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Journal perfessor multigeek's Journal: Yesterday's NYC Protest 16

Journal by perfessor multigeek
Hey there. I'm not up to writing a full JE, just a few things to set the record straight.

conflict with the police First of all, reports are claiming that the police clashed with protesters after 4:00 PM, when the permit expired. No fucking chance. I left the park at 3:10 and the cops were already finishing their mopup. Or as one cop called it "after things got greasy". What actually happened was that at 1:06 PM (I checked the time on my pager) the cops blocked off the street along which the marchers had been given permission to march (West 4th, which is the northern boundary of Washington Square Park). A police truck started broadcasting from a roof-mounted loudspeaker. "Please leave in an orderly fashion. The march is now over." They kept this up for about five minutes while the march organizers set up a dense line of marchers who then advanced along 4th street going west. The cops retreated and in a minute or so the message changed to "Please leave in an orderly fashion so other marchers may enter. The march is now over."
I then entered the park and did not see what happened. From what I heard, the marchers were kept from marching along the street around the far side of the park. A street, by the way, that was cleared of traffic and barricaded for the march. In other words, there was no possibility whatsoever of the marchers blocking traffic or otherwise causing problems. According to what I've uniformly heard, some protesters advanced onto the street chanting "Whose streets? Our Streets!" and were set upon by cops from all four sides, some on foot, most mounted. There are reports of a lot of police abuse, kicking, slamming people into the sidewalk, etc. Also a lot of angry language from the cops such as "get onto the fucking sidewalk, you bitch!" The general consensus among people who have been in a lot of protests was, as with Feb 15, that police response was anomolously harsh.
I know that I heard some sort of ruckus from that direction a bit before 2:00 so I would guess that that is when the events showing up on the news occurred. As of last night I was hearing reports of about a hundred and fifty arrests with people being let out at a trickle from One Police Plaza by about 9:00 PM

mood Not surprisingly, people were somewhat more wary yesterday then they had been on Feb 15. Also more pissed. While the mood of most people was pleasant, some of the signs and chants were not. One group of teens was doing a chant about "Bush, we're coming to fuck you up!" and nobody I saw was telling them to cool it. A few signs and a lot of comments about "Rome is gone now" and variations on the theme of ancient imperialism. Marxist and marxist front groups were more evident, leaving me surprised at the numbers they could put together. Lots of Workers United Against Evil Capitalist Oppression stuff. I also saw more church groups, with one cluster after another of nuns, priests, etc. I ended up riding down in the subway with a group from the Cathedral of St. John The Divine with the evident blessing and backing of Bishop Sisk. Had a nice talk with a couple of preachers and nuns.
Again, while people were mostly smiling and very polite, they presumed that the cops were not to be trusted and that the government was their enemy. I saw a disturbing number of violent signs. Things like "Bush is the only dope we should be shooting". Also, not surprisingly, a lot of rage over the ongoing war. On the other hand, I saw more "everyday people" who seemed to be very aware of their significance to all of this. "Moms for peace". That kind of thing. In other words, there was a real effort being put forth to show that "normal folks" oppose the current actions. I also heard a number of comments about that. "My cousin the Republican organizer in Ohio is *really upset* at all of this. He just can't see where the money could come from." That kind of thing.

Me? I had a blast, sold another pile of posters (around forty, actually don't know exactly how many since I gave some away and gave others a discount), and went to a great biodiesel event in the evening.

Maybe I'll write more later maybe not. Anybody who was at protests in other cities, I'ld love to see your comments,

Rustin
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Yesterday's NYC Protest More

Yesterday's NYC Protest

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  • I understand you sold some posters? What posters were you selling (what did they say?).

    It's sad that there were some misinformed protesters at your event using violence to counter violence. Did this raise concern with any of the moderate/normal groups (like the nuns/preachers you were with)?
    • I was selling this poster [northlandposter.com]. I put the thing together over the course of several years and have been selling it (in periodically revised and improved versions) since about Thanksgiving of 2001.

      Yes, as I've discussed in other JEs, I'm seeing more and more polarization and alienation on political issues these days. Frankly, I place most of the blame squarely in the hands of the Bush adminstration for pursuing such a stereotypically right wing agenda. And yes, it upsets me quite a lot.

      I didn't get the chance
  • Worth noting is that when the protest turned west onto 4th from Broadway was when I encountered the police clear zone about a block long that they were maintaining in front of the march. I went into the street to get a better view and a cop in a Community Affairs jacket came over and asked "do you have press credentials?" When I said no, then he asked me to get onto the sidewalk. I was in the same situation a couple of times on Feb 15 and at other protests over the years and have usually not been asked anyt
  • I like hearing about the protest, but liberal (ha!) use of white space helps out a lot with readability. Short paragraphs, lots of html formatting, that sort of thing.
    • Hey, I warned you. These are casual notes, not formal overviews.

      I agree that better formatting and, no doubt, some rewriting would improve things considerably but since I write very slowly and then have to go over everything at least twice to undo obvious mistakes, this is the best that I expect to manage.
      I find the world to be full of plans and tales of the gemlike perfection that people are planning to achieve Any Day Now and the far more modest but infinitely more productive imperfect things that peop
      • As happens frequently with this kind of thing, my impetus to suggest improvements is derived mainly from seeing lesser JEs that are just a screenful of solid text, but since their content is proportionally less interesting it's not worthing saying anything (setting 'comments disabled' is also a clear indication that feedback isn't welcome...).

        I'm not a writer or editor, but I like to write (or do the slashdot equivalent) and would like to improve in anyway possible. Having good style, interesting facts, a
        • In retrospect I see that my response to your post could be read as considerably more snippy then I intended. While I stick by my statements, please assume the presence of smileys where appropriate.

          Actually, I do try to keep my stuff readable, as my Rules of Debate [slashdot.org] JE shows.

          It's just that a.) the JE you commented on was, as I said, a quick "upload" of data while still fresh, b.) even as is, my JEs are longer then many people will scroll past, thereby orphaning everything but my latest JE, and c.) I spend
  • Does anybody still doubt the costs to America of The War on/of Terror [guardian.co.uk]? Just a gruesome but predictable cost of sending our soldiers into war and then dumping them back here.
    Admittedly, I'm going to want to read more details on this one but still.

    Rustin
  • Living in a region with actual (yuck) conservatives in it? I still find it freaky to imagine that there are actually metropolises that have, err, heh, people who vote republican living in them. . . . or Cops who don't ride nude through parades right along side the nuddies they are supposed to be arresting. -_^

    How are, no, WHY are those types of people even allowed to, err, exist in that area? Don't you brutally crush them like they deserve? Conservatives tend not to last too long around here (then agai
    • Yes, no question, New York's cops and the municipal supports behind them are deeply flawed. And, as I'm learning a lot about this past year, even simply flawed relative to other parts of the country. Disgusting.

      "Conservatives"? Oh, don't kid (heh) yourself. They're everywhere. Actually, Conservatives I have no problem with. It's right-wingers I am growing to loathe all over again.

      The difference? The people I think of as "Conservatives" are usually strict members of an established religion, opposed to se
        • until I visited southern Washington.


        Oh, eew. They are all gross down there, ick. Lovingly refered to as northern rednecks.

        Don't listen to them, nobody else does. :)

        • And you also have all too many right-wingers, as evidenced by the periodic wingnut bills that come out of your region.


        tim eyman. (I refuse to capitolize his name). Icky icky guy. I propose a bill to remove tim eyman's righ to propose bills. ^_^

      • I just saw a perfect example of right-wing BS. So I'm gonna do a whole JE on it.

        So get out of this JE and look already.

        Rustin

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