Back from the march

[jjmalonejr]

That was AWESOME!

It feels good to be in the streets with tens of thousands of like-minded people!

[msongs]

1. where did you go? tell us more....

wanted to go the one in LA but family matters trumped it.


Msongs
www.msongs.com/clark2008.htm

[jjmalonejr]

2. Went to the LA march

They said there were 50,000 people there.

Clearly tens of thousands. Beyond that, I'm not too good at guestimating.

[cascadiance]

3. Had thought about going to the L.A. march but went here in San Diego...

I think there were at least a three hundred or so of us that marched from the Amtrak station to Balboa Park and there must have been around a 500-1000 folks there, though that would be a raw guess on my part. It was good to see and talk to many with like minded interests as you stated.

We had an earlier protest march here right around the time the war started that was about as big, but the big difference I noticed this time is how many more folks driving by honked in support for us as opposed to the last time. I think many who support us weren't necessarily marching but do back us this time around! Didn't really see any counter demonstration folks either to speak of this time either.

I was the dude that was playing anti-war tunes like Peace Train, Eve of Destruction, and War on my Ipod and speakers marching from the train station...

[toymachines]

4. I was there too

I heard 2000 showed up, which seems like a good estimate to me. That march was excellent. Definetly a lot of people honking in support. It's good to be amongst so many enlightened people. I hope there are many more of these. Peace.

[cascadiance]

5. Yep, you're right. It was probably around 2000

I was not trying to overestimate it, but signonsandiego.com article does say around 2000 in this article too:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20050925-9999-1m25protest.html

A few interesting notes though... The article here says "no arrests" were made, though perhaps they were speaking just of the Balboa Park site and not elsewhere. There was at least one arrest I saw and maybe another while going on the march from the Amtrak station to Balboa Park.

One guy was being handcuffed by cops along the street. Didn't see what he did to provoke his arrest (perhaps he had a can of beer? Not sure). The police weren't ruffing him up, but they were cuffing him. Some group of demonstrators were hanging back and chanting "Let Him Go" for a bit while others continued on.

Shortly after this, there was a uniformed security cop that had a video camera trained on some other guys that had a relatively large banner they were carrying that didn't seem to say anything out of the ordinary, and he must have followed them a block or so with this camera videotaping him all of the way. Didn't see him shoot video of the rest of us, but he could have been.

Some protestor next to me pointed the cop out and started making a comment about this being a sign of coming "gestapo like" activities by Homeland security, etc. as when we first saw this guy, we were wondering if he was cataloguing video of all of us for their use later. Later this same protestor said he knew that the two guys he was pointing his camera at were also in protests near the border and that this was probably a DEA guy trying to get evidence on these guys (perhaps suspected people from Mexico?). Later I saw the same guard with his camera down, and the guy next to me said that now there were "two arrests". I didn't see the cops take away the second guy, but the way they were monitoring him with video cameras, I wouldn't be surprised that they might have.

To be fair to the cops, I saw one woman police officer when we first got out of the station that was smiling at us and seemed to be voicing her approval at us too (was looking at me when I was playing "Peace Train" on my Ipod with speakers near the end of the group of us marching there. I tried to play it back in the back cars where everyone was a peace protestor, but the train security told me to shut it off saying that there "might be someone that doesn't want to listen to it". Everyone next to me laughed at my "act of civil disobediance" and noted that we could start the music up again after we got off the train.

The rally seemed really well behaved and I didn't even notice these "10 or so" counter protestors across the street.

Now the NC Times article TOTALLY distorts the truth about this rally. I wonder what pipes they were smoking when they wrote this... An equal number of pro-troop supporters my A$$! A perfect example of why we can't trust our corporate media any more. SignonSandiego.com's article above at least seemed to be mostly an accurate representation of what was going on in Balboa Park, noting only "10 or so" counterprotestors, which is a more accurate assessment that "an equal number". NC Times, since when is 10 or so equal to 2000? Need to retake your math courses I think!

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/09/25/news/sandiego/20_12_149_24_05.txt

[toymachines]

6. good summary

I saw/heard of two arrests. One "bum" looking guy with what I assume was beer in a mug, and a guy who rushed at the stage when the pro-palestine speaker was up.
That NC article sucks, they obviously were not there.
I thought it was very suspicious that police were video taping, and apparently harrassing some people.
Anyways, see you at the next one. Peace.

[svenj]

7. The NCTimes called me yesterday

The NCTimes called me yesterday regarding my letter complaining about the above article. The woman I spoke with didn't know a whole lot, and was even asking where this article was, as she couldn't find it. Apparently, it wasn't in the print version of NCTimes -- only online. She claimed they didn't write the article, they got it from "wire services." While their article was similar to one on FOX (surprise), no one else that I'm aware of had a headline claiming equal number of counter protestors.

They've since changed the headline to read: "Anti-war protestors, pro-troop supporters square off in Balboa Park." A slight improvement from what it was, although I'm not sure how ten guys "square off" against 2,000. From what I saw, they stayed safely across the street the whole time, in the shadow of a bunch of cops on horses. Whatever.

[Liberty Belle]

8. The Union-Tribune reports 2,000 in San Diego's rally.

They're a conservative paper, so that's likely accurate or low.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. No that was the number the PD gave me

I am shocked they used the PD number.


Oh and on edit I was there... 2000 is the right number, it might be slightly above but it certainly did not reach 2500... so rounding at 2000 is correct

[Liberty Belle]

10. They made up for it by estimating the DC rally at "tens of thousands"

when it was actually hundreds of thousands, if not half a million.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Well yeah but I think the SD UT is getting a little problem

we are now sending them letters, heck they even published nne of mine demanding impeachment...


And yes they are as crooked as always. I expected them to say 200 quite frannkly, somebody in layout must have edited the editor.

[Liberty Belle]

12. They published an impeachment letter?

Wow. The editor must've been on vacation for that to slip through. Way to go!

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. They did, they did

I even gasp, boutht the paper... the hard copy