March 16, 2008
Several People Are Injured at Chinese Consulate Protest
By JOHN ELIGON and SU****L CHEEMA
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/03/16/nyregion/16protest.span.jpg
Outside the Chinese consulate at 42nd Street and the West Side Highway,
a crowd protested the recent violence in Tibet.
A demonstration in front of the Chinese consulate in Midtown Manhattan
briefly turned violent on Saturday morning, with protesters throwing
rocks at the building as police officers tried to get them off the
street, according to demonstrators and the police.
Several people, including three police officers, sustained minor
injuries, according to the Fire Department.
The police said there were several arrests.
The violence broke out sometime between 10 and 10:30 a.m., protesters
said. Several people said that there were only a small number of police
officers on the scene when the crowd had started gathering about 9:30.
Within an hour, though, many more officers arrived, protesters said, and
when the police tried to get the demonstrators off 42nd Street and onto
the sidewalk, a scuffle began.
Demonstrators threw rocks at the building, some witnesses said, while
the officers responded with shoving and pepper spray. The police said
Saturday afternoon that they could not confirm what kind of force was
used.
The confrontation was short, witnesses said, and the police contained
the demonstrators behind barricades across from the consulate, which is
on 42nd Street at the West Side Highway.
By Saturday afternoon, roughly 80 police officers, some in riot gear,
stood outside the consulate.
A window on the 42nd Street side of the consulate had two holes in it.
The demonstration, which attracted about 1,000 people, was organized
Friday night by several area Tibetan organizations in response to
violence on Friday in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, organizers said.
State media re****ted that 10 people had been killed in Tibet as Chinese
security forces suppressed demonstrations.
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