Category Archives: News

Hundreds of people gathered at Union square this afternoon as part of the A31 actions taking place across the city. People started converging at the park in the mid-afternoon, with seveal hundred being there by 4 pm. Dozens of NYPD were present as well, engaging in a confusing series of maneuvers, blocking various entrances to the park, and standing around. The crowd was rather diverse, with music, street performance, art, and dancing present. Present at the assembly were the Beehive Collective, the Infernal Noise Brigade, a macabre street performance about oppression of Falon Gong in China, break dancers, a jazz saxophonist, and many others. There were several soapbox speakers, ranging from a pro-Bush Christian fanatic to a dogmatic Marxist who condemned the Falon Gong practitioners as enemy’s of the “Peoples Republic” of China.

By late afternoon the crowd grew in both size and energy, as did the police presence. At approximately 7 pm the marching band started playing and led the crowd of several hundred people up Park Avenue South. The energy level of the crowd was extremely high and people were dancing to the band as they marched. The Police responded almost immediately, blocking progress on that street. The march turned down 15th street and proceeded forward only to find it blocked at Irving Pl. The police then proceeded to block of the other end of 15th at Park Avenue, trapping the front of the parade. With both ends shut, the cops started arresting everybody within the enclosed area. The rest of the marchers were forced back to the sidewalks or to the park. Hundreds of people stood on the edge of the park chanting “Let them go, let them go”, while watching the NYPD systematically march down the street, physically apprehending the trapped musicians and marchers. This IMC reporter was able to see two city buses and a paddy wagon full of arrested individuals with more still being processed. An ambulance was also present and one person was taken away on a stretcher.

Photos from the street party taken by Media Mouse are available online.

Responding to the “Chaos on Broadway” call to disrupt RNC delegates attending Broadway shows, a few hundred activists staged decentralized actions throughout the Broadway district. There were protestors outside many of the theatres, Billionaires for Bush in Times Square, a “kiss-in” staged by the Queer Bloc, and the Mouse Bloc which confronted RNC delegates outside Bombay Dreams. The Broadway actions were one of the only times when protestors will have the chance to confront delegates directly.

The NYPD seemed rather confused by the decentralized actions—they issued dispersal orders to groups of five people, arrested people for standing on the sidewalk, deployed “undercover” motorcycle police, and made a number of random arrests. The majority of the police interventions were unprovoked and generally escalated fairly low-key situations. The corporate media was similarly confused with many reporters wandering around looking for police and protestor confrontations.

Media Mouse photos from Chaos on Broadway

At the end of the March for Our Lives, the police, who were allowing protestors to move into a designated protest pen outside of Madison Square Garden, created a conflict as they used interlocking metal barricades to split the March for Our Lives in half. This police action created the first real conflict of the week as protestors attempted to prevent the police from erecting barricades and attempted to dismantle the barricades once they were put up.

Although it was not entirely clear why the police decided to split the march in half, it seems to have been done to prevent a boisterous section of the march playing drums and waving pink anarchist flags from nearing the final barricade before Madison Square Garden. Once people began to try to prevent the barricades from being created, the police moved more officers into the crowd including a contingent of undercover motorcycle cops that charged the crowd. While there are reports of pepper spray being used to disperse the crowd, the NYPD primarily relied on brute force to suppress and disperse the crowd—pushing with their batons, hitting peoples’ hands as they tried to knock over barricades, and driving motorcycles into people. The police eventually cleared the entire “free speech zone,” an area that is supposed to be set aside for legal protests during the RNC.

Media Mouse Video Clip of Barricades

Media Mouse Photos of the Conflict

A large unpermited march of over 5,000 people took to the streets of New York today to protest President Bush’s war on the poor. The March for Our Lives was organized by the Kensington Welfare Rights Union and was the largest unpermited protest against the RNC so far this week.

The march began with a rally featuring organizers from around the country, most of whom were from poor communities or communities of color. The march was one of the most spirited actions thus far full of chants and drumming. Initially it seemed that the march might be prevented from leaving the United Nations due to the large police presence, but the police allowed the march to take the streets all the way to Madison Square Garden although they maintained a heavy presence and blockaded side streets to prevent people from straying from the police approved route.

Media Mouse Photos from the March for Our Lives

According to United for Peace and Justice, 500,000 people marched in NYC to protest the RNC and the Bush agenda. The march, which passed by Madison Square Garden, site of the RNC, was the largest to ever take place at a political convention. The march was so long, according to the organizers, that it took nearly six hous for all the marchers to get to the finish point at Union Square. There were no reports of violence or arrests during the march itself and the police presence was very heavy. The majority of the protesters carried signs in opposition to the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. Various puppets, drum/dance groups and street performancer were present and the crowd was very diverse . Notably absent were signs or t-shirts promoting John Kerry or the Democratic Party. After the march many participants went down to Central Park to gather, despite the Mayor’s refusal to grant a rally permit for the park.

Media Mouse photo gallery of the UFPJ march

Corporate media sources report that 5,000 bicyclists showed up to participate in the NYC Critical Mass bike ride on friday night. The NYPD arrested 264 of the Critical Mass riders, charging them with obstructing governmental administration, unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct. About 50 of them will make court appearances. The others were issued desk-appearance tickets yesterday or had the charges dropped.

Reposted from NYC IMC:

Today, starting in Brooklyn, a March for Womens Lives was scheduled, the plan was to march across the Brooklyn Bridge to make sure that issues of reproductive health–global family planning, real sex education, accessible, safe and legal abortion, birth control options, the right to privacy regarding sexuality, and equal access to health care–are part of the national political dialogue.

Around 1pm today speakers started at Candon park in Brooklyn, the rally started small with just over 500 protesters and only about 70 police officers. There didn’t seem to be much tension, with many of the cops being on bicycle. There were people there handing out water and Luna bars, to a very diverse crowd.

By 1:30, the march had begun and the crowd was up in the thousands, byt the time they started crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. Reports came in of as many as 16,000 marchers going over the bridge. By the time the march reached City Hall Park for the end rally, it was three hours into it. There were reports of good vibes and lots of support (in the form of honking) by the passing vehicles.