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Protests in New York: 'What is the plan?'
http://www.iht.com/articles/535303.html

Uncertainty raises the risk of clashes

NEW YORK With less than a week left before the largest planned demonstration of the Republican National Convention, organizers and the city have yet to reach an agreement on how to handle the masses of protesters, setting up the potential for confrontations with the police just as the Republican delegates arrive.

At a moment when city officials and the protest's organizers, United for Peace and Justice, should be polishing the final details of the event next Sunday, they are instead locked in a court battle over the route of the march, which organizers say could draw 250,000 people. The group itself is fractured over how to proceed, and many protesters are vowing to use Central Park despite the vehement opposition of the city, which wants the rally to take place on the West Side Highway.

Adding to the uncertainty are the boiling tensions between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and officials and members of the police and firefighter unions, many of whom have been trailing him at his public events for weeks, threatening illegal strikes or other job actions just as the city struggles to deal with the protests and the convention. The Bloomberg administration and convention officials have dismissed their conflicts with both groups as irrelevant to the success of the convention. Both the city and organizers of the protest next Sunday say they hope to come to terms before the demonstration. "New York City has a way of pulling things off," said Edward Skyler, Bloomberg's press secretary. "But if UPJ feels that marching past Madison Square Garden and having a rally off the Hudson River is such a tragic abuse of the First Amendment, then they have the option of not taking the city up on its offer."

Nevertheless, the potential for embarrassing or even explosive confrontations is increasing as the start of the convention looms ever closer without the final arrangements being set. Some officials and protest organizers fear a repeat of the rally against the Iraq war in February 2003, when demonstrators and the police clashed, leading to hundreds of arrests, in large part because plans for the event were not completed until the last minute.

The situation has created a headache for the mayor, who is counting on a convention that will be good for the city's image and will show the world how it has recovered from the Sept. 11 attack. Further, he has to find a careful political balance between the tough labor stance he has taken with the uniformed officers and his desire to not inflame this group of city workers, who were lauded for their role after the terror attack. But in recent days, many police officers have been pushing the legal boundaries as they hector Bloomberg, infuriating many of his closest aides.

Adding to the confusion is that many protesters getting ready to descend on the city do not know where their march is headed, leaving open the possibility that many small groups of demonstrators will wander about the city or toward Central Park. "I'm doing a lot of organizing and I have no idea as to what's going on," Jose Martin, a protest organizer from Chicago, told a crowd of hundreds gathered last week for a United for Peace and Justice planning meeting. If the park is off in the end, he said, "what the hell is the plan?" Leslie Cagan, the group's national coordinator, conceded that essentially there wasn't one. "I'm sorry I don't have a more thorough answer about this," she said, "but that's where we are."