(The Associated Press distributed the following article on December 3.)
MIAMI — The AFL-CIO asked Wednesday for state and federal investigations into police conduct during protests outside the Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting last month.
A letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Gov. Jeb Bush also asked them to prosecute anyone who abused civil liberties and called for the resignation of Miami Police Chief John Timoney.
The protests grew sporadically violent in the final days of the trade talks. Some of the thousands of demonstrators threw objects and fired slingshots at officers; police hit protesters with batons, zapped them with stun guns and dispersed them with tear gas and pepper spray balls. More than 200 people were arrested.
The letter from AFL-CIO president John J. Sweeney said police blocked access to a union rally, cut off a peaceful march and, once confrontations started, did not give the crowd a safe route to leave.
Timoney wrote earlier to the labor group, defending his officers and saying they tried to avoid using force. But he added that the department would review its work and issue a report.
A spokeswoman for Bush defended the police conduct on Wednesday.
“The governor thought that law enforcement officials in south Florida did a phenomenal job. Miami avoided the mass violence that disrupted similar events in Seattle and Cancun,” Alia Faraj said.