MIAMI -- The Free Trade Area of the Americas conference has reportedly seen its first arrests, a week before the major trade conference is scheduled to begin in Miami.
Tens of thousands of conference attendees and protesters are expected to converge on downtown Miami for the FTAA meetings starting Monday.
Protesters began arriving in Miami this week, and some claim they are not being greeted warmly by police, who have pledged to treat anti-trade demonstrators with professionalism.
Anti-trade treaty activists claimed two of their members were arrested on a Miami street corner Tuesday afternoon. They said the arrests were part of a harassment campaign by the Miami Police Department.
"We don't know where they are," said one activist. "I saw them in cuffs on the sidewalk."
The activists did not disclose the names of those who were allegedly arrested.
At a warehouse space activists have turned into a welcome center for arriving protestors, activists told reporters the two people who were arrested had come to Miami to serve as medics during demonstrations next week.
Activist Dave Meddle said a group of activists was surrounded by five patrol cars as they prepared to open the warehouse, and interrogated before the two were led into a police car.
Meddle conceded he didn't see the events that preceded the arrests at the corner of 21st Street and North Miami Avenue, but he said the arrests were part of harassment he's already been through.
"I've been stopped," Meddle said, "and I've been followed home by police."
Miami police spokesmen were off for the Veterans Day holiday and shift commanders who spoke to NBC 6 could not confirm any protestor arrests.
Miami police officials have pledged to respect the First Amendment rights of those who come to the city to protest a free-trade treaty for the Americas. But protestors say police Chief John Timoney's history doesn't bode well, and that as police chief in Philadelphia during the 2000 Republican convention, Timoney had little regard for protestors' rights.
"People are very nervous about (Timoney)," said one activist, who charged that in 2000, Timoney "made a concerted effort to take preemptive strikes against protestors who were making paper mache puppets and signs."
Police in Miami have said they are concerned about violent protests erupting during the trade talks as happened in Seattle in 1999 and Cancun, Mexico in September.
They have made few details available about how they plan to control potential crowds and whether the strategy includes preemptive arrests.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper which first published the article online and which is indicated at the top of the article unless otherwise specified.