World Bank protests
September 2002
by Chris Orcutt

DC was a little insane today because of the protesters who are pissed off at the World Bank. The DC cops made over 600 arrests and I surprised myself by siding with the police.

These protesters are going about it in totally the wrong way, and they’ve turned DC residents from all ideological and political points of view against them. Their goal was to disrupt life here as much as possible by, for example, driving very slowly in caravans on the beltway that encircles DC, and slowing commuters down. How does this spread their message? There was a group that sat down in the middle of a downtown intersection that was nowhere near the World Bank, and the people driving into work got stuck in a traffic jam. And this furthers the cause how? They have made their message meaningless, which is possibly the worst thing any protester can do. And the women who stripped down to their underwear in front of a Georgetown Gap store were saying. . .what? Give me a break. Like anyone is going to notice what a woman in her underwear is actually saying.

I’m really bent about all of this. Living in DC is a bit of a sacrifice since there are so many protests and demonstrations, but that’s also one of the great things about being here too: it’s visible democracy in action. But for these protestors to go out of their way to target regular people who have nothing to do with their cause or message infuriates me. I’m really annoyed that I have to go out of town this weekend—they are marching up to my neighborhood on Sunday, and I would love to be there to meet them. And inconvenience them a LOT.

Idiots.


(Chris Orcutt is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine)