Police forces were in action this weekend to respond to the myriad of protests going on in light of the annual meeting of the National Governors' Association.

Fifteen protesters were arrested yesterday after chaining themselves together and marching onto the Park Avenue Extension toward the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel where NGA officials are meeting.

Penn State students Lisa Ann Dechristopher, 23, and Emma Elizabeth Schnitzel, 19, were among the activists who were arrested.

The protesters came from groups that included Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty, Amnesty International and the American Friends Service Committee. They want governors to impose a moratorium on executions to allow time to examine whether death penalty sentences are handed out fairly.

The death penalty protesters blocked traffic on the road and refused to comply with Pennsylvania State Police requests to leave the roadway.

They were then arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing highways and other public passages, according to a Pennsylvania State Police press release.

All of the protesters were arraigned before District Justice Bradley Lunsford yesterday evening and released, said Pennsylvania State Police Capt. Frank Monaco, NGA operations director. Preliminary hearings are scheduled for July 19 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, according to the press release.

On Saturday, police monitored other activists who were calling for national welfare cuts and additional healthcare and childcare.

"We're fired up. We can't take it no more. We're fired up. We can't take it no more," a crowd chanted as men, women and children pumped their protest signs in the air Saturday afternoon on the side of the road leading to the Penn Stater.

A large number of state police officers, some on horseback, surrounded the crowd, which was comprised of organizations such as Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support and Moms on the Move (MOM) and Pennsylvania chapter of National Organization for Women.

The crowd continued to chant in protest of welfare cuts and the lack of healthcare and childcare, in representation of the concerns of the nation's moderate to low-income families, said ACORN member Dane Harris of Philadelphia.

Police surrounded the crowd because the area is closed to anyone who is not registered to attend the meetings.

"Apparently they wanted to march up and so we had no choice," Monaco said. "We had no other way of keeping them from stopping but to bring reinforcements down to stand between them."

Though some protesters said they didn't expect to have the opportunity to speak with any of the governors, they said they simply wanted to be heard.

"We want them to know we're fed up. I don't expect to talk to them," Harris said.

The protesters are fed up with the way the nation's governors spend tax dollars, said Karen Hargrove of Philadelphia.

"We want to know how it's being spent. Not on the poor people," she said.

Some protesters were angry because they were not allowed to move past the check point leading up to the NGA meeting.

"We don't want to stand out here in a gravel pit," said Lisa Ranghelli, deputy director of public policy for National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support. "People out here are on welfare, struggling to make ends meet."

Other groups were there just to protest Gov. Tom Ridge's policies.

"I'm here protesting Ridge's policies on gun violence, reproductive rights and to say that he's no moderate on these issues," said Barbara Burgos DiTullio, president of the Pennsylvania chapter of National Organization for Women.

Later Saturday night, protesters also made their voices heard at "An Evening Under the Stars," an outdoor event designed for the governors and their spouses.

Most of the dissenters stayed across College Avenue by the University Gates and held signs and shouted slogans criticizing the death penalty.

Although several anti-capital punishment groups, including Pennsylvania Abolitionists, participated in the protest, some students and passersby also joined in, such as Stacia Bergstrom (junior-psychology).

"I think it (the protest) gets a lot more people involved," she said.

Some people, however, who crowded Allen Street for the celebration and others who drove by on College Avenue were not happy to see the protest.

"When they were calling out the names of innocents on death row, I wish someone would counter with the names of innocent people who were killed, because that list would far outweigh those that the protesters listed," said Jeff Urbanchuk (senior-political science), who discovered the protest while walking down College Avenue.

Collegian staff writers Angela J. Gates and Matthew D. Wunsche and the Associated Press contributed to this report.