Pittsburgh Rocks NYC Feb 15th : Pittsburgh Indymedia

Pittsburgh Rocks NYC Feb 15th
by Brad Cue Monday, Feb. 17, 2003 at 12:45 PM
devolution@dirtragmag.com

Photos and story from Pittsburgher's point of view of Feb 15 2003 New York City protests.

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Heading to New York City this past weekend for the Saturday protests it was expected that there would be some form of police oppression and possible violence. We were not let down. Immediately upon arriving at the New York Public Library to meet for a feeder march the police starting flexing their muscles. At first they just told us we couldn't stand on the stairs or the sidewalk, that we must proceed to the protest area. Most people ignored their threats with even more marchers arriving as time passed. Soon the police changed tactics and brought in forces with helmets and the like to make sure we stood on the sidewalk that we were just informed we couldn't stand on. After a few moments a feeder march was spotted across the street, which many of the protestors at the library joined. Led by a drum contingent, we turned and began to walk down the sidewalk through town. As our numbers grew, people began to spill into the streets. The police attempted to contain the demonstrators to the sidewalk, but gave up as our numbers grew. Walking between cars with an even growing mass of people the feeder march attracted plenty of attention to its cause. Overall the response from non-participants was positive with many smiling and waving peace signs back. Eventually the group was steered by police to streets with barriers set up to break apart the massive group of demonstrators into smaller sections and to stop the progress of the march. Some were able to break through the barriers, but as more people attempted to tear down the cages put up around them the police became more aggressive. People were shoved around, beaten and arrested. Eventually the protest moved on, but even more barriers were present and the confinement became more than the group of us from Pittsburgh could handle. We left and boarded a subway to Times Square where the police violence was already escalating. As we arrived and walked up the subway terminal steps to street level police in partial riot gear greeted us standing along the curb. No shields, but helmets, padding and large clubs were not hard to find. From where we were standing, underneath some scaffolding, we could see police on horseback and what looked to be some protest activity in the streets, but before we knew it we were being ordered to move. The police along the curb all began to shove us back which wasn't terribly effective at first as there were hundreds of people behind us on the sidewalk. Linking arms people began to slowly move back and across the street as the police became more aggressive. Once we had been pushed across the street the police seemed at a loss as to what to do, so we turned and marched through with 200 or so people. We zigzagged through the streets a bit but once a drummer was arrested and a few Pittsburghers� were struck or pepper sprayed we had to look at our options. We decided it was in our best interest to continue on for just a small distance farther before splitting off to avoid any more police altercations as the snake march numbers dwindled.

The day was a success! We laid claim to the streets and got our message of peace across. It was very empowering being part of such an enormous group of protestors not only in New York City but around the globe. Millions of people stood up and made their voices heard over the weekend. We can only hope it was not done in vain.

PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center