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Big Fence Planned To Curb Protests
Area Around IMF to Get 9-Foot-High Protection

By Arthur Santana
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 17, 2001; Page B01

D.C. police plan to use nine-foot-high fencing to cordon off most of
the area around the White House, the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund to restrict protesters on the final weekend of
September.

Executive Assistant Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer yesterday
outlined what he described as one the main strategies authorities
have devised for containing demonstrations during IMF and World Bank
meetings. He said another strategy was to ask protesters to monitor
their own ranks.

His comments came on the eve of a briefing by city officials to
outline preparations for the fall meetings of the two world financial
bodies and for the nearly 50,000 protesters authorities anticipate.
Other city officials said they were unaware of plans for a buffer
zone. Meetings such as today's are intended to brief the public on
the progress of preparations, officials said.

Protest organizers and their supporters reacted angrily to the
fencing plan. "We believe [police] should not be turning Washington,
D.C., into a police state," said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a lawyer
for protesters. "If we pride ourselves on having a democracy and
having democratic freedoms, we should not carve out sections of the
city."

Protesters want to draw attention to problems of globalization, which
they see as benefiting rich nations at the expense of poor nations.

Gainer said police and other city officials have met with White House
officials twice this week to discuss plans and funding to underwrite
them. Claire Buchan, a White House spokeswoman, said a decision on
funding has not been made. "We are committed to ensuring the safety
of those who live and work here, as well as the visitors to
Washington," Buchan said.

Gainer said the plan, although not complete, was to enclose a section
of the city with higher fencing than ever used before in the capital.
The steel hurricane fencing, set in Jersey barriers, would cost about
$1.8 million of the $30 million officials have requested from the
White House.

Gainer said police hoped to allow protesters in Edward R. Murrow
Park, across from the World Bank, and on the Ellipse, but that was
uncertain. Murrow Park, favored by World Bank protesters as a
gathering place, could hold about 7,000 people -- those who arrive
first, he said.

The fencing could encompass an area of Northwest Washington roughly
between H Street on the north, 15th Street on the east, Constitution
Avenue on the south and 21st or 22nd Street on the west. Gainer said
the enclosed area would be about the same as for the IMF-World Bank
protests in April 2000, but the fencing would be much higher and only
police and people attending the meetings could pass.

He said waist-high bicycle fencing likely would be set up around the
immediate area of the IMF and World Bank buildings as an additional
precaution.

Protesters decried police plans as a waste of taxpayer money and a
ploy to paint protesters as violent hooligans. "It's unfortunate that
the police are trying to escalate antagonism," said Fred Azcarate,
executive director of Jobs with Justice, a national workers' rights
group. "Any outside observer would think the police are preparing for
war."

At previous protests of world economic bodies, police have employed
various tactics. High fencing was first used against anti-
globalization protesters in April in Quebec; police erected 10-foot
fences that protesters dubbed the Wall of Shame. Although it was
breached, Quebec police said, the fencing did its job.

Protests in Genoa, Italy, last month were marred by violence and by
the shooting of one protester by a police officer. Officials have
since said that some other incidents there involved police brutality.

Gainer said that police realize that only a small faction of
protesters might resort of violence or vandalism.

"We would hope that the larger group . . . would . . . suppress that
type of activity," Gainer said. He said that idea was presented to
protest organizers and that they said they couldn't be responsible
for everyone.
Verheyden-Hilliard said, "We have not seen protesters being violent
at demonstrations in Washington, D.C."

Staff writers Mike Allen, Sewell Chan, Manny Fernandez and Avram
Goldstein contributed to this report.