"I think it was a success," he said. "We stopped traffic."

He then walked away, tapping idly on his empty plastic can, as the traffic began flowing smoothly down Arch Street.

Field Guide to Riots

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From the radio of a car stuck in traffic by the Arch Street demonstration, a news station listed the intersections shut down by protests.

"Sixteenth and Callowhill, Broad and Spruce, 15th and J.F.K., Eighth and Vine, 18th and Vine."

Also over the radio, police asked all motorists to leave Center City.

Coordinated by cellular phone and two-way radio, protesters, predominantly white and young, were traveling in bands as large as 300.

Some burned bunting, spilled garbage, vandalized police cars and threw unidentified fluids in the faces of the police. Then, there were the black-suited members of groups like Black Bloc and the Upside Down Clowns whose agenda appeared to be petty vandalism and Republican harassment outside the Doubletree Hotel. One group which denied being part of any protest and said it was a jogging club, ran the streets in red dresses, flipping cartwheels in what appeared to be a protest against underwear. Another group, called "Billionaires For Bush (or Gore)" -one wearing top hats and brocaded dresses--lampooned the high hand of money in politics. Their slogan: "Because inequality isn't growing fast enough."