MIAMI -- Police congratulated themselves Friday for protecting Miami during this week's anti-globalization protests, saying their intensive training and overwhelming show of force would become a model for future mass protests elsewhere.
A wide spectrum of activists and ordinary citizens, however, were disturbed by the notion that anyone would applaud turning an American city into a militarized zone in anticipation of people exercising their constitutional rights.
One even called on Florida's two U.S. senators to conduct an inquiry into the $8.5 million Congress appropriated to underwrite security and other costs of hosting the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit.
Activists and civil-liberties groups said lawsuits will almost certainly be filed against police.
Those vows came Friday as about 400 police clad in riot gear surrounded a peaceful vigil at the Dade County Jail where some 200 protesters were demanding the release of their jailed comrades. Several were pepper-sprayed and more than 50 were arrested for failing to disperse.
The summit drew to a close Thursday, after an estimated 10,000 demonstrators running the gamut from anarchists to retirees converged on Miami's shuttered downtown to oppose the creation of the largest free-trade zone in the world.
Though the protests were largely peaceful, they were overshadowed by a handful of violent clashes between several hundred demonstrators and legions of police, including a dozen called in from Lake County.
Scores of people, including some bystanders and elderly retirees, were beaten, tear-gassed had nasty welts and bruises from rubber bullets.
Seattle riot was catalyst
Police and city officials credited their readiness and massive response with avoiding a repeat of the so-called Battle of Seattle, a watershed event in the growing movement against corporate globalization that caught police off guard during the 1999 World Trade Organization talks held in that city.
By the time order was restored, 200 National Guard troops were patrolling the streets, more than 600 people were in jail and Seattle businesses were left with $3 million worth of damage.
"We couldn't be more satisfied with the results and our preparedness," Miami police Lt. Bill Schwartz said Friday. "We based the threat on Seattle. We wanted to make damn sure it didn't happen in Miami and it didn't. We will probably become the model for all cities facing major protests."
That prospect horrified Medea Benjamin, director of Global Exchange, a nonprofit environmental group, who said she got a personal taste of Miami's show of force while returning to her hotel with colleagues late Thursday morning.
"We got pulled out of our van by 12 cops with guns who said, 'Hands up. Give us all your stuff. Empty your purse,' " she said, comparing the police presence to the one she witnessed on a recent trip to Baghdad.
"If this is the model, then we're heading for a police state."
Police arrest about 200
Through the week, police made about 200 FTAA-related arrests, most for misdemeanors.
Tony Fransetta, president of the Florida Alliance for Senior Citizens, was still livid Friday that half the 26 buses of retirees the alliance brought to Miami from around the state Thursday were turned away because police had "locked down" the city.
He said he will ask Sens. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson to conduct an inquiry into how summit funding was spent.
"They treated us all like terrorists and spent too much money on creating a mindless, senseless, reckless police state," Fransetta said.
But police insisted the harsh measures were necessary because of the actions of a violent minority.
"If they're upset or concerned they didn't have as many people as expected, or people didn't have the access they expected, they should blame it on the hard core thugs who came to town," he said.
Clash with cops got ugly
The major police presence was visible at the Miami-Dade jail Friday, as approximately 400 police officers dressed in full riot gear confronted a peaceful group of about 200.
"Let them go! Let them go," the protesters chanted as police helicopters swirled overhead.
They demanded the release of several dozen comrades who had been swept up in Thursday's clashes.
Police said they saw some of the protesters pick up "projectiles" like small rocks, and fearing another confrontation, ordered them to disperse.
Most did. But seven protesters, engaging in an act of civil disobedience, sat down a block from the jail and were arrested.
"We don't have the right to peacefully assemble in this country," one of the seven, a young woman, said as she was led away in handcuffs.
Minutes later, about 50 others stopped two blocks away and faced an oncoming line of police ordering them to disperse. As many of the protesters began retreating and chanting, "We are dispersing. We are dispersing," police swept in.
Pushing some against a collapsing fence and using pepper spray, they arrested dozens.
Maya Bell can be reached at mbell@orlandosentinel.com or 305-810-5003. Sean Mussenden can be reached at 407-650-6361 or smussenden@orlandosentinel.com.
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