Weakened protest groups say truce with cops is over

DENVER – Defiant activists said they will no longer communicate with police, who dealt a blow to their organization with mass arrests Monday night.

"There is no truce with police anymore," said Recreate '68 organizer Glenn Spagnuolo during a news conference in front of police headquarters Tuesday.

Spagnuolo, visibly upset over the events of Monday night, said police had broken pledges to cooperate with protest groups to keep things peaceful and calm.

"This doesn't mean that we're going to be confrontational," Spagnuolo said. "It just means we can't trust the police anymore."

Recreate '68 leaders say police provoked a panic in the crowd gathered in Civic Center Park Monday night by parading officers in full riot gear through people gathered in small groups.

Activists say the crowd was not given a chance to disperse before police used pepper spray and made about 100 arrests.

Those arrests made a serious dent in the protest groups' strength, estimated at around 1,000 people. Police say they moved in when protesters, some of whom were carrying rocks, refused to disperse.

"We can only assume that they are trying to get some people in jail to keep them off the streets for the rest of the week," said Brian Vicente of the People's Law Project, a group offering assistance to those arrested.

A plan by the anarchist group Unconventional Denver to put street blockades in the way of convention-going delegates Tuesday was scrapped. An organizer said Monday's arrests took a toll on the group and they were meeting to assess their options for continued protests.

There were even protestors holding up signs on Tuesday asking for help with bond money for those who were arrested.

Crowds in Civic Center Park were calm and police appeared to have heard protesters requests to have mounted patrols and riot police stationed across from the park rather than inside it.

Mark Cohen of Recreate '68 said protesters were illegally detained and may file suit against the city for failing to give them a chance to comply with orders and leave before being arrested.

Monday's melee shattered nearly two full days of largely peaceful protests. Up to the minute before the confrontation, both police and protest leaders were remarking on how well the week was progressing.

"We were cooperating with them. They were cooperating with us," Cohen said. "What happened to change that situation?"

Pressed for specifics on what the "ending of the truce" would mean on the streets for the final days of the DNC, Spagnuolo shrugged.

"Whatever happens, happens," Spagnuolo.