At least six people were arrested Downtown last night as a diverse group of about 200 demonstrators protested the Bush administration's policies on domestic issues and the war in Iraq.

Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette Pittsburgh police arrest a protester outside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center yesterday evening. Click photo for larger image.

A chorus of boos went up from the demonstrators at 10th Street and Penn Avenue outside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, where President Bush was appearing at a campaign event for Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., as police made the arrests.

The initial arrests involved several young people, who left a sidewalk area designated for the demonstration and tried to disrupt traffic on Penn Avenue, said Pittsburgh Police Sgt. William Bair of the Zone 2 station. As other protesters attempted to interfere with the arrests, they, too, were taken into custody, Bair said.

Tiffany Way, 22, said her friend, Nina Trimbath, was arrested because she questioned one of the other arrests.

"All she did was ask why," said Way, of Alum Bank, Bedford County.

One young protester, displaying a red welt on his abdomen, said he had been bitten as he walked by one of the police K-9 units on duty. And Post-Gazette photographer Annie O'Neill said an officer poked her in the chest with a nightstick and said, "Get that thing out of my face" as she took a picture.

Earlier in the protest, a line of officers used their bicycles to push back a group of young people carrying signs who stepped off the curb. Most wore black hoods and masks.

Tim Vining, executive director of the Thomas Merton Center, a local social justice group that organized the protest, said the masked people were part of the Pittsburgh Organizing Group, which opposes authority.

T.J. Hicks, Bloomfield, said he and others wore masks so they could not be "singled out." He said he would likely protest any president.

But a number of other protesters -- some young, some old -- said they came specifically to oppose President Bush or policies of his administration.

Molly Rush, 68, Dormont, expressed concerns that federal education and child care funding had been cut while tax breaks endorsed by the administration mostly have benefitted the rich.

Holding one end of a black-and-white sign that read, "This War is Wrong," Larry Blalock, 51, of Johnstown, called the war in Iraq "unjustified because there are no weapons of mass destruction there."

Martin O'Malley, 62, of Forest Hills, a Vietnam veteran, said he supported the war in Afghanistan, but said the Bush administration has failed to identify a similar terrorist threat in Iraq. He said the "illegal" war in Iraq has made him politically active.

Davon Magwood, 18, a sophomore at Schenley High School, said he came because he felt the president's religious beliefs unfairly influenced his positions on public policy, especially gay rights.

People leaving the convention center were greeted by jeers from some of the protesters.

President Bush, however, did not witness the demonstration. His motorcade did not take him past the protesters.