MIAMI -- Dozens of activists opposed to the Free Trade Area of the Americas were issued bonds or released from custody Saturday during court hearings addressing arrests made during protests this week.
More than 50 jailed protesters appeared before Circuit Judge Manny Crespo on misdeameanor charges including disobeying police orders to disperse, unlawful assembly and resisting arrest. Most of the protesters were from out of town and issued bonds ranging from $100 to $1,000.
Others entered pleas and Crespo withheld judgment on their cases if they obey his order to stay away from the area near the adjoining Miami-Dade County jail for five days.
Most of them were arrested Friday during a demonstration in front of the jail as part of the protests against the hemisphere-wide FTAA, which would create the world's largest free trade zone.
The public defender's office will be representing the vast majority of the nearly 200 people arrested during this week's protests. Court officials said they could not immediately say how many would be released Saturday.
Friday's protest came a day after clashes between police and demonstrators on downtown Miami streets, blocks from where 34 trade ministers met to discuss the free trade area. Police used tear gas, rubber bullets and long batons and protesters hurled rocks and bottles and set trash fires during Thursday's confrontations.
Max Sussman, 20, of Ann Arbor, Mich., was there to support friends who appeared before Crespo on closed-circuit video. He echoed complaints made by other protesters that police were overagressive and brutal in their pursuit of anti-FTAA protesters.
``If you compare the number of arrests to the people that were seriously injured, it's plain that police wanted to hurt people on the street and not just clear them from the area,'' Sussman said.
At least 20 demonstrators were treated for injuries at area hospitals but protest organizers said dozens more were hurt.
In another courtroom, they sought a reduction in bond or release from jail for 16 people arrested on more serious felony charges, arguing there was not enough probable cause to hold them on bond amounts issued Thursday. They had been issued bonds ranging from $1,000 to $25,000 on charges including possession of burglary tools to battery of a police officer.
Public defender Andrew Stanton argued that six of the protesters who had not given their names to authorities were allowed representation because they were indigent. But Judge Alex Ferrer remanded the cases of four protesters back to bond court for a new hearing, kept the bond amounts in five other cases and ruled that the unidentified women cannot have court-appointed counsel.
``These Jane Does have not ... proven they are indigent,'' Ferrer said.
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