RNC Protests
I’m in New York right now for Republican National Convention week, taking a an afternoon break before heading back to the convention site for this afternoon’s labor rally. The best updated source for protest events is NYC Indymedia, complete with competing accounts and heckling. Just a few informal impressions right now, partly to see how this blogging works from an Internet cafe.
I’ve spent the past few days alternately taking part in protest activities and wandering around taking photos, some of which I’ll post on my photo site when I get back to Boston. I was at the big Sunday march of maybe half a million people; Monday’s smaller but animated afternoon march of human service workers, AIDS activists, anarchists, and lots of other people; Tuesday’s action at the main New York library on Fifth Avenue, where the cops pushed protesters off the steps and started making arrests without any provocation by protesters that I could see; and several other things. I’ve been wandering around through Midtown a lot, trying to keep track of where things are happening, trying to get photos and support those who are standing their ground, trying to watch reactions by onlookers.
Being mostly on my own since the end of Sunday’s march has cometimes been disconcerting. At times I feel out of place. I seem to be twice the age of almost all the anarchists here; I like their politics and energy but some still look at me like I’m a cop, especially when I’m taking photos. It would be good to have an affinity group of my own.
The police seem businesslike when trying to control crowds, which for cops can mean more aggressive and more nasty than necessary. When they’re less stressed, some are friendly and informal — something I don’t think was the case in Boston for the Democratic National Convention, where the city was much more intensely closed down than here. Many cops seem confused about what their orders are, which change quickly. One asked me about my camera.
The cops seem to make no distinction between nonviolent civil disobedience in the planned sit-down-get-arrested mode, more spontaneous disruptive but nonviolent activity, and property destruction and actual violence against individuals, neither of which I’ve seen any example of here. At Monday’s march, a dozen cops followed along next to the musical anarchists dressed in pink, pointing out individuals they apparently wanted to keep an eye on. They were clearly expecting something, but as I suspected all they saw was music. Nice beat.