n18 photos from Cincy

These 1st shots were taken outside the Omni Netherland Plaza where the TABD conference was held. We marched south (photo faces west) down Vine St. where cops divided our march as we tried to cross the street. On the opposite side of street someone had spray painted on a building. Cincinnati hates art, don't you know! The cops arrest an Indymedia reporter (woman in pink and blue).After this the crowd chants protests and a legal advisor asks the woman be released. The cops ignore her; she raises her voice and then they arrest her. The crowd roars and the trigger happy cops have not one, but 6 gunmen prepare to fire rubber/sponge bullets on the crowd. 3 were at close range. The others are behind the barriers in front of the Omni. I hadn't advanced my film from the previous shot, slowing my catching the cops in the act of nearly firing. The shot with the cops with their backs facing the camera shows the gunmen initially. They lowered the gun muzzles and two took off to the right. The arrest bus waits omniously 15 feet away. The crowd remains on fountain square after this (behind me) in photos. I went over to where other marchers were returning after presenting token pigs to the corporate criminals Chiquita and Procter and Gamble (building in 1st march shot).
Remaining marchers convened on fountain square (photo). All was quiet until cops started thickening their numbers. Some marched down in troop formation (photo) and were heckled by protestors chanting the music played to announce storm trooper in Star Wars. Soon after something went wrong to the left of me. I never saw what happened accept cops moving very quickly to arrest some people in bandanas. Nothing violent occured or could have. Some say a guy touched a horses face, they arrested him and then his girlfriend as she came after him. I have pictures of the arrest of the girl. Things became ugly after that. When the crowd chanted protests, they pepper sprayed the crowd. These spray jets have about a 2-3 foot range. I tried to photograph them in the act (photo with ATM faintly visible in back. Note the couple fleeing to the left) to no avail. Note, however, in the shot of the crowd confronting the cops after this episode, the officer in the second row of cops has a large black pepper spray canister and the officer at the top of photo has a sponge/"rubber" bullet gun pointed at point blank range at the crowd. More to tell, later.