By Robert O'Neill, Associated Press, 3/20/03

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Students and professors walked out of class and took to the streets on Thursday, marching en masse through downtown Boston as anti-war protesters around the state decried U.S.-led attacks on Iraq and called for an end to the military action.

The crowd, estimated by police to be about 4,000, marched in unison from Copley Square to Boston City Hall and back, as police stopped traffic to accommodate them.

"It's really hard to bring about peace through violence," said Chad Reynolds, 26, an Emerson College creative writing graduate student from Oklahoma City. "I want the troops to be safe. I just don't think this is a war they should be fighting."

The line of marchers, a few city blocks in length, cheered as people poked their heads out of surrounding buildings and flashed peace signs. Other onlookers were less impressed.

"I think we should stop protesting and start supporting our troops," said Jason Mimassian, 23, a manager at Vinny Testa's restaurant in Boston's Back Bay. "I have a lot of friends over there (in the Persian Gulf)."

In other protests, 18 people were arrested for trespassing at the Natick Army Labs, which develops and tests gear used by troops. Police said some of the approximately 60 marchers from the Sherborn Peace Abbey were arrested when they refused to move away from the laboratories. Police said the marchers were peaceful.

In downtown Northampton, about 200 people lined the sidewalks along the city's main intersection, holding signs of protest and umbrellas to shield them from a cold, steady drizzle. Other rallies and vigils were held on town greens and churches throughout western Massachusetts.

"If humanity is going to survive and flourish, this war and all conflict needs to stop now," said 13-year-old Ethan Weed of Northampton, waving an American flag with a peace symbol in place of the stars. "I don't hate America. But I think it has a lot of problems that need to be solved, and this war is one of them."

The largest demonstrations, which organizers said had been planned for some time as "day after" protests in case of war, began forming on Boston-area campuses earlier Thursday.

Protesters snarled traffic as they marched from campuses including Tufts, Boston College, Boston University and other schools, at one point briefly shutting down the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge -- clogging the span that crosses the Charles River between Cambridge and Boston.

About 600 students at MIT began gathering outside the student center just before noon, some chanting and wearing mock biochemical protective suits. Students toted a papier-m Fach De likeness of Bush, while others unfurled a 30-foot-long banner on the side of a nearby building that read, "MIT says no blood for oil."

Hugh Gusterson, an associate professor of anthropology and science and technology studies, told the crowd that war wasn't the right word for what had commenced in Iraq.

"'Slaughter' might be a better world than 'war' for what we're embarking on," he said.

About 1,000 protesters also converged on Harvard Yard, where a large banner with a "no bombing" symbol and the word "Resist," flew next to an American flag.

Nearby, a small group of counter-protesters waved American flags.

"They sicken me," junior Andrew Latinsky, 21, of Miami, said of the anti-war protesters. "Saddam Hussein is a murderer and a tyrant. It's simple. He has to go."

No arrested we made in connection with the Boston-Cambridge protest.

Meanwhile, the state opened its emergency operations center in Framingham Thursday morning as it increased security to guard against possible terrorist attacks.

State Police were searching trucks as they entered the Ted Williams Tunnel Thursday, and the Boston Police Department raised its alert status to level 3, the first time it has been that high since the system was implemented after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Gov. Mitt Romney said the added security will rack up additional costs in tough fiscal times, with no guarantee of federal reimbursements. But those costs are secondary, he said.

"Protecting our citizens comes first -- that's our priority -- we're going to worry about money another day," Romney said.

The governor said when he heard hostilities had begun in Iraq on Thursday, "I felt a swelling of pride for the young men and young women who are there defending our country and preserving freedom around the world."