I had a press ID from the Independent Media Center. I was officially a non-protester. I thought I’d be safe from police brutality. But my flimsy Xeroxed badge could do nothing to stop me from getting pepper sprayed. Armed with only my video camera, I was covering the massive peace demonstrations in Washington, D.C. held on Saturday, Sept 29th. That weekend was originally set aside to protest the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF. But after the events of September 11th, the meetings were called off and a new enemy raised its ugly face: war.

There were two main groups organizing for the weekend’s demonstrations: the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (ACC) —made up mostly of anti-authoritarian anarchists— and International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). A.N.S.W.E.R had gotten the city’s permission to hold a rally and march. The ACC didn’t even bother to ask.

Gathering in a square next to Union Station at 9 am, the ACC planned to start off the day with a march to the World Bank and IMF buildings, based on the idea that corporate globalization causes just as much (if not more) suffering as would a war on the Afghani people.

Since the march was not “permitted,” the police played an aggressive role, trying to surround the square to keep the march from starting. After they failed to contain the crowd of two thousand, they decided to forcibly control the direction the march would take.

A solid line of storm trooper-costumed riot cops followed along each side of the entire procession. There were also three police cars driving in front to keep the march at a slow pace. Most of the time, I followed the march on the sidewalk, but on several occasions, police officers pushed me into the crowd. “No way, sir. You are not media,” said one as I flashed my IMC press badge in objection to being targeted as a protester.

Whenever those leading the march attempted to turn southward, they were pushed and beaten back as policeman shouted, “Continue to march on H street! Westbound on H Street! Continue to march!” I saw this occur several times, and could tell that tensions were escalating.

Eventually, those in front broke into a run to try to beat the police to the next intersection. As the march gained pace, the leading cop cars were overtaken and became trapped in the crowd. As one car was spit on and yelled at, I watched Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer as he grabbed a canister of pepper spray from the scared driver and threw it back into the car, saying “Roll up your window!”

At that point, a masked individual carrying a black flag whacked Chief Gainer flat on his head and disappeared back into the advancing crowd. For a brief second, there was calm. Then all hell broke loose.

I don’t know where it came from. The spray just seemed to materialize out of thin air. It hit my eyes full on, and I was blinded from the pain. I called for water, and I saw the fuzzy outline of a Canadian gas mask as a street medic flushed out my eyes in the middle of pure chaos. Sirens were blaring, a helicopter was flying overhead, motorcycles were roaring through the crowd at full throttle, and I was pushed first in one direction then another by riot cops who were just as confused as I was. For a moment, I seriously thought the world was ending.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the chaos ended. My vision returned, and the march had somehow regrouped, continuing toward the World Bank and IMF buildings.

From then on, everything seemed rather surreal. I followed the ACC march to World Bank plaza, where we were all held against our will for over an hour (“to calm down the group,” said the police later). Then I was herded along with the ACC group as they were forced to “join” the eight thousand people at the permitted ANSWER rally at Freedom plaza.

I left DC the next day – still feeling the painful effects of the spray – angry over the fact that if I had been wearing an NBC or CNN press badge, my experience would have been drastically different.