Diverse group protests inauguration

WASHINGTON -- We came to support Bush some came to see the spectacle, but in the early morning hours, people along the inaugural parade route had other intentions.\n The crowd of protesters grew restless after two hours of waiting in the rain. Early reports said Pennsylvania Avenue was controlled by protesters and that there were few Bush supporters in attendance on the street.\nAs security at checkpoints tightened, conversations between protesters suggested that their right to peaceably assemble might be denied for the appearance of a peaceful transition of power. Protesters questioned whether Pennsylvania Avenue would be treated as a public street or presidential property.\n"They won't let us into Freedom Plaza, because they've got checkpoints," announced a protest organizer over a megaphone. "There were some black people in Florida on Nov. 7. They couldn't get to the polls because there was a checkpoint. The police stopped 'em so they couldn't vote," he continued.\nAllegations of racism in the Florida elections brought many to Washington, some bearing signs which read, "Bush = racism." The chant, "racist, sexist, anti-gay, Bush and Cheney go away" was common. The Black Panther party, dressed in black, with patches of Africa on their shoulders, also appeared to protest the inauguration.\nMany protesters, irate at anti-Iraq sanctions, have not forgotten the role former President George Bush had in the affair. "Hey Bush, we know you, your father was a killer, too" some protesters chanted.\nSigns reflected the varied attitudes of the protesters. Many came with a specific agenda, but all disagreed with what they perceived as an unfair election.\nMany hoped to take advantage of the media coverage to gain publicity for their ideals. Some recognized that demonstrating along the restricted area of the parade route would make them impossible to ignore.\nEllen Shade, a protester from Taos, N.M., made her views clear: "I call him Governor Death," she said. "He's not my president." \nMany protesters in the crowd were incensed at George W. Bush's record on the death penalty. After presiding over more than 150 executions, Bush's compassion is viewed skeptically. "Stop me before I kill again" read one sign -- a picture of George W. Bush superimposed over a stop sign.\nMany supporters, angry at Bush's environmental record in Texas and frightened by his promises to drill oil in Alaska, protested that he had been elected through corporate sponsorship.\nAlong Pennsylvania Avenue, protesters cried out that this is not democracy. Many saw the police presence as excessive -- D.C. police were lined four deep and two feet apart between 12th and 13th streets and Pennsylvania Avenue. A total of 7,000 police officers monitored the crowds. Platoons of about 40 groups patrolled up and down the street, and members of the armed forces marched two abreast through the ranks of police officers.\nProtest organizers kept each other in check. One said over a megaphone, "An endless stream of rumors. You hear a rumor, a few blocks up, people are being arrested. And then, we all turn around and run to where those people are being arrested. What's the net effect of that? It's that we've lost the area we're fighting to get." \n"When the riot police arrived, protesters had their video cameras out in two seconds flat," Robin Larsen, a Bloomington resident said.\nNorth of Pennsylvania Avenue, over the pounding of drums and the chanting of protesters, Christina Poughkeepsie, originally from New Hampshire but now a resident of the Phillipines, said that she was excited about changing the state.\n"We need change," she said. "We need positive change." Christina is a veteran of the large D.C. protest over the International Monetary Fund in April of last year.\nAbout 20,000 protesters were expected, and the protest was the largest inaugural protest since anti-Vietnam protesters flooded Richard Nixon's second inauguration in 1973.\nThe protesters gathered in the steady drizzle Saturday had many smaller messages, but were united under one message: George W. Bush did not represent their interests. \nOne chant reflected their optimism -- "Ain't no power but the power of the people, and the power of the people don't stop"