Just back from DC march - huge but disorganized!

[LiberalEsto]

There were no people working as marshals to organize the marchers, and no visible beginning to the march. But what a CROWD! I've been to many DC anti-war marches since 1969 and this was definitely one of the biggest I've seen. Dave and I went with fellow members of the Sugarloaf Congregation of Unitarian Universalists from Germantown, MD. We met a contingent of 700 people who were from the Thomas Merton Society in Pittsburgh PA.

As Will Pitt has reported (and I think I spotted him at one point)the march kept stopping at various points.

Why? Because marchers were stopping to take PHOTOS of one another in front of the White House! I am not kidding. People would be moving along and suddenly stop, and there would be dozens of people doing photo-ops with their protest signs. These was nobody there to urge people to keep moving, and other groups would come up from behind and get all jammed up.

The march route wasn't very clear, and more and more people kept joining from all directions. When we left around 2:15 it was still quite peaceful, and the Metro blue and red lines seemed to be running fine.

One annoyance was the handful of right wing religious freaks with bullhorns who blasted the crowd with warnings that we were all going to hell. If police really wanted a peaceful march, why didn't they make any effort to separate these aggressors from the rest of us?

[Mari333]

1. not a PEEP about it on any news media channels.

NOTHING.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Won't happen unti the city is closed down

as it happened in the early 1970s, people just don't remember but the media has never been on teh side of protestors EVER

[lildreamer316]

2. Thanks for this

and for going. We have all been irritated as hell because the only way we could get coverage was the traffic cameras.
Sounds like a good display of self-policing by almost all concerned.

[fasttense]

3. All I can say is that the media didn't cover any of the march and

it was very disappointing.

[electron_blue]

4. here it is at cnn

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/24/antiwar.ap/index.html

so what do you think - is 2000 an accurate estimate on CNN's part for the number in the crowd?????

[New Earth]

6. 2,000?

in what parallel universe?

:puke:

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. AP Says 100.000

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=050924&cat=news&st=newsd8cqqed00&src=ap

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. that is what I love about my local PD

they don't fudge the numbers... but they are also trained to respect demos and the first ammendment

[KoKo]

12. That AP article is a great read, btw. (even if the numbers are higher)

they didn't say "several hundred or several thousand" like we usually get told in their articles.

I had just posted a snip and link in Editorial Forum so it would stay around.

[LiberalEsto]

9. I thought Will Pitt reported CNN was saying 600,000?

here:
"Holy Crap
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 2:23 PM

CNN is estimating the crowd here to be more than six hundred thousand strong.

If CNN says it, it must be true.

Wow."

[CountAllVotes]

11. CNN estimate 600,000 strong

From Pitt:

http://www.truthout.org/campcaseydc.shtml


Holy Crap
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 2:23 PM

CNN is estimating the crowd here to be more than six hundred thousand strong.

If CNN says it, it must be true.

Wow.


***

keep hitting refresh to get up to the minute details! :D :D :D

:kick: :kick:

[deadparrot]

10. 2000 were gathered *hours before* the demonstrations started. nt

[MADem]

13. Be fair, they said 2K were there HOURS before the event even started

and that many thousands were expected.

The full quote: More than 2,000 people gathered on the Ellipse hours before the showcase demonstration past the White House, the first wave of what organizers said would be the largest Washington rally since the war began.

When we get halfway decent coverage, we need to encourage them to get better, and not twist what they did say, even if their coverage looked like it was written up ahead of the event, and put on the site as soon as they got a decent picture.

[WilliamPitt]

14. UFPJ and ANSWER had a rift

They basically split the thing into two marches, two stages, two sound systems, and no one running the crowd or directing people.

It was great that so many came out, but...well, the MSM likes to say the anti-war movement is disorganized. You could see the truth of that on the street today.

[LiberalEsto]

16. Hi Will. You're doing a great job.

We all thank you for it.

[LiberalEsto]

15. More on the march...

One of the hits of the day was a trio of actors dressed in costumes and oversized but realistic masks of Dubya, Cheney and Satan. The actor playing Bush wore a crown emblazoned with the numbers 666 and a sign on his back , "The Lyin' King." He was squeezing a globe of the Earth and doing those bizarre Bush shoulder twitches.

Attached to the Bush costume was a set of large marionette strings which were held by "Cheney", who had fake money spilling out of his pockets. "Cheney" in turn had marionette strings controlled by Satan. Nice piece of street theater, and it wowed the crowds.

The Billionaires for Bush contingent, resplendent in top hats and tuxes or fake pearls and ball gowns, also drew big cheers from the marchers.

We encountered marchers from seemingly everywhere, including a young woman from Hawaii who was shivering and bundled up in sweaters because it was only about 70 degrees. The Metro train going in to DC was absolutely jammed.

I even saw someone carrying a "Republican Against the War" sign. I can't possibly describe everything because the march zone was so filled with people that you couldn't see what was going on in other areas. That told us how huge this event was.