Miami demonstrators arrested protesting arrests
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Police officers detain protesters who refused to disperse from in front of the Miami-Dade County Jail.
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MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) -- Demonstrators who gathered outside a Miami jail to protest the arrest of their colleagues during this week's trade talks were themselves arrested after defying police orders to disperse Friday.
Anti-globalization activists and other protesters flocked to Miami to show opposition to the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which would create the world's largest trading bloc, a free-trade area of 34 countries and 800 million people.
By the time the talks ended Thursday night, more than 140 demonstrators had been arrested on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to assaulting police officers.
About 100 protesters gathered near a downtown jail Friday, chanting "Let them go, let them go" and accused police of heavy-handedness.
They were quickly outnumbered and surrounded by police in riot gear, who warned them to leave or face arrest for unlawful assembly. About 25 lingered, some staging a sit-in and police put them in plastic handcuffs and took them away in buses.
"They were given a lawful order to disperse. They were given time to disperse," said Police Sgt. Dennis Morales.
Protester Medea Benjamin, a member of the human rights group Global Exchange, said she had visited Iraq three times this year and compared the Miami police action to that of U.S. soldiers in Baghdad.
"No more militarization and no more occupation in our own country," Benjamin said.
Miami threw a security blanket around the trade talks, calling in thousands of law enforcement officers from around the state to squelch the kind of violence that has marred international trade talks in other cities in recent years.
Miami Police Chief John Timoney, defended the officers' approach, saying they had acted effectively against a small group of protesters bent on violence. He said while most of the demonstrators were peaceful, a group he described as hard-core anarchists had thrown rocks, paint, gas canisters, smoke bombs, and fruit at police.
"We are very proud of the police officers and their restraint. Lots of objects were thrown at the police officers," Timoney said. "If we didn't act when we did, it would have been much worse."
He estimated the cost of providing security during the talks at $10 million to $11 million.
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