Our New York correspondent, a, Democrat for Kerry, has this report on protests outside the Republican National Convention:
Friday dawns glorious--the day of our liberation from the Republicans and it is not even that hot.
For those without the time to read through the reams of text I seem to be producing, this is the executive summary: in the 17 hours I spent on the street in the last week, ending last night at 11:00, I have an unbroken record of never being around when there was trouble (and with 1800 arrests over the week that took some luck).
When we left this saga on Sunday night, I was sunburned and tired, had a notebook full of drawings of streets with police locations, badge numbers, police car license plates etc.
Monday, to my amazement, I was still able to walk and showed up at 3:00 pm for my next shift. By now all of midtown was blocked and the Civil Liberties Union storefront was in the heart of the lock-down area. I passed the National Guard at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. These guys were in fatigues and armed to the hilt. It reminded me of Guatemala in the early 80's.
A couple of girls in their early 20's were manning a table for Bush/Cheney outside the Protecting Protest Storefront. They had the sweetly glazed look of cult members as they offered me literature. I wanted to ask if their parents had signed them up for de-programming yet.
Then, join the Civil Liberties Union and see New York-off to the the "March for Life" Rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at 47th and First Avenue (right near the UN). This time I am paired with Jenny, who has a law degree from Golden Gate Law School in California but never practiced and became a graphic artist. She has a video camera and goes right to work checking access to the park--now surrounded by barricades and a flotilla of police. I go to work drawing the scene and wandering past police officers to record names etc. At 4:00 there are about 100 demonstrators and about 400 police. There are police in vans, shoulder to shoulder at the barricades, walking around in groups of 2 or 3, police on scooters at the end of the block (47th and Second Avenue, undercover police--these would be the guys with the very clipped haircuts, the chinos, the gray or gray green golf shirts worn outside their pants to cover their guns (this does not always work). And when one of the captains bounds up to say hello and shake hands all round, this definitely blows their cover.
I leave Jenny videotaping as protesters drift in and ajourn to a convenient spot to sit across the street (for that longer perspective). I am not the only one.
Dozens are lounging on the granite barriers surrounding the Trump World Towers, an apartment building with apartments that must sell for at least
$1 million. The rally is a protest against poverty.
Hours tick by, more protestors, more police, more civil liberties types. The protesters are negotiating a deal with the police to march without a permit. The weather is good --nice and cool. I hop up from my seat from time to time to check on police car movements. I study police uniforms. I never get the system with stars/hierarchy down and am now noting the police as "wniforms, white shirts, and undercover".
Finally the organizers get permission to move--they are to stay on one side of the street and move down 2d Avenue to 23rd street, then over to 8th Avenue and up to Madison Square Garden. We start to trail them downtown and my shift ends. The later group has shown up and I peel off. Later I learn that there was considerable trouble as the group approached MSG and that the police have been netting and arresting protesters. This was the case at other protests around the City, including one of the Veterans groups against the war, who thought they had a deal with the police to march.
Thursday morning and the news reports 1800 protesters being held in the piers at the Hudson River. The newspapers are reporting that the sweeps around the Public Library have netted a number of pedestrians. Protesters are all over the City heckling the convention delegates --who are a conspicuous lot. For example, the Texans all were walking around with red white and blue shirts in a graphic combination of color blocks and stars that would be equally appropriate for those who still support the Confederacy. And of course, cowboy hats.
Thursday afternoon and I show up for my shift with the uneasy conviction that my smooth ride as a monitor is over. Now I am reading the instructions on what to do if arrested. So far none of the Civil Union monitors have been arrested but at least a dozen of the National Lawyers Guild members have gone been picked up.
I get sent with my new group to 29th and 8th Avenue, where there will be a rally for some hours as the Convention winds down with the Bush speech. We get into position early and check access in and out of the rally pens. The police are audibly counting down the time before this is all over. The press are out in force on the west side of 29th and a couple are commenting that they thought that tonight would not be quiet. The police are pouring into the area and their are police on all the surrounding rooftops (except the housing complex on the west side of the street that was established by the Garment Workers Union--the elderly leftists in the building are on the sidewalk in lawnchairs).
The word comes through that a New York City judge has threatened the City with a large fine and a payment to each protester of $1000 if the City does not either charge or release the people being held in violation of the time limits for prosecutorial action. Protesters start to move into the pens. One of the best signs--"The Last Time We Listened to a Burning Bush We Spent 40 Years in the Desert." The police begin to close off sidewalk access to the space around pens 1 and 2 and Pen 3 begins to fill--this time with infiltrating Republicans--who have suspiciously professional looking signs--the others are mostly a handlettered lot. The newcomers are aggressive and the police quickly put them in a pen of their own, setting up some barricades to separate them from the rest of the group.
The protesters are chanting--"March, march, march, march and straining the barricades and more riot troops move into position. A firetruck arrives and the firemen leap out in fire-fighting mode. The press surges forward. Then, the police start moving the barricades so that the people in pen 2 can move into pen 1 and vice versa. The firemen are reported to have made some comments on not enough access.
Tension dissipates as the groups start to mingle.
At 10 o'clock the organizers pack up their soundstage and move their protesters peaceably south.
My fellow monitors, none of whom is older than 30, are eager to continue to monitor the protesters as they disperse, one of them suggesting ( a little hopefully) that there could be trouble later.
I go home--my record as a pacifying influence is intact.
