yesterday's protest
Mar. 23rd, 2003 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamajoanI posted my pictures of yesterday's rally on my website, along with a summary/report of the day, which is basically a modified version of the post I sent to ACIDIC about it. Check it all out here.
The rally began at the Park Street subway station, where there was a crowd of maybe 300-350 people when I arrived, along with a bunch of cops and a small group of counterprotesters, maybe 20-30 people.
The march went to Copley Square, around the perimeter of Boston Common. I would say that the crowd swelled to about a thousand people during the march. The cops were pretty efficiently facilitating the whole process, not being hostile. The attitude from both sides was one of making things go smoothly, certainly not of looking for trouble, at least from what I could see.
We got to Copley Square, sat down in the middle of the street for a few minutes, then got up and continued marching (despite the fact that Copley had been the supposed endpoint of the march). The cops continued to pace us as we marched down Boylston Street to Mass. Ave. and then down Mass. Ave. and across the bridge toward Cambridge. Halfway across the bridge, suddenly everyone sat down again, then resumed marching yet again, into Cambridge. The cops were now having to block off traffic that they hadn't planned on blocking off and were, I must say, doing a very efficient job of it.
The march continued all the way to Harvard Yard, but I quit before that, when it passed my mom's street (which is right off Mass. Ave.). I was exhausted, not having planned on NEARLY that much walking! Man, was I tired.
The local 6:00 news tried to make the whole thing sound rowdier and more confrontational than it was, at least from my perspective. To the contrary, we were respectful to the cops (I made an effort to thank several of them, as I like to do at rallies, and saw others doing the same), and they were certainly going WAY out of their way to accomodate us, what with letting us march down a major road without prior warning!!
The crowd was very diverse in terms of age, race, and apparent socioeconomic status; the mood was positive and passionate, and the few hecklers we encountered were mostly dealt with in friendly rather than hostile fashion by my fellow marchers. Overall, a good day, despite the large amounts of physical pain I was in by the end.
An interesting, and positive, experience all around. Well, except for the horrible pain. I *so* have to start going to the chiropractor again. I still couldn't walk properly even after a long hot bath. Sigh.
The rally began at the Park Street subway station, where there was a crowd of maybe 300-350 people when I arrived, along with a bunch of cops and a small group of counterprotesters, maybe 20-30 people.
The march went to Copley Square, around the perimeter of Boston Common. I would say that the crowd swelled to about a thousand people during the march. The cops were pretty efficiently facilitating the whole process, not being hostile. The attitude from both sides was one of making things go smoothly, certainly not of looking for trouble, at least from what I could see.
We got to Copley Square, sat down in the middle of the street for a few minutes, then got up and continued marching (despite the fact that Copley had been the supposed endpoint of the march). The cops continued to pace us as we marched down Boylston Street to Mass. Ave. and then down Mass. Ave. and across the bridge toward Cambridge. Halfway across the bridge, suddenly everyone sat down again, then resumed marching yet again, into Cambridge. The cops were now having to block off traffic that they hadn't planned on blocking off and were, I must say, doing a very efficient job of it.
The march continued all the way to Harvard Yard, but I quit before that, when it passed my mom's street (which is right off Mass. Ave.). I was exhausted, not having planned on NEARLY that much walking! Man, was I tired.
The local 6:00 news tried to make the whole thing sound rowdier and more confrontational than it was, at least from my perspective. To the contrary, we were respectful to the cops (I made an effort to thank several of them, as I like to do at rallies, and saw others doing the same), and they were certainly going WAY out of their way to accomodate us, what with letting us march down a major road without prior warning!!
The crowd was very diverse in terms of age, race, and apparent socioeconomic status; the mood was positive and passionate, and the few hecklers we encountered were mostly dealt with in friendly rather than hostile fashion by my fellow marchers. Overall, a good day, despite the large amounts of physical pain I was in by the end.
An interesting, and positive, experience all around. Well, except for the horrible pain. I *so* have to start going to the chiropractor again. I still couldn't walk properly even after a long hot bath. Sigh.
