Protests dog Republican convention

By Grant McCool

NEW YORK - Five thousand people protesting high job losses have formed a 3 mile (5
km) unemployment line in Manhattan and AIDS activists disrupted a Republican meeting on the third
day of the party’s convention to nominate the president to a second term in office.

Police arrested 19 people in several incidents on Wednesday, bringing the total of those detained so
far during seven days of relentless convention-related protests to more than 1,760, a record for a U.S.
political convention.

President George W. Bush arrived in New York and about 15 supporters greeted him with chants of
"Four More Years" as he met with firefighters in the borough of Queens. Some 50 detractors signs and
chanted nearby.

"After robbing the people of the popular vote and stealing the last election, the Bush administration’s
policies give me a pain in my gut," said Leon Comeau, 33, of Queens, who participated in the protest.

Bush won the deciding electoral college vote in the 2000 election against Democrat Al Gore after
weeks of ballot disputes in Florida.

HISTORIC ARRESTS

New York criminal court spokesman David Bookstaver said Tuesday’s arrests in Manhattan were
"historic in that we had we had a record number 1,191 convention-related arrests in one borough for
one day."

The arrests surpassed the 589 detentions during the rioting that marred the 1968 Democratic
convention in Chicago. Most of the New York protests have been peaceful, but one police officer was
beaten unconscious in a fracas blocks from the Madison Square Garden convention site on Monday
night.

Hundreds of people on Wednesday protested the conditions under which those arrested during the
convention are being held before going to court, calling the facility "Guantanamo on the Hudson," a
reference to the U.S. naval base in Cuba housing prisoners from the war in Afghanistan.

They said the site, a bus depot at a Hudson River pier, was contaminated with oil and asbestos, a
charge the police department denied.

Police said 12 people were arrested on Wednesday when AIDS activists from the ACT UP group
breached the Madison Square Garden convention hall and briefly interrupted a speech by White
House Chief of Staff Andrew Card to young Republicans, including Bush’s twin daughters.

ACT UP said activists stood on chairs and held signs to urge the administration to relieve billions of
dollars in debt of poor countries to help fund HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs.

The third day of the convention also brought out 5,000 silent marchers protesting job losses during
the Bush administration. Tens of thousands other protesters gathered for two hours in a designated
demonstration area two blocks from the convention arena in support of more union jobs in the United
States.

The "unemployment line" snaked 3 miles (5 km) from Wall Street to central Manhattan. The
participants held leaflets that read "The Next Pink Slip Could Be Yours," referring to the paper notice
given those who are laid off.

The U.S. economy has lost 1.1 million jobs since Bush took office. (Reuters)

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