The Anti-War Committee has gone through with its promise to march from the Capitol to the Xcel Energy Center. Using roadblocks made out of lines of bicycle-mounted police and officers in riot gear, security forces diverted the march from its intended path of heading straight south to the Xcel Center.
The crowd of about 1,000 was driven - still marching at a controlled pace - onto the John Ireland Boulevard overpass, where they stopped, halted by a line of horse-mounted police, backed by riot squads and, further back, snow plows. The crowd is mostly full of young-looking people - from high school to their 20s.
At about 5:20, the horse-mounted police departed the overpass. The crowd cheered, but one man with a ponytail and beard noted that "Horses don't have gas masks."
A group at the very edge of the police line sat, and began chanting "You're sexy, you're cute, take off those riot suits." At the north end of the bridge, police blocked the route marchers entered through - the only one they could use to gain access to downtown and the Xcel Center.
Some of the demonstrators wandered back, away from the chanting pack, and watched events play out from across the street. A group of protesters on bicycles and skateboards rode in a circle, shouting slogans like "You can question authority, too" at the police.
Several of the police officers held cans of pepper spray. The marchers were contained, and chanting, but not pushing against police lines or damaging any property.
(Story and photo by Rob Margetta.)
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