As we were attempting to go to press with the "Blind Spot," the Independent Media Center's print publication in Washington D.C., we were confronting a serious technical difficulty. Citing "riot activity," the Kinkos print shops in the area were either closed already or thinking about it.

A more accurate description might be "closed due to police pressure."

I learned about this turn of events as I and some people I was trading literature with were asked to leave a Kinkos near the White House. The employee at the Kinkos was polite as he asked us to leave, but explained that our presence was putting his shop in danger of being closed.

Continuing our discussion on the sidewalk, I learned that other Kinkos had already been closed at police direction.

Philip, from Oberlin College, Ohio, sporting a box of freshly printed pamphlets, told me that he had left one Kinkos (24th and K Street) that closed after police came in and harassed people printing up pro-demonstration, or simply anti-IMF, literature. There was of course, no riot activity in sight.

At least three Kinkos were closed. It remained unclear how long the other popular "24 hour" printing outlets would remain open.

when I was still inside Kinkos going about my business, I had noticed several police officers hanging out in front of the store. They were dressed in SWAT gear, not "ordinary" riot gear, and I didn't think they were D.C. Metropolitan police. They might have been FBI, Marshals or some other type of Feds--they were wearing spiffy navy blue uniforms, like jumpsuits. A little later, when I went outside to smoke, they were down on the corner hanging around their van.

I had not imagined their presence to be in any way connected with the Kinkos. They were gone by the time I and my new friends were thrown out of the print shop.

But now I can't help but wonder if the sight of heavily armed police outside, and knowing other Kinkos had already been closed, was what had caused the Kinkos employee to freak out when we started trading copies of stuff we had just made inside that very same Kinkos.

However you slice it, all is not well in that capitol of ours.

We solved our problem by frequenting the Kinkos in posh Georgetown, which, by its very upscale nature, lends a certain protection against obvious police intrusion. Georgetown has the added benefit of readily available espresso.