Riot police fired rubber bullets and used long batons, plastic shields, concussion grenades and stun guns in clashes with hundreds of demonstrators protesting talks aimed at creating a hemisphere-wide free-trade zone.
It was not immediately known how many people were injured. Some journalists were among the hurt, struck by thrown debris or rubber bullets. Miami police said two officers were injured.
At one hospital, 12 demonstrators and three police officers were treated for injuries, Jackson Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Lorraine Nelson said.
PHOTO: AP
About 140 arrests were made on Thursday on charges such as obstruction, battery, aggravated assault, unlawful assembly, resisting arrest, trespassing and burglary, bringing the arrest total for the week to about 150, said Stephen Thompson, a Miami-Dade Corrections Officer at the FTAA Miami Unified Command Center.
Alonzo Mendez was bleeding from an abrasion he said was caused when a rubber bullet hit him in the chest.
"I was just taking pictures and they fired at me," he said.
Thursday's clashes occurred before and after a peaceful march organized by the US labor unions, which are also opposed to the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.
An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 marchers took part, saying the 34-nation FTAA would take thousands of US jobs to other countries, reduce workers' rights by exploiting cheap labor and drain natural resources.
Soon after the march, several dozen protesters resumed battling with police, pushing up against police lines and throwing water bottles, colored flares and rocks at officers. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the demonstrators after the protesters set small trash fires in the street and used slingshots to fire projectiles at officers.
The afternoon battle appeared more violent and chaotic than the morning clashes, when at least 1,000 protesters -- many wearing bandannas across the bottom half of their faces, surgical masks and blue baseball helmets -- battled with officers who used their batons to push the demonstrators back.
Despite the clashes, most of the protesters were peaceful, carrying puppets, holding signs and chanting, "This is what a police state looks like."
Beating on an African drum, Joshua Xander, 21, of Cincinnati, said the police are "totally doing what they feel necessary. We are doing what we think is necessary -- conflict of interests."
Police set up a perimeter around the protesters, marching toward them in waves and firing rubber bullets to force them back.
"As the level of confrontation escalated, so did the level of presence by our police officers," police spokesman Jorge Pino said. "We are employing different kinds of techniques ... and are willing and able to take whatever action is necessary to keep the city and our community safe."
The morning clashes delayed the start of the AFL-CIO's march, and its leaders complained that police were preventing buses carrying marchers, some of them elderly, from reaching the staging area.
"Everybody is just letting their feelings known in a peaceful way," said William Vargas, one of 800 union parade marshals who helped keep the peace.
The unions' protest included huge puppets of dolphins and sunflowers, people walking on stilts and many chanting slogans such as "Just Say No Way to George Bush's FTAA."
Bob Wessell, a 49-year-old steel worker from Indiana, 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," Wessell said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in