Protestors told reporters they were a mix of Tent State participants and those identifying themselves as anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, anti-war individuals.

The group split, with officers surrounding and detaining the group on 15th Street, while others were pushed back by police toward Civic Center. Once the police organized their lines, the distance widened.

Sam Harper, 36, of Eufaula, Okla., said he was here to protest the war, but he wasn't prepared to be injured.

"When I saw the tear gas, I split. I don't need to get beat down," Harper said.

The detained grouped chanted in unison: "Who screams. We scream."

Some in the crowd outside the police lines, which included onlookers and media, chanted: "Cops here.

Bombs there. U.S. out of everywhere."

"Speech is free. Let them be."

"Show me what the First Amendment looks like."

"Let them go."

"Watch out! They're gearing up,""some in the crowd shouted, as officers donned gas masks and other protective equipment.

A girl warned anyone with contact lenses to get out of the area.

"The spray will fuse your contact lenses to your eyeballs," she said.

A protester named Timmy said he had slipped out of his all-black outfit and slipped outside the police cordon.

"We want freedom from oppression," he said. "We want direct democracy where communities are allowed to make decisions based on our own abilities. It takes bottom-up organizing to make change; it doesn't take a leader. We want cooperations, not capitalism."

Meanwhile, in Skyline Park near 18th and Arapahoe, about a dozen people sat surrounded by police, apparently in custody.