As of late last night 150 or so was arrest count. The trade ministers ended their talks early but not for "good" reasons. They gained much ground and seemed to have come to an agreement on a "watered down" version of the FTAA bypassing some of the more controversial and impeding parts of the agreement. simultaneously I have heard that Bush has been pushing for making bilateral trade agreements with Brazil and others which will bypass and divide and conquer the south american economic bloc, therefore subverting the much contested agricultural parts of FTAA anyway to get even more gains for the US. The violence on the ground in Miami was intense, BUT please do not post stuff like "worse than the Gaza Strip in the 1980's" or whatever the comment was that was made and posted by someone that was a medic. it is that type of comments that is really insulting and makes IMC seem unreliable. I do wnat to reaffirm that in typical cop fashion an announcement was made that "as long as the protest is peaceful people will be allowed to continue demonstrating" -- this acted as signal because i immediately spotted two undercovers make their way into the more jubilent parts of the crowd. and a moment later the shit hit the fan and police started firing point blank at protesters and of course as any sensible human would react people fought back. one corprate media camera fell as he was walking backwards and received a healthy dose of pepper spray right in his face. i would hope that he will not be trying to tell the same story that the disgusting Miami media is telling. From what i saw and have heard police fired concussion grenades and pellets and larger rubber bullets as well as tear gas at demonstrators. Prior to this, Miami downtown was completely closed down and in effect a ghost town which residents have told me is such a bizarre sight because it a bustling hub of actviity and cuban restaurants etc etc. The media build up to all of this has been a smoke and mirrors game to convince all the locals that riots were impending. The public transportation system was shut down all around the downtown area even though as late as wednesday night the "media" was reporting that many of the stops would not be closed. One very uplifting part of it all was on our long trek to find the nearest open metro station we walked through Overtown which is a poor and black neighborhood, a lot of popular support was given by people out on the streets and from their homes and cars as they had been wathcign the live coverage of the clashes with the police. Obviously we all stood out and they knew we were the ones in the melee. They gave a lot of shout outs like "right on" and raising their fists in support. that was great. Much props to many Chicagoans out in the streets!