12:01 a.m. | Updated CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Five days of marches at the Democratic National Convention brought confrontation and compromise between protesters and the police, and there was a bit of both on Thursday, the final night of the convention.
As delegates packed Time Warner Cable Arena to hear President Obama’s acceptance speech, a crowd of about 100 protesters marched from their “Occupy the D.N.C.” encampment in a nearby park to the streets a few blocks from the arena, holding signs, chanting and at times sitting down in the middle of intersections.
They never got near the crowds gathered inside the fences that surrounded the arena. And from the moment they left Marshall Park, protesters were buffered on either side by rows of police officers using bicycles as barricades. The police eventually followed them back to the park, but there were no confrontations and no immediate word of any arrests.
A group of protesters later burned copies of the presidential oath of office before returning to the camp.
“It’s been a learning experience,” said John Murdock of New York, a member of the Occupy Wall Street movement who participated in the marches in Charlotte. “We’ve got to evolve.”
“Are we effective at this point? No, we’re outnumbered and easily mocked.”
That’s one of the messages he will deliver when he returns to New York and participates in the Sept. 17 one-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
In Charlotte, there was a sense of accomplishment on both sides.
“I’ve been very pleased the entire week,” said Michael Zytkow, an Occupy Charlotte organizer. “The eyes of the political universe are on Charlotte, and regular people stood up and proved the convention is really on the streets.”
The five days of protests resulted in 25 arrests, including 10 on Thursday.
“I think it’s gone very well,’’ said Rodney Monroe, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief, as he walked ahead of the protesters. “I think everyone has been doing a great deal of communication and organizing with one another to clearly understand what each’s intent has been throughout the week, and I think we’ve been able to accomplish each of our goals. I’m happy with that.”
The thousands that were projected to come here did not materialize. Still, there were protesters from across the country on site, and enough marches and protests to make a statement, if not a mark, on this convention.
Through the convention, no two companies were targeted more than Bank of America and Duke Energy, which have their headquarters in Charlotte.
Protesters began on Sunday when more than 90 groups combined for the Coalition to March on Wall Street South, the name given to Charlotte because it is the No. 2 financial services center in the country behind New York. The police estimated 800 protesters that day, though organizers said the number was higher. There were two arrests on Sunday, but only one was a protester.
There have been few clashes with the police along the way, though on Tuesday, the first day of the convention, about 200 protesters were blocked from marching for about two hours before being allowed to proceed. There were 13 arrests that day, including 10 undocumented Hispanic immigrants who sat in the middle of an intersection and refused to move.
No arrests were made on Wednesday.
The police confirmed six were arrested on Thursday afternoon and charged with impeding traffic after they sat in an intersection in front of the Duke Energy Center, a few blocks from the convention site. Four more were arrested in two other incidents.
