Lee Hoagland -Current Location: Between Abu Dhabi & Dubai Magenta Flash Forward 2010 College Photographer of the Year IPPA NPPA VII New York Tim

Essays: Iraq War Protest

After removing tables from the streets of downtown Washington DC left by protesters on the 5th anniversary of the Iraq war a Captain (who refused to give his name) radios to other officers of the DCPD. The protestors were to be dismantled if traffic were to be delayed any more than it already had been.
   
To mark the 5th year anniversary of the commencement of the Iraq War members of the organization, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), began protested through the streets of Washington DC. Here the crowd has stopped in the middle of a road for a show of force and to listen to speeches by their organisation's leaders.
  
Two police officers stand in between a crowd of anti-war protestors and a small contingency of pro-war demonstrators(they say they support the troops first and the war second). Balloons of paint were being thrown from the anti-war supporters in response to taunts by the pro-war demonstrators. The police officers were there to keep the two groups apart.
     
  
A supporter of the war (left) exchanges words with members of Students for a Democratic Socety (SDS) which has strongly opposed the war since the beginning. With both sides emotional today the arguments escalated without any common ground found. The last words between the two people photographed pointing fingers were "you're in college, you don't know what is actually going on, you live in a fantasy world"(man on the left). The young lady(on the right) responded by saying "well if you're so for this war why dont you go fight?". "I am" the young man responded.
  
After a few hours of peaceful protesting police officers began encirlcing protestors and squeezing them in a circle which got smaller and smaller. Many of the men and women could not move and asked the officers to stop. The DCPD responded by telling them they would stop once everyone left the premises. Unfortunately even if the protestors had wanted to, it would've been impossible to leave since the officers had created a human blockade. This situation continued for another hour.
   
What started out as a peaceful protest in Washington D.C. by a couple hundred mebers of SDS turned into a show of force by the DCPD. They started encircling protestors, squeezing them in, and in this case grabbing a young lady twirling her around and throwing her to the ground.
     
  
After a few hours of peaceful protesting police officers began encirlcing protestors and squeezing them in a circle which got smaller and smaller. Many of the men and women could not move and asked the officers to stop. The DCPD responded by telling them they would stop once everyone left the premises. Unfortunately even if the protestors had wanted to, it would've been impossible to leave since the officers had created a human blockade. This situation continued for another hour.
   
March 19 2008: Seconds before this image was taken the woman photographed had been dancing peacefully in the street during the anti-war protests. The woman(who declined to give her name but identified herself as a 60 year old woman) was thrown to the ground and then carted off by DCPD. Many members of her organization, Code Pink, and of SDS, were stopped by the police in what seemed to be an overtly agressive way to deal with people who were peaceful protesting