2003-02-15 4:57 p.m.
rein it in, and would you get your elbow out of my back?

Lula: That Johnnie is one clever detective. You know how clever?

Sailor: How clever?

Lula: He told me once he could find an honest man in Washington.

Apparently, a lot of people were looking for one at the United Nations today. I was one of them, but like a lot of people on the street this afternoon, I didn't even get close.

Today was the scheduled rally against the proposed invasion (laughingly referred to as a "war" by our government), a global protest spread out across 480 cities, according to the organizers, and despite a rally permit only specifying 10,000 people, anywhere between 100,000 (the organizers' original expected number) and 400,000 (the roughly estimated number from the NY Times) people were there, either at the rally itself, or being shut out on the adjoining streets when the overflow of people threatened to overwhelm every street block for at least ten square blocks around the site. (Sidewalks were full of people from 42nd up to 70th on 2nd and 3rd Avenues, and most of those blocks on Lex.)

But it all should have been civil. I clamored out of the subway at 51st Street and Lex (three blocks west and two north of the UN), and the street was already full of people. FULL. We're talking wall-to-wall, covered in banners, signs, and radios, everyone and their mom on their cell phone to loved ones, beaming with pride that they came out in the cold to represent.

We marched in place (and slowly made it down the block to 3rd Ave.) for at least an hour and a half, and then the police started to play crowd control.

Needless to say, when you're dealing with a group of people already pissed off about one issue — George W. Bush ignoring our failing economy so he can march off to war with the wrong country (North Korea's the one with working nukes, remember) — telling them they can't go to the one rally in the area to hear people speak out about that issue isn't going to go over too well. Some folks were civil, simply trying to slide around the barricades and amble down the street, and others had a yen to do some classic angry-left damage to the cops on watch.

Granted, I completely understand their anger. The entire situation was completely mismanaged.

The NY Appeals Court that heard the march-permit case had no business not assigning a march permit, knowing full well that over 100,000 people (easily) were likely to show up whether permitted or not. That was mistake one.

Mistake two was that the cops, knowing how fast the crowds were swelling, should've put up the sidewalk fences to keep the streets clear and started crowd control MUCH earlier.

BUT (and this is mistake three): the crowds shouldn't (and really shouldn't ever) have pushed the cops. People were knocking over barricades, intentionally trying to knock cops down, then jumping back and going, "whoa, man, this is a PEACEFUL protest!", like they don't know what a police officer's likely to do when pushed or punched in the face (like a few were). Frustration is one thing, but getting your giggles from fucking with a cop — especially NYPD beat cops just trying to keep things chill (and noticeably a nice group of guys) — is just unnecessary.

For the record, I almost got trampled at one point (thank the Sheridan Whiteside stentorian voice), and got an eyeful of pepper spray intended for someone else.

I'm a little fried to write about this coherently, and part of me doesn't want to. I'm really pissed that I spent all day trying to not get caught between riot cops and idiotic armchair activists who can't keep their mouths shut, pushing and hitting cops, then screaming, "Attica! Attica!", instead of hearing Susan Sarandon and company speak out against the war. I'm also pretty amazed at the restraint shown by most of the NYPD on duty there...folks were really pushing them hard.

I know we were all there to go to the rally, and it's frustrating to find out that five times the anticipated number of people showed up and you can't go because THERE'S NO ROOM...but you keep your shit in check. Period.