Frustrations ran high among police and protesters after an intense afternoon of demonstrations Saturday.
After hours of marching, skirmishes with police and deafening noise, it all appeared to end after a series of arrests on the waterfront.
Earlier in the afternoon, protesters had marched down Citadel Hill to Spring Garden Road.
A couple of protesters took yellow tape and cordoned off the street in front of Sport Nova Scotia, but police in riot gear broke through that line.
At 4:50 p.m., riot police rushed the front line of demonstrators. Plastic water bottles flew through the air at police, who fired plastic pellets filled with powder similar to pepper spray.
One man was trapped between the two groups in his car, waiting to pick up his wife from work.
"I'd rather get out of here and get home," Jeff Hallett said, as police put handcuffs on a protester just metres from his car.
Everywhere the protesters went, they found streets blocked by riot police.
Little damage was done, as most people wrote on buildings and streets with chalk. Only one person was seen spray-painting graffiti, hitting the TD Bank and marking other buildings on the way to the waterfront.
Some took concrete blocks found along Barrington Street and piled them in the middle of the road but didn't use them as a barricade.
At the intersection of Salter and Lower Water streets, the crowd surrounded a Halifax Regional Police motorcycle. Some grabbed at the motorcycle as the officer drove through the crowd. But within minutes, he had made his way through unharmed.
The crowd continued down toward Murphy's on the Water and more police in riot gear marched across the Brewery Market lot.
"I wanna run," one teenage boy said. "Those guys are scary."
At 5:30 p.m., officers were heard shouting at a man with a pink bandana over his face, telling him to drop something he was carrying. The protester kept running. Officers chased him and pinned him to the ground.
Within minutes, seven other people were under arrest in the parking lot across from the market. Officers piled on top of six people. The sound of a stun gun could be heard as officers tried to subdue them.
Other officers surrounded the pile of people with weapons drawn and yelled at others to stay away. One pointed a rifle-styled weapon at a reporter for this newspaper, repeatedly saying, "Back off."
Nearby, a regional policeman drew his service pistol as a plainclothes officer arrested another protester.
Officers refused to let the remaining protesters continue down Lower Water Street. One man taking photos was threatened with arrest if he didn't get out of the area.
While witnessing one arrest, a man with a yellow armband and sign saying Legal Observer stepped in to watch one arrest. An officer told him to step back or risk being arrested.
Before Friday's protests, organizers announced that those wearing the signs were law students who had volunteered to monitor police actions.
Screaming, shouting, sporadic sirens and the sound of barking police dogs filled the air.
One frustrated regional police officer could be heard shouting "Grow up!" at the protesters.
A man in blue jeans and a jean jacket who'd been taking pictures throughout the protest was chased up Salter Street and pinned to the ground by officers, as protesters demanded to know why he was being arrested.
Within minutes, police were chasing another man up Salter Street. They stopped him at Hollis Street, pushed him to his knees and slammed his face into an iron fence.
One witness said the last man arrested had taunted a police dog by saying, "Here, doggy" and was then chased by police.
"There was no reason for that," said the man, who identified himself only as John from Nova Scotia. "He was far enough away. It seemed like they were just going after people for the fun of it."
And even after protesters dispersed, at about 6 p.m., police in riot gear continued to patrol downtown Halifax early Saturday evening and blocked many streets near the Grand Parade. Some who were at the protests were stopped on the streets and asked to show identification.
Halifax Regional Police spokesman Sgt. Don Spicer and RCMP provincial spokesman Sgt. Wayne Noonan said they were looking into reports of weapons drawn and stun guns used during 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.