Photos show 65,000 at peak of S.F. rally Aerial study casts doubt on estimates of 200,000

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 2/21/2003 | Wyatt Buchanan

[skeeter]

San Francisco -- A survey using sophisticated aerial photography of Sunday's anti-war march and rally in San Francisco has produced results that indicate a far smaller crowd than the 200,000 protesters estimated by police and event organizers.

The results of the independent survey, commissioned by The Chronicle and SFGate.com, cast doubt on traditional counting methods and contradict the crowd estimate of 200,000, which was reported in this newspaper and news media around the world. Crowd size in a demonstration is important because organizers tend to use it as evidence of support for their cause.

In a series of detailed, high-resolution photographs, the aerial survey shows that around 65,000 people were in the area of Market Street and Civic Center Plaza at 1:45 p.m. Sunday, which organizers said was when crowd size was at its peak. That number does not take into account marchers who dropped out before or arrived after the moment the photo sequence was shot. Calculating a precise number of protesters for the entire rally is not possible from this survey, but the result is much more accurate than the visual scan method most commonly used by police and organizers.(rest of article)

[skeeter]

Why can't the Chron say...?

Because too much honesty at a time would cause complete vapor lock at 901 Mission St. Paramedics would be taking Chronicle editors out on slabs.

[KeyWest]

Same thing in maine- the estimates in the paper were over 1000 but the number was closer to 3-400, with that being a bit high. Interesting that when about 200-300 freepers rallied during the fl recount, there was not even an article in the paper, yet it was almost the same size that got a front page article for the appeasers.

[Snerfling]

65,000 people

Hmm, about the average size of football attendance dozens of times a week around the country in the fall. Do these numbers mean anything besides an affinity for football? Sports, competition, adherence to rules, etc ie typical conservative sentiments.

[Frapster]

No, those are no longer PEACENIKS...now call them APPEASENIKS.

UTOPIAN APPEASENICKS

[TigersEye]

UTOPIAN APPEASENICKS

Bar room parrots.

Polly wants peace, Polly wants peace ... awwwkkk!

[reformedliberal]

Out on a limb, here:

I predict that as the criticism of the marchers continues and as they are exposed to analysis that they are helping the cause of military action by enabeling Saddam, fewer and fewer who marched will admit to it after the war.

Already I am seeing quotes from participants in Paris to the effect that "very few French people marched" and on the BrainTerminal video, I noticed at least half the respondents
had non-native American English-speaker accents.

[TenaciousZ]

Also posted here.

[litany_of_lies]

Don't give the Chron too much credit. They may have sat on this story since Monday or Tuesday, when its publication would have had a bigger impact. By now, the bigger numbers are imbedded in the consciousness of the minimally involved (the majority).

[jiggyboy]

Indeed -- the way the Comical was pushing the rally,and their general bias against cleaning house, makes this a case of "arguing against interest", as the lawyers would say.

[finnman69]

Maybe not, most of the crowd was in the vicinity of the march. It seems the same type of aerial footage could just as easily be used to document a larger area of crowds. I think the NY crowd was in fact smaller than the San Francisco fruitloop fest.

[biblewonk]

Bombs Away!!

[Drango]

jiggyboy, I think I see the top of your head in one of those pictures...you too HRTC :-)

[Dont Mention the War]

The truth won't matter now. Mike Farrell et al have already gotten their mileage out of the "millions of protestors" line.

Thankfully, that mileage is zero.

[GSWarrior]

Many of these anti-war folk are nothing if not fickle. I predict we will start seeing Chronicle news racks vandalized and the Chronicle building itself may become a target for vandalism.

[CyberAnt]

The NYC police said about 100,000 - and the event was saying it was 350,000 - 500,000. To me, it did look bigger than SF's - so I'm guessing it was more like 75,000.

I sent a note to GW and told him "I" was one of 259 BILLION who did not march against the war - or against him.