"I get around it by going to thrift stores," he said, warming his hands around a cup of coffee. "This shirt is a Gap shirt but I bought it at a used clothing store."
Anger at World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies and big business in general is what drew hundreds of protesters out for another day.
Despite the weather, activists roamed through deserted city streets, chanting and singing.
About 500 were arrested yesterday, not all so peacefully, making for a total of more than 1,000 during three days of protests.
Unlike demonstrations Sunday when police let protesters take over streets, confrontations developed yesterday over the din of traffic as Washingtonians went to work.
Traffic was disrupted and some government buildings and shops never opened. When several hundred demonstrators came within a block of the International Monetary Fund headquarters and menaced a police car, officers in visored helmets responded with pepper spray and smoke canisters.
Tear gas wafted into the crowd as an officer tossed what he mistakenly thought was a smoke canister, police said.
Protesters, some donning gas masks and tying bandanas over their mouths, were chased down and clubbed. About 90 were arrested.
During a quieter but still dramatic moment, a crowd of rain-soaked protesters faced down a line of police at an intersection near George Washington University. One by one, they rose, walked slowly toward police and climbed over a fence police had placed in the streets. Police handcuffed each one and placed about 23 people under arrest.
