Pro-choice activists march to New York's City Hall

By The Associated Press;Michael Slackman and Ann Farmer
The New York Times

CHRIS HONDROS / GETTY IMAGES Activists shout at police yesterday during a protest calling for unionization at Starbucks coffee shops in New York City. Two protesters were arrested during a brief scuffle with police.

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NEW YORK — Thousands of abortion-rights supporters marched over the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday in what organizers called the largest demonstration devoted to that issue in New York in three decades.

The protest, which opened a third day of demonstrations aimed at the Republican National Convention, occurred as hundreds of bicycle-riding protesters who were arrested a night earlier were arraigned in a Manhattan court, many having been held on minor charges for many hours before being released.

With placards that made their feelings crystal clear ("I Love a Pro-Choice New York" and "Abort Bush B4 His Second Term"), an estimated 25,000 people participated in a procession that stretched about one-half mile long, snaking across the bridge toward City Hall. The protest was orderly, and the police said there were no arrests.

As the Republican Party nominates President Bush for a second term this week, tens of thousands of people plan to express their displeasure, even hostility, toward the administration. Two groups sought to stage low-key, symbolic protests yesterday: One laid out 972 pairs of combat boots and 1,000 pairs of civilian shoes around Cherry Hill Fountain in Central Park to commemorate soldiers and civilians killed in Iraq. As a bell tolled, names were read aloud.

At Ground Zero, a group calling itself Ring Out distributed thousands of bells yesterday as part of a performance composition that sought to commemorate both Sept. 11, 2001, and what protest organizers called the violence of the Republican administration.

The plan was to ring the bells 2,749 times — one for each victim killed in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center — but the demonstration quickly turned into almost continuous ringing.

A week of dissent Some of the major protests and demonstrations planned this week: Today 250,000 demonstrators are expected for an anti-war march organized by United for Peace and Justice. Chaos on Broadway: Protesters accost Republican delegates attending Broadway shows. Tomorrow March by the Hip Hop Summit Action Network and organizations that assist the poor. Demonstration outside the United Nations by the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign. Tuesday Daylong civil disobedience and "direct action" planned by anarchist groups against corporate and government sites. Wednesday 5,000 marchers holding pink slips stretch in a symbolic unemployment line from Wall Street to Madison Square Garden. Central Labor Council Labor Day rally near Madison Square Garden. 50,000 protesters expected for a women's rights rally at Central Park. Thursday As yet unscheduled protests outside Madison Square Garden and elsewhere in Manhattan as President Bush accepts his party's nomination. The Dallas Morning News

Some Starbucks employees also protested in midtown Manhattan, accusing the Bush administration of opposing their attempt to form a union.

More than 36 hours before the convention was to start, the police said they had arrested 311 people in convention-related protests, including 25 yesterday. On Thursday, a group of naked and nearly naked protesters with the group Act Up stopped traffic on Eighth Avenue and were arrested, and hundreds of bicycle-riding demonstrators were arrested Friday for tying up traffic and violating traffic rules.

Although the city had sent out thousands of police officers across Manhattan, authorities did not increase the number of arraignment courts to deal with larger numbers of arrests, court personnel said. Instead, the 264 people who were swept up when police pulled nets across the street to block the bicycle protest found themselves stuck in a courthouse holding cell for many hours, waiting to be arraigned.

"I'm tired, I'm frustrated and I'm hungry," said Julia Cohen, a lawyer who said she had been on the street Friday night to defend protesters and instead found herself under arrest. She had waited 16 hours to be released.

Yet for all the commotion, Central Park was fairly peaceful yesterday despite court battles to use the park for protests on both weekend days.

A few protesters did turn out, including a few die-hards who had hoped to see the lawn brimming with defiance but instead found themselves seated beneath a shade tree or on a park bench.

The city had denied a permit for an Arab-American group to hold a rally yesterday on the Great Lawn, and there was some expectation that the group nevertheless would show up. But it didn't.

The group planning a large protest today, United for Peace and Justice, also had been denied a permit for a rally that organizers expect will draw hundreds of thousands of people. That group has obtained permission to march past the convention center, and many marchers may go to the park, permit or not.

Details on the Ground Zero and Starbucks protests were provided by The Associated Press.

2 men arrested

in alleged bomb plot

NEW YORK — A U.S. citizen and a Pakistani national were arrested in an alleged plot to bomb a subway station in midtown Manhattan and possibly other locations, police said yesterday.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the men were not thought to be connected to al-Qaida or any other international terrorist organization, although he said they expressed hatred for America.

Although there was no clear tie to the convention, authorities moved to arrest the two men before it began.

The men had been under police surveillance and had discussed placing explosives at the Herald Square subway station and stations at 42nd and 59th streets, Kelly said.

The men were being charged with conspiracy to blow up the station, which is central to a large commercial district, including Macy's flagship department store.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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