Posted on 03/27/2003 8:59:25 AM PST by WaveThatFlag
Hundreds of chanting anti-war protesters lined Fifth Avenue on Thursday and dozens rushed into the street and lay down at the beginning of a series of civil disobedience actions planned for throughout the day. Officers, some in riot gear and on horseback, clamped plastic handcuffs onto about 150 protesters who refused to get up, and half-carried them into police vehicles.
Anti-war groups have called for a day of widespread civil disobedience, including blocking busy intersections and a “die-in” to protest media and corporate “profiteering from the war.”
As helicopters hovered overhead, the protesters — some beating drums and chanting “Hey-hey, ho-ho, Bush’s war has to go” and “Peace Now!” — jammed police pens along Fifth Avenue between 49th and 50th streets, near St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Saks Fifth Avenue store.
Organizers of the ad-hoc coalition, which calls itself M27, said the “die-in” was intended to symbolize Iraqi war victims.
About an hour later, some protesters still sat on the curb awaiting transfer to police vehicles. Johannah Westmacott, a Fordham University student, jotted down officers’ badge numbers.
“Nothing else gets attention,” said Westmacott, explaining the civil disobedience. “It’s not news when people voice their opinions.”
One lane of Fifth Avenue was reopened to traffic.
One organizer, Eric Larson, said roving groups of protesters also planned to jam intersections in other parts of midtown and lower Manhattan.
Russ Forster, a filmmaker from Chicago, said, “People are willing to risk life and limb, sitting in the middle of Fifth Avenue. I think that’s a pretty strong statement.”
The demonstration attracted several counterprotesters, including a man with a red, white and blue bandanna under a hardhat who stood toe-to-toe with a young protester with a pony tail and sideburns arguing about the war.
One pro-war activist held a sign that read: “Traitors, have you forgotten Sept. 11?”
“Whether you’re for or against it, we need to pull together,” said Rachel Harary, 20, of Oceanside, on Long Island. “Put on your flag and get them home.”
Later, a small group of protesters, draped in black and walking to the beat of a drum, staged a mock funeral march on the same block of Fifth Avenue.
Police and security officers placed a web of barricades on streets in Rockefeller Center, home of the GE Building, NBC headquarters and The Associated Press, to prevent a planned “die-in” there.
One Fifth Avenue protester held a sign showing a picture of parrots and the words, “Don’t Parrot the Right-wing Propaganda.”
Another protester, Lee Whiting, 44, held up a sign that said, “Embedded? or In Bed?” Embedded, she said, means that “journalists are presenting almost exclusively the military view of this war.”
On Wednesday, 16 protesters lay down in a Fifth Avenue intersection, halting traffic for blocks before being carried into police vans.
The traffic-blocking technique was used in recent anti-war protests in San Francisco, which led to thousands of arrests and complaints that police used excessive force.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Wednesday that anti-war protests were costing millions of dollars in department overtime and drawing police resources away from crime-fighting and anti-terrorism operations.
“People are out to disrupt life in the city,” Kelly said. “This is more than protest, more than free speech. We’re talking about violating the law.”
And were in Seattle, Davos etc.
We can only look forward to that event.
false bravado. IF drivers were allowed an open season on these twits, THEN "people" would be risking life and limb. As it is, they're assured that anyone taking action against them will be detained, if not prosecuted. They're actually cowards who have a tremendous need for attention.
They're declaring war on the U.S. citizens who live there.
Some "anti-war" group they are. They're not for peace, by their own words they're for violence.
They're taking away the rights of all those who live in the city. Facists pigs.
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