Protest Outside Convention Leads to Standoff With Police

3:15 p.m. | Updated About 200 protesters tried to march to the site of the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday afternoon, but they were stopped by the police before they could get to the site.

One man, John Penley, 60, of Asheville, N.C., was arrested after he tried to climb over a police barricade. Mr. Penley, who said he was a Navy veteran, had been carrying an American flag at the front of the protest.

“We want Bradley Manning freed,” Mr. Penley said as he was handcuffed, a reference to the Army intelligence analyst who is charged with disclosing more than 260,000 diplomatic cables, many of them classified, in an inquiry into the WikiLeaks disclosures.

As the protesters tried to push toward the convention center, a standoff ensued with the police. As the standoff entered its second hour, some protesters lay down on the pavement behind lines of police three and four deep as a police helicopter hovered above.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/protest-outside-convention-leads-to-standoff-with-police/?hp