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Ready or Not, RNC, Here’s What’s Coming

By Alexandra Tager

Questions looming over the RNC protests are numerous and unlikely to be answered until the moment of truth. After months of politicking by the New York Police Department (NYPD) and United for Peace and Justice (UNFP), organizers of the main August 29 march, a judge’s final ruling has denied Central Park to the protesters for a rally. The city claimed… return to article

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    Recent developments:
    - More than 250 riders and bystanders were reportedly arrested at Friday’s Critical Mass demonstration
    - NYC Indymedia reports on Ring Out New York, a memorial effort to remember those killed in 9/11 and the Iraq war:
    http://nyc.indymedia.org/feature/display/105798/index.php
    - The Planned Parenthood march went off peacefully and attracted thousands of marchers:
    http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/9524765.htm

    United States Posted by Jessica Clark on Aug 29, 2004 at 10:01 AM

    Oh, and C-SPAN is broadcasting live coverage of the march. Quite a crowd.

    United States Posted by Jessica Clark on Aug 29, 2004 at 10:04 AM

    Judge Learned Hand said that “liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.” The people of New York are showing that liberty still lives in the hearts of Americans. Hasta la victoria siempre, Companeros!

    Australia Posted by Les MacDonald on Aug 29, 2004 at 6:39 PM

    My husband & I decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary by going to the RNC protest in NYC. We had such agreat time!
    The CNN & Fox coverage of the protest were inaccurate - while they reported that the march was over by 3 and/or 4pm and had actually shown a “LIVE” coverage of an empty street (they were reporting live from MSG which is behind 34th St and there was literally no one in the streets) it was actually not over. Around 4:30pm, we came back to the hotel where we were staying at after going to Union Sq. where the march ended ,we watched the coverage of the march, we tuned in to different stations on TV and C-Span had a live coverage of the the march still going on and it was almost 5pm while CNN reported that it was over by 4pm. Not one TV station had commented on the coffins that were being carried by protesters right outside of The Garden - these coffins were covered in US flags and some of them were not as they are the symbols of the nameless and countless Iraqis that were killed. It was such a sight, it was so powerful. I still cannot believe that this was not on TV.
    I am quite afraid of what’s going on in our country, how information is being supressed or distorted. Marcos did that in the Philippines before and during martial law in the early 70s. With the thousands of police in the City armed through the teeth with an M-16 going through the crowd or standing in street corners, it definitely reminded me of my childhood in Manila during martial law under Marcos. There people actually disappeared w/out a trace or some of them where found with their guts & brains were filled with rags - a signature of the Metropopitan Police. The scene in NYC was so Orwellian. Helicopters were circling above, armed men walking on rooftops and there were these speaker-like gigantic machines on top of some buildings on 7th Av - we actually thought that those speakers could make a horrible sounds that can dispererse the crowds just in case it got ugly. It was surreal to think that. It’s like 1984.
    The march was pretty peaceful all in all and please don’t believe that it wasn’t. This morning I was watching CNN (just to see what lies they were reporting) and while it has the chyron on the lower left of “LIVE this am”, they had some protester on the screen getting arrested and it was dark which indicates that it was not live! This happened maybe 2 nights ago or last night! Don’t believe anything you see on TV. Seek out the news online and C-Span is a great spource of what’s really going on out there. And also please don’t believe that New Yorkers will actually hurt a delegate physically - New Yorkers are not like that at all.(I know, I am one) While New Yorkers will heckle or have been heckling the delegates, they will not physically hurt one. They are more creative than just physically hurting somebody. Take the NYPD and FDNY. While they have been heckling Bloomberg for weeks about a raise which the City refused to give them so they will not have to work a 2nd or 3rd jobs to support their families - whether outside of the mayor’s home at 2am or at some luncheon midtown, they will never hurt the mayor physically. New Yorkers may embarrass the delegates, and they will do so in a very creative way. They’re New Yorkers. And for once, the Repubs in the City are the amusement. We’re just having fun. This is how we welcome them. To make sure that they will remember the RNC in NY.

    United States Posted by Doily on Aug 31, 2004 at 8:17 AM

    I am delighted people are protesting this horrible
    gathering of the RNC in NYC. My wife and I have felt we were at a Nuremberg Rally while listening
    to the coverage that Pacifica Radio has been doing
    of this ghastly ultra-Right event. I thought Zell
    Miller’s McCarthyite tirade last night was particularly offensive as well as being a lie
    in every line. We all need to push the Demos in
    a more progressive direction and Kerry really
    needs to take the gloves off.
    Thanks to ITT for their continuing coverage here.

    United States Posted by Michael Hardesty on Sep 2, 2004 at 9:01 AM
    Spain Posted by loan mortgage on Nov 4, 2004 at 5:03 PM
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