Republican National Convention
Protest massive and peaceful

By Shannon McCaffrey, Tina Moore, Tony Pugh and Stephanie Arnold
Knight Ridder Newspapers

GREGORY BULL / AP An anti-Bush banner makes its way with marchers along Seventh Avenue in New York yesterday. United for Peace and Justice, which organized the protest on the eve of the Republican National Convention, said 400,000 people participated. Police said the protest was mostly peaceful.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Related stories Democrats prepare for rapid response

Protesters poured past Madison Square Garden, where the Republican National Convention will begin today, for 4½ hours.

Uniformed police officers lined the sun-drenched protest route, girding for violence. There were about 200 arrests, and four police officers were injured when they tussled with members of an anarchist group. Most of the arrests were for disorderly conduct.

Organizers said 400,000 people turned out — well above the quarter of a million expected. The Associated Press reported the crowd numbered "more than 100,000."

New York police declined to provide a crowd estimate. Whatever the actual number, the huge crowd was orderly for the most part. "It went extremely well," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

The 2½-mile route took demonstrators up Seventh Avenue, east on 34th Street, past the Empire State Building, then south on Fifth Avenue and Broadway to Union Square Park for a rally.

There were a few pro-Bush counter-protesters along the route, but the flood of opponents, carrying placards such as "Fire the Liar" and "Draft the Bush Twins," shouted them down.

"I think someone needs to stand up to these radical liberals, especially now that we've got boots in the ground [in Iraq]," said Bush supporter Jon Alvarez, 38, of Syracuse, N.Y.

	PAUL SANCYA / AP Stanley Sherman helps carry flag-draped coffins past Madison Square Garden during yesterday's march in New York. Protesters said they had 1,000 coffins representing U.S. service members killed in Iraq. The Pentagon puts the official toll at 969.

Polls show the war in Iraq has become increasingly unpopular in recent months.

Bush, in West Virginia to speak to miners and steelworkers, repeated his defense of the war in Iraq, saying, "America and the world are safer because Saddam Hussein sits in a prison cell."

Vice President Dick Cheney campaigned his way into the convention city three days ahead of the president, addressing a crowd on Ellis Island, framed by a Manhattan skyline altered irrevocably by terrorism.

Cheney praised Bush as "calm in a crisis, comfortable with responsibility and determined to do everything needed to protect our people."

The Pentagon says 969 Americans have died in action, including 831 since Bush stood on an aircraft carrier more than a year ago before a banner that read "Mission Accomplished."

Several protesters carried flag-draped, coffin-shaped boxes through the streets, meant to draw attention to the U.S. death toll in Iraq.

As the afternoon wore on and protesters continued to stream up Seventh Avenue past the Garden, the march took on a carnivallike atmosphere.

Giant puppets caricaturing Bush bobbed above the marchers. Steel drums pounded out a festive beat. A woman in a pink and green bikini made the march with "no one died when Clinton lied" scrawled across her chest in red lipstick.

Protesters ran the gamut from aging hippies and suburban schoolteachers in khakis to 20-something feminists in hot pink and muscular veterans just back from Iraq.

"The war is wrong. We were lied to," said U.S. Marine Rob Sarra, 32, of Chicago.

Protesters paused in front of Madison Square Garden to hurl anti-Bush slogans at the arena where GOP delegates will gather today.

"No more years!" some chanted.

Controversy has surrounded the event organized by United for Peace and Justice since the city barred the group from rallying in Central Park, arguing that the protesters would trample the newly sodded lawn. There were fears that anger over the city's decision would fuel clashes with the police or that anarchists would disrupt the procession.

Republican officials had suggested in recent days that Democratic Party activists were fueling the protest march, but Democratic leaders denied any connection to organizers.

At one point yesterday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson hoisted a bullhorn and urged protesters to remain peaceful.

"We will remember in November," Jackson promised.

The most violent incident of the day came when a member of Black Block, a self-described anarchist group, set fire to a papier-mâché dragon. Nine members were charged with assaulting a policeman as officers tried to arrest one of the group's members. Police found smoke bombs and ball bearings inside the hollow cardboard poles that protesters were required to use to hold up their banners.

Despite the city's ban, several thousand protesters with banners migrated to Central Park after the march. Police watched from the edges of the Great Lawn but didn't move against them.

The thousands of police, some dressed in riot gear, others bearing automatic weapons, represented only a portion of an unprecedented security deployment designed to protect the city, New Yorkers and Republicans during the convention week.

Most of those arrested were bicyclists from the New York environmental group, Time's Up!, which promotes bicycles as an alternative to cars. About 20 cyclists were placed in plastic handcuffs and taken away, their bikes left on the side of the street.

Yesterday's protest was fueled largely by anti-war passions, but supporters of a handful of other causes also used it as a platform. A man dressed as a giant carrot promoted vegetarianism. There were banners supporting gay marriage carried by partners who kissed for media cameras.

Dawn Jones, 37, of Harlem said she supported the rights of poor people. "I'm out here today because 51 percent of our black males are unemployed," she said.

Information about President Bush and Vice President Cheney's campaign events is from The Associated Press. Additional information from The Washington Post and The Dallas Morning News.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More nation & world headlines...