The BecKKK Rally. Place your estimates on the crowd.

[Hawkeye-X]

Mine is no more than 30,000!

[Ron Green]

1. I think the 87,000 estimated by CBS's contractor

(or someone like that) is about right.

[ananda]

2. That's a deceptive picture.

But it is in the thousands, for sure.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Certainly not half a million or a million

[Barack_America]

4. I honestly couldn't care less.

I think it's safe to say that there are 10 of millions of ignorant bigots in this country. How many of them decide to gather together at any given time is really of no consequence.

I'm a bit perplexed by the numerous "How many did Beck draw" posts on DU in the given days? Was it ever in doubt that these people were out there?

:shrug:

I haven't been over to FR, but I'm sure they're getting a kick out of the apparent insecurity Beck has stirred up on DU.

[lapfog_1]

5. Using google planimeter

The area covered by people is about 25 acres... which would yield a number around 190,000 participants if they were average crowd at an event density. However, there are many areas in the crowd where there are clearly no participants, reducing the estimate by at least 1/4 to 1/3. That puts the crowd at maybe 130,000 (top estimate).

[Vickers]

6. Just comparing it to a Springsteen concert I was at: 80,000 or so. n/t

[vademocrat]

7. That's a really big space - larger than it may seem in the picture -

From my 30+ years of attending marches, rallies, concerts, fireworks displays, and just hanging out on the National Mall, my estimate yesterday afternoon was 75,000-100,000 so I tend to agree with the CBS number of 87,000 - their margin of error was 9,000 I think.

[AndyA]

8. Whatever it was, it fell far short of what Beck was expecting.

I hope he's not too disappointed.

[pwb]

9. 87,000 people went? That means 309, 913,000 of us did not go.

Some majority ha?

[JHB]

10. Where was the counter-event?

Was it in the view here? What's the estimate for that? Anyone have info?

[Submariner]

11. Out of 310 million, 87,000 of the Klan without hoods is not so much

But it may be one of the largest white power meetings ever on the Mall.

[The_Commonist]

12. Yesterday I said it was 79,428...

I'd be perfectly willing to accept CBS' estimate of 87,000.
Having been to the Mall, and having been to many large events, that number feels about right.
Not too shabby, but certainly not what they were hoping for, and certainly not the 300,000 or more that "some people are saying"...

[JoePhilly]

13. About 10k were average tourists who had no idea these nuts would be there. nt

[NTXDem]

14. If

We're going by brain cells, I'm going with zero.

[BlueJazz]

16. Welcome to DU.

:)

[NTXDem]

17. Thanks!

[bbinacan]

15. 150k n/t

[Anakin Skywalker]

18. I Don't Do Numbers. I Only Do Race.

And from the random shots done by the news media, all attendees (read: teabaggers) were white.

Seriously, what non-white in their right mind would walk into the middle of this crapfest? These teabaggers are so angry towards Obama they are liable to attack the first non-white they see. In psychology, it's call it "Misplaced Aggression".

[madokie]

19. I just saved and blew that picture up and I'd say that a good 50% of what you're seeing is

green grass, blankets, chairs etc. I'd say 50 thousand tops if that many

[saltpoint]

20. There's a lot of green here and there between the

clusters of morons and crazies.

He drew people who thought they were going to be part of something important.

Context is always a challenge for morons and crazies.

[peekaloo]

21. overwhelmingly white, not too bright, with sphincters that are air tight!

or did you want numbers?

[ThomWV]

22. Heres some crowd estimating using the picture and simple arithmetic (70k people)

The Reflecting Pool is 2,029 feet long and 167 feet wide. If you look at the crowd and compare it to the area of the pool you may agree with my estimate that the crowd appears to be about twice the size of the pool, including the people who are between the pool and the trees (both sides), those visible and presumed to be under the trees to the right of the photo, and those out in the open on the left. You will notice that the crowds on the left and right sides of the photo thin out in the foreground

Because the crowds are thin I am going to estimate that there is one person per every 10 square feet, in a close room there might be one person for every 5 square feet, so I think the estimate of one per ten is very conservative and in fact may result in an inflated estimate, but that's OK.

So now we can make an estimate. First we multiply 2,029x167 to find out how large the pool is, then we multiply that by 2 because the crowd is about twice the size of the pool, then we divide the resultant number by 10 to account for one person for every 10 square feet.

To that and you get a conservative estimate of just under 70,000 (67,686) people in the picture.

Please find fault with this estimate if you like, but if you do please refine it with a better number.