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.
