My experience and analysis of the New York Police role in the big antiwar 
rally in New Youk City on Feb 15, 2003


Hi,

Six of us left for the rally on the #72 bus. It took us to 72nd St and 1st
Ave. At 11:30 we were walking south on 1st Ave. Barriers kept us on the
sidewalk. At each intersection we had to negotiate with the police to
cross the street. Some people were told by the police they could not go
any further south and so should go east or west. We were allowed on the
sidewalk until 64th street where some people including us were allowed to
enter one of the pens. But we wanted to go further south. When we got to
63rd Street we were stopped first at the barrier there then let cross the
street and entered the next pen. This was repeated at 62nd Street and 61st
street. We decided to stand at 61st because there was a loud speaker
there.

We stood at 61st street and 1st for 3 and 1/2 hours and meet many
wonderful people. We were thrilled to see people of all ages and carrying
wonderful signs. Some people had cell phones and were hearing from their
friends that most people were being prevented from getting to 1st Ave and
that some police on horseback were being violent and there were protestors
injured. These reports became more frequent.

At 3:30 we went into a food store to warm up. When we came out we went
north to 68th street. The scene there was out of Kafka. Hardly anyone was
left in the pen between 67th and 68th but above 68th as far as we could
see people were packed like sardines. Also the side street 68th was jammed
with people coming east and west. The police were preventing any of the
people from north of 68th to come into the empty pen south of 68th. We
were yelling let them join us let them through. The police were physically
pushing the metal barrier into the front line of people jammed north of
68th Street. Once in a while the police let two or three people through
from west of 68th street or from North of 68th street. The police were
getting reenforcements with more ribbons on their sleeves. Some how this
was a stategic point for the police plan. At about 4:30pm as the rally
ended the police slowly allowed the trickle of people getting through to
become a flow and finally let the whole 80,000 or so people above 68th
street begin to move south. But why not 15 minutes earlier?

I wrote my answer to this question. Here it is:

How Many People Protested in NYC on FEB 15?

When NYC denied the people of north eastern US their constitutional
right to express their grievance with the government's Iraq war plans
and policy, it did so in a devious and crafty way.

The demonstration organizers asked for a permit to hold a rally on
First Avenue and then a march passed the United Nations Headquarters
building on First Avenue.  Imagine the effect on the world's anti-war
sentiment if the TV's of the world showed 500,000 or 1,000,000
Americans marching passed the UN with creative anti-war and anti-Bush
slogans.

NYC officials responded by denying the requested permit to have the
march. They agreed to a permit for a standstill rally of 100,000
protesters somewhat north of the UN on First Avenue. The organizers
announced that all the protesters who come to NYC should gather
north of the UN on First Ave. for the standstill rally. The organizers
were upset with the unprecedented denial of the right to march but
assured anyone interested that a permit had been granted and there
would be a rally. Little did the organizers realize what was going to
be permitted and what was going to be prevented on Feb 15.

On February 15 hugh numbers of people were in Manhattan to demonstrate
their opposition to the US government's war plan against Iraq. BBC was
at first reporting half a million. But the NYC police had a plan so
that no more than 100,000 would get to the rally site.

Starting early Saturday morning, the NYC police blocked access to
First Avenue from the South and from the East and the West. The only
access to First Avenue that was not blocked was from the North. But
even access from the North, from above 68th Street was carefully
controlled. Metal barriers were already lined up probably at least to
80th Street. The police allowed people coming South on First Avenue
from above 68th Street to enter pens created out of these metal
barriers. Each pen was one block long and the width of the street.
Each pen was a rectangle about 50 feet by 300 feet. Into each such 15,000
square foot pen, the police allowed about 5000 people. In twenty
blocks there would be about 100,000 people. Protesters were
allowed to fill pens from 52nd street to 68th Street and then even to
fill some pens above 68th Street.

As it turned out perhaps 80,000 to 100,000 people were allowed in to
fill the pens up to 68th or 72nd Streets by the time the rally began
at noon. The result was a successful rally with those 100,000 people
able to hear and see the speakers because there was a large sound
system and some large screen TV like monitors every 10 blocks or so.
Perhaps another 80,000 people found their way to pens above 68th Street
probably as far North as 84th Street. But they could not hear or see
the speakers.

Meanwhile from before 11:00 am for the rest of the day hundreds of
thousands of other protesters who tried to get to the rally from the
East or the West or the South were prevented from getting there by
barricades and police on foot, on horseback, and in squad cars. Those
frustrated protesters found themselves stranded and filling up Second
Avenue or Third Avenue or Lexington Avenue.

As individuals or groups tried to get to the rally on any of the side
streets that would lead from Second to First Avenue, they were
successfully held back by police manning more metal barricades or on
horseback. Sometimes as the people pushed forward the police got
violent or made arrests. By the end of the day there were at least 300
protesters who had been arrested or otherwise detained by the NYC
police. The police did succeed in keeping the number of people between
51 Street and 68th Street to 100,000 as they planned. Perhaps 80,000
other protesters were able to get on First Avenue North of 68th
Street. The other quarter or half million or so people who came to NYC
to protest filled Second, Third and Lexington Avenues but did not see
or hear any of the speakers nor see the rest of the demonstrators.

Not only did the world not see a million Americans march
passed the UN, they could not even be shown the hundreds of thousands
of people in NYC on Feb 15 to protest the war policy and plan of the US
government. Those people were successfully spread out in long Avenues
without contact with each other and never in one place at one time.

Still a million people more or less were there. Their anti-war
sentiment was not diminished. The NYC police had been used to impose
the Bush agenda on NYC. That agenda is about control not democracy.

The actions of the NYC police and then the report from the NYC police
chief that there were only 100,000 demonstrators is part of a system
of deceptions meant to help bring the US people into a war with Iraq
and the rest of the world. But so many people were in NYC to oppose
that war and so many people around the world shared that sentiment that
the outcome of the Bush regime's war plans may not be so sure.

----------------------------------------- 

I ask the organizers to please compile and make public on the Internet
people's stories. Their is a major story here how NYC supposedly a bastion
of democracy was on Feb 15 treated. It is as if the NYPD were party to the
growing denial of any basic democratic rights in the new USA the Bush
regime is trying to create.

We have many lessons to learn from Feb 15.