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The San Francisco Police Department was out in force at the corner of Sansome and Sutter, across the street from One Citicorp Plaza, awaiting this afternoon's Reclaim the Streets S26 action in support of the IMF/WB protests in Praha. From noon to about 1:30 there were approx. 25 officers, four paddywagons, and a number of barricades all awaiting the action.

One member of the SFPD I spoke with said that he initially thought the protest would occur at 12:30, but now they were hearing it would be at 4:30. As I am writing this, from a building overlooking the protest site, I see the police are beginning to disperse--but they'll probably be back before long.

The police had a flippant attitude towards the protests. When I initially asked them what was going on, two officers started going on about busting the bike messengers who congregate at the corner for smoking bud (what the point of this was, I couldn't see). They then told me that it was a "demo", organized by "the same nuts who were at the media thing last weekend". Standing around, waiting for some heads to crack...all in a day's work for the SFPD, I suppose.

So there it is. Expect SFPD overkill this afternoon at Citicorp. But don't let that dampen your spirits.