Battle of the Smithsonian: Protesters squirted in face with pepper spray as Washington museum is closed after attempt to storm it

The National Air and Space Museum in Washington was closed Saturday after anti-war demonstrators swarmed the building to protest a drone exhibit and security guards used pepper spray to repel them.
Smithsonian spokesman John Gibbons said a large group of demonstrators, estimated at 100 to 200 people, arrived at about 3 p.m. and tried to enter the National Mall museum.
The protest came as thousands of anti-greed protesters descended on New York's Washington Square Park today in the latest Occupy Wall Street rally.
The crowd of about 3,000 flooded the iconic park and used slogans likening themselves to the 'Arab Spring' demonstrations that have toppled several Middle East regimes.
A showdown was looming, however, as protesters standing face-to-face with police officers, who are thought to be considering imposing a curfew at midnight.
When a security guard stopped group members from entering, saying they could not bring in signs, he was apparently held by demonstrators, Gibbons said.
A second guard who arrived used pepper spray on at least one person and the crowd dispersed, he added.
A number of groups have been demonstrating in the city in the past week.
The group that arrived at the museum Saturday included individuals taking part in the October 2011 Stop the Machine demonstration in the city's Freedom Plaza, which has an anti-war and anti-corporate greed message.
The group also included protesters affiliated with Occupy D.C., a group modelled on the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City.
Occupy D.C. has been holding marches and meetings in Washington's McPherson Square.
David Swanson, 41, of Charlottesville, Virginia, said he was among dozens of people sickened by the pepper spray.
He said he got sick even though he was outside the building when the spraying began.
'I began choking and vomiting and got a headache,' Swanson said.
One speaker at the New York rally urged the crowd to squat in empty or abandoned buildings.
She shouted: 'There are foreclosed homes, empty school buildings that should be made available to all. Occupy everything.'
Officers kept a close eye on the protest but by late Saturday afternoon there were no reports of violence or arrests.
Police fenced off grassy areas in the park, and put up 10-foot high chain link fences around public bathrooms before the march from Zuccotti Park to Washington Square began.
Group spokesman Patrick Bruner said there were no plans to force a confrontation with police.
Officers, however, seem determined to enforce a curfew and prevent protesters from camping out there as they have done for weeks at Zuccotti Park, the New York Post reports.
One protest organizer Justine Tunney, 26, said: 'We plan to stay in Washington Square Park and form a second permanent occupation.'
The NYPD said it hadn’t issued any permits for today’s rally.
Bruner said demonstrators have never applied for a permit - and don’t plan to.
He said: 'We don’t think it’s right that you need permission to peacefully assemble.'
The protesters are angry about the 2008 Wall Street bailout that they say allowed banks to reap huge profits while average Americans suffered high unemployment and job insecurity.
More than 700 people were arrested last Saturday when thousands of the protesters tried to get across the Brooklyn Bridge and spilled on to the roadway.
Dozens more were arrested at the biggest rally so far on Wednesday when about 5,000 people marched on Wall Street.
The demonstrators are also campaigning against other social and economic inqualities, including the gap between rich and poor, as well as what they regard as a corrupt political system.
The protest movement has now to more than 100 cities coast to coast.