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From Athens News, Athens Ohio:
An un-permitted parade of more than 150 costumed anarchists and their supporters filled North Court Street Saturday night. They barricaded the West State Street intersection and danced, chanted, climbed light poles, banged on objects and fire danced before police dispersed the crowd, using squad cars and pepper spray. "Were just having fun," one marcher told a bystander who asked what they were protesting. The parade participants were in Athens for the 2007 CrimethInc. Convergence. CrimethInc. is an international network made up of anarchists and
other radicals. After the crowd scattered, Athens Police made one arrest for disorderly conduct by intoxication, one for riot, and three for obstructing official business, according to a report released by Police Lt. Randy Gray. The
identities of the individuals have not been released.

Gray reported that the Athens Police responded to a call made at 9:42 p.m. and
arrived at the intersection to find a large group of people with flaming
objects, stones, bricks and improvised drums blocking the street with road signs
dragged from a construction site.

The flaming objects, known as "poi," are professionally made chunks of burning
rubber on chains used by fire dancers and circus performers for entertainment
purposes. To extinguish the flame, poi artists turn from the audience and spin
the burning chunks less rapidly while lowering them to the ground, according to
one performer who attended the event.

According to the police report, Lt. Gray told one of the performers to
extinguish the "burning objects." The female said OK and turned away while
continuing to twirl the poi. Gray tried to detain the person while another
individual struck him in the back and grabbed his arm. Gray then used pepper
spray to fend off other individuals who were converging on him, and further
spray was used to disperse "what had become a violent and destructive crowd."

The marchers claimed that the "parade" was intended to be peaceful fun, and
police were unnecessarily violent in their reaction. Several people were pepper
sprayed in the face from behind as they dispersed eastward, and one anonymous
marcher claimed the mace almost hit an infant riding on a woman's shoulder.

"I was standing by the BP talking to three people when Car 902 almost ran into
us," said Benjamin Ayer of Michigan. Ayer was documenting the incident from the
sidewalk with his camera.

"It swiftly turned into the driveway without warning. Two people fell on me,
they were just passersby, they were just asking me what was going on and almost
got hit. After that I breathed in pepper gas," said Ayer, who charged that
police "gravely overreacted."

After dispersing, many of the marchers gathered at The Wire Community Resource
Center on Kern Street, which was promptly put under police surveillance. A local
spokesperson for The Wire told police that the center was not involved in the
event but was open for a music event and does not turn down people at its doors.
(CrimethInc., however, did use The Wire's "free space" as a redirect spot for
out-of-towners looking for information on where the Convergence was being held.)

Police searched four cars outside The Wire with a K-9 unit after the event, but
no arrests were made.

The parade was an impromptu activity organized by CrimethInc. The group's
Convergence was a communal campout that took place northeast of Athens since
last Wednesday. The event offered collective workshops on topics ranging from
"Nude Theory and Practice" to do-it-yourself shoemaking. Participants traveled
from all over North America to attend the event, which was organized with the
help of local volunteers.

According to CrimethInc.'s Web site, the group is an "underground network
through which we work to realize our daydreams, to take the reigns of our lives
and make our history rather than using the same energy to insist we are being
made of it."

The network is comprised of scattered collectives, travelers, music acts and
publications that are invited to use the CrimethInc. label on their products and
activities.

"There is no leader of CrimethInc.; it's a movement on its own," said a
participant named Polly who traveled from North Carolina to attend the
convergence. "It's a movement comprised of fun and energy."

Other participants said CrimethInc. is dedicated to creating alternative
communities.

"I think it's important to foster communities outside of the 'real world,'" said
Ben Croya of Illinois. Croya identifies has a "gender queer" and does not claim
a specific gender or sexual orientation.

"Here individuals really have a say in there own lives," Croya said.

There is no central location or headquarters for CrimethInc., and no one is
quite sure when and where the network originated, though some speculate it has
been around since the late 1980s. According to some participants, the ambiguous
and decentralized nature of the organization enhances the romantic appeal of its
existence and propaganda, which is popular among youth in the punk, anarchist
and dropout cultures.

"They live more than the rest have ever dreamt to live," said one participant
who identified himself as Mad Fish the Norseman. "Follow those who only mumble,
for they are already doing what doesn't need to be said."

CrimethInc. is responsible for several publications advocating an
anti-capitalist lifestyle, including "Days of War Nights of Love," "Fighting for
Our Lives," "Evasion" and a magazine titled Rolling Thunder, which chronicles
the modern North American anarchist movement.