ScaryNY

Also, here's a brief unedited movie clip of Jello Biafra addressing the crowd. [20 secs, 9 mb]

The idea was to march from the CBS offices on Sixth Avenue to various media headquarters in the area. After everyone had gathered, we got a brief pep talk and then moved about a block south, where representatives from FAIR and other groups gave some speeches. At this point, the group was split across an intersection -- about 3/4 were on the southern block and 1/4 on the northern. Police gradually arranged to move everyone across, so we occupied about a full city block. The sidewalk was partitioned with wooden barricades to allow pedestrians by.

Early on, I was in the back and it was extremely hard to hear what was being said, but everyone cheered whenever they heard others cheer, and booed whenever others booed. Most of the protesters around me were making small talk with each other about their experiences this week.

To get a closer look at the mechanics of the event, I slipped outside the barricades and moved closer to the small platform where a dynamic individual was addressing the crowd, and then went back inside the barricades. Once I could actually hear him, I realized he was quite a good speaker. Police stood by impassively as protesters reponded enthusiastically. About the closest to disorder the event got (while I was there) was when this speaker cursed a few times.

When it was time to move another block or two south, a rep from FAIR announced they had to move all the sound equipment first, so there would be more standing around while they did so. He urged everyone to get to know their fellow protesters while this was happening. Having spent about an hour at the protest by this time, and being a bit put-off by the slow nature of it, I decided to leave.