Sometime in New York City

Somehow, I find myself back in Philadelphia safe and sound after this past weekend. There were times when I wasn’t sure it would turn out that way.

I went up to New York last Saturday to take part in the Peace March. Did I say March? Sorry, Peace Rally, since the city denied citizens the right to march citing “security” reasons (will they make everyone stand in place for a St. Patrick’s Day Rally next month? - Probably not).

I had been to Washington DC in January for the march there and, if nothing else, it made me feel good to be able to give voice to something I believe in and to find that there are huge numbers of people - young, old and everything in between - who share that belief. The march drew at least 200,000 from around the country who engaged in a peaceful, peaceable, event.

I expected the same in New York.

Sadly, it seems that the City of New York was hell-bent on confrontation. Not content to merely deny people the ability to march (and, really, if security is your concern, it makes more sense to have people come out, start at one point, march to another point and then go home - as opposed to having them all congregate in one place for 5 hours), they also had to try to keep THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE away from the event.

Yes, I know you heard there were 100,000 people there. They were out on 1st Avenue where the event was held, stretching over 20 blocks. What wasn’t reported was that there were JUST AS MANY people on 2nd Avenue. And as many again on 3rd. And Lexington (4th Avenue). All of them unable to get to the actual rally, because the Police denied access by closing all of the cross-streets.

I arrived with the people I went up with just after noon, coming down 49th Street from 8th Avenue. While at that time we were still able to cross Lex, by 3rd Avenue we were being herded by the Police NORTH (away from the rally), being told we could cross over at 51st.

Reaching 51st, we were told we couldn’t cross over there, but could at 59th.

Then 61st.

Then 72nd.

You get the picture.

By 1:15p or so, it dawned on me what was happening - WE WERE BEING DISPERSED. I heard Police telling people at one point “The rally’s over - go home” - this while listening to the speaker on the podium over the radio (WBAI - 99.5). Obviously, there was an agenda beyond keeping the peace.

Heading back south, we got as far as 53rd and tried again to cross over east to get to 1st Ave. By this point, large numbers of people were figuring out what the game was and tempers were getting short. There was a point at which we found ourselves up against the barricades with the Police directly in front of us. People were getting maced, people were getting clubbed. They must have hauled off a dozen people in Police vans. Frankly, there were several really frightening minutes. Police in riot gear came up 53rd from 2nd Avenue and formed a wall with their shields and pushed into us as we tried to get into a more open area. It might just be me, but when I see sharpshooters on rooftops and they’re looking my way, I’m just as happy to be somewhere else.

We did make out to the intersection of 53rd and 3rd. Things calmed down. We met a man in his 60s who said he had been to dozens of demonstrations and had never seen the Police crack down like this. He said he’d just been at 52nd and 2nd Avenue and that there were mounted Police corralling people at the intersection and then running them down with their horses.

Even experiencing what was going on, I didn’t know whether to believe him.

And then at least 25 additional riot Police came down 53rd from Lexington into the intersection. They pushed people to either side of the intersection and put up barriers.

And then the horses came. At first, they lined up, 8 -10 strong, and faced North - towards those of us on the side of 3rd Avenue heading towards 54th Street. Then, for some reason I’ll never know, an officer on foot shouted something and they turned and faced South - other officers in riot gear removed the barriers and the Police rode into the crowd. These people had nowhere to go and some got trampled.

This is not heresay. I SAW this. It was right in front of me. Had some order not been given to face the other way, it quite likely would have been me.

I came to voice an opinion. I came to speak as a citizen of a democracy. I was met by deception, manipulation and force.
When we got back to the hotel later that night, I clicked all around looking at the news. Everywhere it was the same story - 100,000 people (lie), only a few arrests and only of people who wouldn’t disperse after the rally was over (lie), no mention of hundreds of thousands of people on 2nd, 3rd and Lex being denied access to the rally. No mention of the Police trampling people with horses. Oh, they did show a clip of the Chief of Police saying “someone punched a horse.” Punched a horse. I’m not kidding. Like it was ‘Blazing Saddles.’

In January, having attended the march in Washington - I really came away with a feeling of optimism. Not, perhaps, that people speaking out in large enough numbers could prevent a war - but then again, maybe they could.

Last weekend left me seeing how far some will go to try and ensure that those voices aren’t heard. Maybe you’re with me on this anti-war thing, maybe you’re not - but it seems like it would be in every American’s interest to allow political expression.

All I wanted to do was stand up and be heard.

Peace (really),
Jim