We drove to the Tea Party in Paducah, KY. A police officer right behind me said 2000 to someone who asked him. On stage they said they had well over 1500 signatures on their “scrolls”, and that was before quite a few people, including myself, got up front to sign one. Not bad for a town of 26,307 (2000 Census). The local talk radio show did promote it pretty heavily, and the local Congressman (Ed Whitfield) spoke. He took those scrolls back to DC with him. :-)
I would add, as others have noted, that the Paducah Police Dept. didn’t even really need to show up, as the crowd was perfectly behaved. But I suppose there’s always the “precautionary” aspect to consider, such as if contrary
troublemakers showed up. (None did.)
Shoot, I don’t even think I saw one piece of litter.