Police Misuse of Protest Pens Causes Scuffle at March for Our Lives Alex Vitale www.nyc-justice.org August 30, 2004 Today’s March For Our Lives demonstration started as a model of flexible policing. After having denied a permit for the group to march, the police agreed to a march just before the 4 PM rally. The march took up two lanes of traffic and went south on Second Ave from 47th St. to 23rd St and then west on 23rd to 8th Ave, where it proceeded north. During the march their was a heavy police presence on motor scooters, bicycles and foot, with numerous vans in back and two arrest wagons in front. There were also some arrests and searches of bags along the route increasing the tension. Neither the police, nor the demonstrators, however, attempted to stop or divert the march. The mood was generally relaxed with chants music, and cheers from the radical cheerleaders. As the march moved north on 8th Ave. some people attempted to leave the march route to go home. They were prevented from doing so. No one was allowed to move south or across any side street, People were also prevented from joining the march. This is a common technique used by the police to “lockdown†a demonstration. It is designed to prevent break away marches, but in the process denies individuals the freedom to leave the demonstration area. This penning in of the demonstrators is a direct violation of a recent federal court injunction requiring that people not be penned in at demonstrations to the degree that they can neither enter nor leave the penned area. The march continued north the 30th St. and the pen between there and 29th St. began to fill in. When it was about 80% full the police attempted to pull a line of barricades across the southern part of 29th St. from west to east to divide the crowd in two for the purposes of establishing two separate protest pens, leaving the intersection open to crosstown traffic, despite the fact that 29th St, was closed to unauthorized vehicular traffic. People in the intersection did not want to be forced into separate pens. As the police began to force the interlocked barricades across the street demonstrators stood in their way and at time pushed back against the barricades. At no time were any verbal instruction or notices given to the crowd about what was happening or why. Given events the night before in Times Square, it’s possible that some demonstrators may have thought they were being arrested and were trying to get away from the area being barricaded. After an initial brief scuffle the police managed to get the barricade a little over half way across the street and then stopped and radioed for help. They then tried again to push the barricade through the crowd. By this point many demonstrators had linked arms to block the progress of the barriers. As this was happening 12-24 police in riot gear stormed the crowd from the north with a two handed baton charge knocking down numerous demonstrators. Seconds later about a dozen unmarked police scooters charged the crowd from the south running into many of the people still on the ground. Police officers and horses then cleared the intersection forcing demonstrators east on 29th St. Eventually people were allowed to disperse and only a few arrests were made. This event highlights the misuse of protest pens by the police. These barriers have been an ongoing source of tension between demonstrators and police and deny people of their basic right to freely assemble. The NYCLU report “Arresting Protest†highlighted the misuse of pens at the Feb. 15, 2003 anti-war rally, and it is clear that this practice has continued despite a court order to the contrary. As long as the police continue to aggressively divide legal demonstrations in this way they will have incident of confrontation. The job of the police should be to protect demonstrators and the public and not to escalate confrontations through pointless micro management of protests. http://www.nyc-justice.org