Mar '03 [Home]
Free Expression
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Mar '03 [Home] Free Expression March Day, Feb. 15: This Is What a Police State Looks Like
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The February 15 anti-war demonstration in New York City was a
sobering reality check for anybody who continues to cling to the belief that we live in a
democracy.
I've been in more rallies than I can count. Still, I was a little surprised by the lengths the New York Police Department went to to keep tens of thousands away from the designated rally site at First Avenue and 51st. [Photo credit]Blocking people from a demonstration is not without precedent: A significant number of people were blocked from the first Million Youth March in Harlem five years ago. I personally have been charged by a baton-wielding cop before for attempting to enter a demonstration. I did eventually make it into that one. I never made it to First Avenue. I assumed the turnout on Saturday would be so large that the police would have no choice—march permit or not—but to just let it happen. Maybe they went easier on those who arrived early and filled the rally site, but not on others. The corporate media reported that the police were "surprised" and "overwhelmed" at a turnout "far greater" than expected. I don't believe that. But, even if, for the sake of argument, the police were genuinely surprised, numbers were a small factor. The real reason for their actions is the obvious one, namely, that the authorities did not want this demonstration to happen and decided to do what they could to sabotage it. But their heavy-handed tactics backfired. They only made us angrier and bolder. Looking at the day from the point of view of City Hall and the police, the tactics were stupid. If the police had granted a march permit to go with the rally, everything would have been smoother. There would have been just one march with foreseeable disruptions along one pre-designated route. Instead, there were dozens of marches, with the result that the whole East Side was shut down, with a later blockage smack in the middle of town at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. As usual, the corporate media vastly undercounted participants in the demonstration, citing the police figure of 100,000, although Channels 2 and 4 did mention the organizers' figure of 500,000. A Channel 2 anchor referred to "tens of thousands or possibly more," yet, in the next breath, reported that First Avenue, which is six lanes wide, was "packed" from 49th Street to 75th. How could that immense area be packed unless there were hundreds of thousands? I was among those trapped on Third Avenue, into which only a handful of the many, many feeder marches that turned out were routed, and I can state that there were tens of thousands on that avenue alone. And all of them on the move. It didn't take long for us to decide to march, despite the lack of official sanction. Just past noon, several contingents merged into one feeder march, heading east on 42nd Street from Fifth Avenue. The police initially confined us to the sidewalk, but within minutes we spilled out onto the street. We were forcibly pushed back onto the sidewalk, only to take to the street again, as we chanted, "Whose streets? Our streets!" This sidewalkeet exercise was repeated several times. Eventually this feeder march went up Lexington Avenue, and merged with one or more other large feeder marches coming from 50th Street. (A postal service truck was hopelessly trapped in the crowd, but the driver was cheerful about the situation.) We were all forced east on 50th to Third Avenue, and there, the lockdown began. I eventually made it up to 53rd Street and Third Avenue. All exits were sealed off. A solid row of cops in full riot gear blocked progress up Third and barricades and an open-air police supply wagon blocked our way eastward on 53rd. The police wagon was completely filled with demonstrators, while other demonstrators occupied the top of a shuttered newsstand. The police eventually managed to re-secure their wagon, but it cost them crucial personnel. The crowd was very restless, angrily demanding to be let through. The police insisted we turn back, even though there was no return access in that direction either. We were trapped there until about 3 p.m. When we began removing barricades, the police charged into the crowd and started arresting people in brutal fashion. After considerable struggle (helped perhaps by the load of cops diverted to re-securing their own supply wagon), the crowd forced its way east on 53rd. We quickly spilled off the sidewalk onto the streets and a herd of cops angrily charged us from the rear, attempting to force us onto the sidewalk, screaming that we had to make way for traffic, although all streets in the area were blocked off to cars. We held our ground, and they were unable to get us off the street. Once we made it to Second Avenue, however, we were blocked again. Police on horseback charged demonstrators. The situation rapidly became tense as several of us engaged in yelling matches with the police, who kept ordering us in directions that they had already closed off. Then the police engaged in the common tactic of ordering everybody to go one way, only to have another group of cops there order everyone back in the direction they'd just come from. Pointing out this contradiction did no good; logic does not work on police. Eventually, police used their batons to violently shove us south on Second Avenue to 52nd Street, where two mounted cops repeatedly drove their horses at us; I narrowly escaped being side-swiped. One of these cops was particularly vicious. He maneuvered his horse in one direction, then the other, forcing him into tight 180-degree turns again and again. I saw the pain in the horse's face as the bit in its mouth jerked hard this way and that. As more standoffs ensued, I experienced the hostility of corporate media first-hand. A befuddled-looking Channel 2 reporter happened by and, from about ten feet away, I said to her that I hoped she would tell the story of what was happening, that force and violence were being used to break up a peaceful demonstration, that she wouldn't just repeat police lies. I said this in an even tone. But the reporter's assistant, a man twice my size, menaced me, snarling "Back off!" Holding my ground, I told him to back off. A woman who had courageously challenged the cops on several occasions and been violently shoved around tried to intercede, and the reporter's assistant snarled at her, too. After another exchange with me, reporter and assistant moved away. But this was a telling exchange: The mere suggestion that a corporate-media reporter should give an accurate and balanced presentation is enough to prompt threats of violence. By then, it was about 4 p.m., and people were steadily dispersing, which was understandable considering the harsh cold. There would be several more marches, however. Toward 5 p.m., one impromptu march of several hundred demonstrators moved north, taking over Fifth Avenue and then west onto 42nd Street until a large group completely occupied the street in the middle of the block. They then turned and marched back down, but the cops sealed off the avenue at 39th Street. Many of us thought the best tactic then would have been to turn down 40th Street, but, instead, most of the impromptu marchers decided to sit down in the middle of Fifth Avenue. Another large group of cops then sealed off the block at 40th Street, trapping everybody and completely disrupting traffic for some time. In full riot gear, brandishing batons and one cop threatening people with a mace can, the 39th Street line moved in. At least a dozen men and women held their ground and were arrested, as the rest were forced onto the sidewalks. "We're not violent! How about you?" they chanted. One answer came when several cops walked over to a puppetista who was just standing there with his beautifully done large green George Bush puppet. They threw him to the ground, arrested and hauled him away, then dragged the puppet on the ground after doing some damage to it. In the midst of the standoff, someone from up above heaved a water balloon into the street, surprising the demonstrators and angering the cops, who scanned the windows of the surrounding buildings. Fortunately, the balloon thrower had acted fast and there was no sign at all of where his contribution had come from. As I left, I saw two cops screaming to be let into the Mid-Manhattan Library, as a librarian hurriedly unlocked the door. Perhaps the cops thought the balloon thrower was in the library; perhaps they just wanted to suppress some books. What if more people got ideas the Bush administration disapproves of?  Mounted Police at Anti-War March in San Francisco, Feb. 16. [Story] In the end, one thing was clear: The authorities are afraid of us. Here's another: Hundreds of thousands of innocent people will die in the Bush administration's war on Iraq if we can't stop it. Moreover, If we let our civil liberties be taken away, it'll be very difficult getting them back. If we don't stand up now, when the next war drive comes, they'll be sending us to jail and camps instead of locking us down in the streets. (Pete Dolack is a journalist and poet well-known on the New York circuit. He contributes frequently to the magazine.) |