03/15/2003

By ANTONIA GIEDWOYN and JIM PARKER, kgw.com Staff

Up to 30,000 protesters streamed through downtown Portland streets Saturday afternoon, waving signs saying "Vive la France" and toting paper mache effigies of George Bush dressed as a gunslinging cowboy, in the city's largest anti-war rally to date.

Police said the large peace rally went smoothly for the most part, but took an non-peaceful turn as a splinter group of several hundred demonstrators became a traffic nuisance, challenging police authority.

A police line clears a group of protesters off the Morrison Bridge. (AP Photo)

Approximately 150 from the splinter group made it to the I-5 on ramp and tried to get onto I-5, but were pushed back by police.

Police spokesman Henry Groepper said one man was arrested from the crowd and charged with rioting. The individual could be seen from KGW's Sky 8 helicopter repeatedly shoving officers attempting to move the crowd back.

The suspect was later determined to be under the age of 18 and was released to the custody of his parents, Groepper said.

Thousands of anti-war demonstrators convene at Waterfront Park. (AP photo)

Meantime, an estimated 30,000 demonstrators marched cooperatively along the designated march route, which did not include the Morrison Bridge. The sea of people crammed shoulder to shoulder marched through downtown to protest a possible U.S. war with Iraq. The group looped through Old Town and downtown before returning to Waterfront Park.

Protesters voiced mixed reactions to the group that encroached upon the Morrison Bridge.

"I don't like that they diverted attention away from peace," said one Portland resident along the march route.

Others said the demonstrators blocking traffic were doing was simply a form of free speech and civil disobedience.

Protesters carry a banner during an anti-war rally. (AP Photo)

Demonstrators consisted of young and old alike. Many carried colorful signs, some beat drums. One man decorated his dog with an anti-war slogan.

Many of those attending the rally said they were frustrated that the Bush administration seemed to be ignoring anti-war protests that have been held nationwide during the past months. They said Bush didn't seem to care about domestic opposition to an Iraqi invasion without the support of the United Nations.

"I love this country, but I'm really upset with the leadership. They're not listening to the people," said Andrew Freeman, 26, of Arcata, Calif. "Most of the world is against us."

Eduardo Martinez-Zapata, 33, of Forest Grove, said that Bush's policies could cost him politically whether an Iraqi invasion was successful or not.

Earlier in the day, thousands of people packed into Tom McCall Waterfront Park to listen to Georgia Congressman John Lewis, the keynote speaker who helped kick off the anti-war rally.

The crowd cheered loudly for Lewis, who spoke against war in a booming, Martin Luther King Jr.-like voice.

Lewis, a sharecropper's son, helped organize the 1963 March on Washington that preceded civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have A Dream" speech. He has since served nine terms in Congress.

"Just continue to get in the way," he told listeners. He said those rallying against the war would be "judged by the spirit of history and not by what they're saying in the White House."

According to organizers, about 150 organizations were involved in helping coordinate the rally which was sponsored by the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Saturday's peace rally was the fourth major anti-war march to occur in Portland in recent months. The largest previous rally took place In January, when an estimated 25,000 peace activists marched through downtown Portland in a protest that coincided with demonstrations around the world.

A group holding a large yellow banner reading "The World Says No War" walked at the front. (AP Photo)

Across the Northwest, smaller rallies in Eugene and Medford drew several thousand people. Hundreds of marchers also gathered at the Seattle federal courthouse, in contrast to the thousands that gathered in the city of Seattle a couple of weeks ago.

Saturday's marches in the Northwest added to tens of thousands who rallied worldwide, including in Washington D.C., U.S. air bases in Germany and streets throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

(KGW reporters Kelly Love and Dave Northfield, along with NWCN and the AP, contributed to this report.)