New York City Protest Witness #2
February 15, 2003
............................
Hey everyone--
We just got back from the protest march. A half a million of us attempted to march to 1st Avenue where the rally was being held. It was totally chaotic. Since the city refused to grant a permit for a march, different groups of people just showed up nearby (mostly at the public library) and started trying to make their way over to the UN.
As we started to walk over, the crowd got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. The police barricaded almost every street, and frequently would bring mounted police through the crowd, which only incited everyone. Sometimes one of the police would try to grab someone, and the crowd would shout "Let him go." and actually grab him back from the cops.
We finally found ourselves at 53rd St. and Third Ave., where the police had barricaded us all in and would not allow anyone to go anywhere. It was about 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside with a really brutal icy East River wind, and the crowd put up with this for about 45 minutes or so before getting really sick of not being able to move. We followed a human chain led by an old man who was shouting, "Let us through!" up to the barricade. We were just standing there, when we felt the crowd draw back behind us. We sensed something, looked back and saw that they had linked arms and drawn back in order to charge the barricades. Then Laura was crushed against the barricade which was literally moving up and down and in and out. She had no one to fall against and wanted to grab the barricade but realized that doing so would result in a broken hand. John was trying to keep her from being injured. As we were trying to keep from being trampled and our ankles are being smashed against the metal barricades, the cop in front of us decides to spray our faces with pepper spray. It still burns. So much for the land of the free... Where one of the barricades had been broken through, an older cop let us through.
We went into Au Bon Pain of all places, and got some coffee since we were very shook up, and freezing also. As we sat looking out the window, several more times the crowd charged the barricades. Many people were arrested. The truck carrying the barricades was taken over by a whole bunch of people. Another huge group had climbed on top of a news stand, which we were convinced would collapse eventually. A coffee cart was being pushed by the crowd into the police. Eventually, loads more cops showed up, many of them plain clothes, and then a cavalry sort of stampeded into the crowd, injuring a few people. Saw a guy being smashed against a wall by the police for no apparent reason. The idiotic thing about it was, there appeared to be absolutely no logic as to why they would not let the crowd move. It was felt that they wanted to keep the rally from happening, the protesters divided.
We finally arrived at the rally, and the police were nicer in that area, although we felt real panic when they put up more barricades and pushed all of us together really tight. Just as we felt we couldn't stand it for one more second, they decided to move the barricade back a little. Those of us who had just arrived kept trying to tell the people who had gotten there earlier and were corralled in the center of First Avenue that there were thousands more trying to get there. "Thousands More!" we kept yelling. Every time a new group arrived, we cheered for them. It had been such a battle just to get there.
Anyway, we're exhausted and our faces are still burning. Will post more thoughts about this later.
PEACE NOW.
Laura Roberts & John Landino are independent contributors who participated in the NYC anti-war protest on Feb. 15.St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN