publish.nyc.indymedia.org | On One Year Anniversary of Iraq War, Tens of Thousands Call For an End to the Occupation

March 21, 2004 07:09AM EST [general.addtranslation] Download Article (PDF) [ insert language bar ]

On One Year Anniversary of Iraq War, Tens of Thousands Call For an End to the Occupation

By NYC-IMC

Tens of thousands of New Yorkers marked the one year anniversary of the start of the Iraq War by marching peacefully for peace in midtown Manhattan. Despite an early spring chill, the mood of the crowd was upbeat and determined. The NYPD reported four arrests; a group of 100 or so drummers marching downtown at 6pm initially caused a tense standoff with police. All in all, though, the day was remarkably trouble-free. [See Photos 1 || 2]
At one point, the march stretched for dozens of blocks, and nearly circled the center of Midtown Manhattan with a wall of protesters.
Some march attendees attributed the orderliness of the day's protest to a desire on the part of the police to "make a good impression" after last year's F15 fiasco.
See coverage of the global day of action at Indymedia and coverage of today's massive rally and police violence in San Francisco at Indybay.

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Tens of thousands of New Yorkers marked the one year anniversary of the start of the Iraq War by marching for peace in midtown Manhattan. Despite an early spring chill, the mood of the crowd was upbeat and determined. The NYPD reported four arrests; a group of 100 or so drummers marching downtown at 6pm innitially caused a tense standoff with police. All in all, though, the day was remarkably trouble-free. [See Photos]

Some march attendees attributed the orderliness of the day's protest to a desire on the part of the police to "make a good impression" after last year's F15 fiasco.

See coverage of the global day of action at Indymedia and coverage of today's massive rally and police violence in San Francisco at Indybay.

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Re: On One Year Anniversary of Iraq War, Tens of Thousands Call For an End to th

Mar 21, 2004 07:36AM EST

Laurie

"This year, rally organizers met with high-ranking authorities three times in preparation for Saturday's demonstration. They agreed that whenever a pen was set up, it would have an opening for activists to enter and exit accordingly."

Above is a quote from a newspaper article,
and it was my understanding, also that there
would be fences, but that people could
come and go as they pleased.

In contrast, I saw the following occur:

I don't know what street it was on, but
at the point when things were extremely crowded
so that people could not even move forward,
due to the massive numbers of people, when one
young woman tried to exit through the barricade
onto a sidewalk: a policeman asked her
"Are you with the protest?" and she said "yes",
and he said, "You have to stay in the street"
and would not allow her through onto the
sidewalk.

In addition, the following is hearsay because
I did not witness it personally but heard it
from friends:

On another occasion, when a group of demonstrators tried to leave the march to
return to their buses on 42nd St., police officers allowed several of the group to exit
the barricades: then for what seemed to be
no reason blocked the rest of the
group. When questioned, the officer said,
"You know you aren't allowed to cross a police line."

Laurie

100,000+ Pile into NY to Demand End to Occupation

Mar 21, 2004 01:38PM EST

Don DeBar

100,000+ Pile into NY to Demand End to Occupation More than 100,000 people piled into Manhattan Saturday to demand an end to the US occupation of Iraq - and we caught many of them on videotape for your viewing pleasure! See for yourself - click on http://users.bestweb.net/~debar/032004nyc.rm to see an unedited 10.5 MB video of some of the day's doings. Got Video? If you happened to shoot any video of peace actions on March 20, please contact Don DeBar at debar@bestweb.net - we will edit and place it on the Internet! Let your picture of the peace movement become a part of the historical record.

what happened to the anarchist/marxist discussion?

Mar 22, 2004 10:00AM EST

que se vayan todos

ok, maybe it shouldn't have been the top story in the center of the page, but could the moderators/web people at least make it a sub-story/link on the story about the protest?

http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/89551/index.php

Re: On One Year Anniversary of Iraq War, Tens of Thousands Call For an End to th

Mar 23, 2004 01:52AM EST

Chris O.

We are the alterntive media right?!? The why are our figures as misleading as the private mass media? Tens of Thousands? C'mon 100,000+ is a stronger headline, is more compelling, and is honest.

te's get with it people.

Re: On One Year Anniversary of Iraq War, Tens of Thousands Call For an End to th

Mar 23, 2004 01:53AM EST

Chris O.

Re: On One Year Anniversary of Iraq War, Tens of Thousands Call For an End to th

Mar 23, 2004 01:54AM EST

Chris O.

Re: On One Year Anniversary of Iraq War, Tens of Thousands Call For an End to th

Mar 23, 2004 06:52AM EST

imcista

i saw the march and i don't think there were 100,000. sorry.

Re: On One Year Anniversary of Iraq War, Tens of Thousands Call For an End to th

Jan 17, 2005 01:26AM EST

Duvernay

Interested in material about the demonstration march (March 20th, 2004). Working on a documentary about the misanderstanding between France & USA.
Tks for helping me in my research