Arrests, Beatings as Saturday Protest Turns Violent

1/21 A Metro paperbox was thrown through both the Howe Street and Georgia Street facing windows of the TD Bank. Photo: Justin Langille.

2/21 The march began at Pacific Central Station at Main and Terminal and snaked its way down to Georgia and Cardero, where it was stopped by armed riot police. In between, march leaders tactically stopped the crowd and directed it down various streets.

3/21 Photo compliments of insurgent photo via The Tyee photo pool.

4/21 A Canadian flag hangs upside down from a woman's umbrella as she walks ahead of the march past Main and Prior streets.

5/21 Photo compliments of HassleTheHoff via The Tyee photo pool.

6/21 Lou Barker watches the march make it's way down Main Street with his father. "This is our Olympic experinece," said his father Jay Barker. Photo: Justin Langille.

7/21 Protesters provoke police during a short stall in the march down Georgia Street. Photo Justin Langille.

8/21 Police push back against protesters during a confrontation on Georgia Street. Photo Justin Langille.

9/21 A vocal protester at the front of the line raises her fist in solidarity as the crowd chants their way down Georgia Street. Photo: Justin Langille.

10/21 Photo compliments of HassleTheHoff via The Tyee photo pool.

11/21 Paper boxes were a specific target of the rioters, who were engaged in "diverse tactics" today, according to one demonstrator. Here a rioter puts his strength into pulling a Province newspaper box across the corner of Howe and Smithe streets. Photo: Justin Langille.

12/21 Protesters arrange paper boxes in the middle of an intersection to block it off. Photo: Justin Langille.

13/21 Photo compliments of insurgent photo via The Tyee photo pool.

14/21 Protesters threw a Province paper box through one of the Georgia Street facing windows. Photo: Justin Langille.

15/21 Police push back against protesters during a confrontation on Georgia Street. Photo: Justin Langille.

16/21 A Metro paperbox was thrown through both the Howe Street and Georgia Street facing windows of the TD Bank. Photo: Justin Langille.

17/21 The march stopped at Georgia and Howe to change direction just before Hudson Bay windows were smashed. Photo: Justin Langille.

18/21 Photo compliments of BCOL CCCP via The Tyee photo pool.

19/21 Photo compliments of HassleTheHoff via The Tyee photo pool.

20/21 Photo compliments of HassleTheHoff via The Tyee photo pool.

21/21 Photo compliments of insurgent photo via The Tyee photo pool.

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An anti-Olympics protest through downtown Vancouver turned violent Saturday morning. At least two protesters were hauled away in handcuffs near the intersection of Cardero and Georgia. The arrests followed physical clashes between activists and riot police. Several protesters claimed police brutality after they were hit with batons and wrestled to the ground.

The police, meanwhile, were trying to control militant factions that seemed intent on provoking a confrontation.

"I myself made a peaceful march down here," said Blayde, an activist with a green bandana stretched across his face. But many protesters today couldn't make the same claim. Clad in black with covered faces, some used newspaper boxes as battering rams to smash through windows at the downtown Bay department store and a nearby bank. "There's always gonna be some in a crowd that are gonna take it up to the next level," Blayde said.

Protesters gathered in Thornton Park, in front of Pacific Central station, at about 8:30 this morning. A crowd of about 300 pushed down Main Street towards Hastings. Bemused Chinese men watched from their storefronts. Cymbals clashed and tubas roared. The march took a left on Hastings and headed west.

Near Victory Square, a contingent of about two-dozen activists began to kick over newspaper boxes and spray-paint anarchy symbols and anti-Olympics slogans on the sides of buildings. The contingent was dressed head-to-toe in black. Some members carried a sign that read Anti-Poverty Committee, a group known for militant protests in 2007. Many of them tried to swat cameras out of people's hands, including accredited press.

One grabbed this reporter's notebook and yelled: "You're a fucking cop, aren't you?"

As the march progressed, the vandalism became more emboldened. Several of the black-clad activists pulled a large blue dumpster into the middle of the road and flipped it. Further downtown, activists charged with a Vancouver Province newspaper box into a window at the Bay building at Georgia and Granville. Others hurled eggs filled with red paint. More activists slammed a Metro newspaper box through a TD Bank storefront. A bystander, Marc Daigle, tried to confront one of the activists who did it, and was violently shoved.

"I don't mind protesting," Daigle told the Tyee. "When your protesting starts demolishing private property, you look like an idiot and your message doesn't get out."

By this point, riot police with wooden batons and plexiglass masks began amassing behind the march. They closed in on opposite sides of the sidewalk and began approaching individual protesters. One activist in black was grabbed by police. He punched a riot cop in the face, then ran back into the crowd. When police attempted to block the march at Cardero and Georgia, things got violent. People ran in all directions. Several activists were hauled to the ground. Others were hit with batons. Ryan Lundy, a non affiliated photographer who came to document the event, was hit several times.

"A cop came behind me and smacked me in the groin with his baton. I was hit from behind with a shield. I went down to the ground. Two cops hit me about three times," he said. As people began to disperse, two activists dressed in white with colourful wigs were dragged away in handcuffs and put into police paddy wagons.

Protesters wouldn't release the names of either. As of posting time, there were reports of about 80 protesters near Robson and Broughton streets and an estimated 150 police. Yesterday's mass demonstration at the Vancouver Art Gallery was praised by civil rights observers for being peaceful on all sides.

Stay tuned to the Tyee and The Tyee's news blog, The Hook, for more.