I'm listening to KQKE (AAR in Bay Area) and

[ailsagirl]

there's a crowd of 40,000 in San Francisco, protesting the Iraqi war!!

KQKE is carrying it live.

:yourock: :yourock: :yourock:

I'll post any photos I come across, with pleasure

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/03/19/state/n105633S30.DTL

[Cha]

1. Bless their San Franciscan Hearts!

I would love to be there! I Was there in New York City..two years ago..on Feb 15,2003..protesting the imminent Invasion of Iraq!

[ailsagirl]

3. I can't believe two years have passed already

It's so tragic but when I hear about all our beautiful people out there, making their voices heard, it makes me feel I can fight as long as it takes!!!

[bleever]

2. Thanks. Tuning in. n/t

[cally]

4. I seriously doubt there were 40,000 there

I've been at most of the permitted protests against the war in SF. I attended today. This one seemed much smaller. Maybe 5 to 10,000. I'd like to see some other estimates.

Still, folks came even though we expected it to pour all day. We ended up with NO RAIN. The crowd seemed more subdued than usual. I think we all are shell shocked from the election. As usual, it was a diverse, friendly group.

[GregD]

5. unfortunately, 40,000 seems high

A few of us were there today, the weather was great. I'm hard-pressed to say 40k though - maybe more like 10k.

At the moment, I'm trashed and don't want to sit here messing with photos. I'll load them later or in the morning.

What I can share is that there were about 20 freepers from http://www.protestwarrior.com/. They were joined by a small group of pro-Israel folks.

As we were leaving the Civic Center, there was a row of cops (almost more cops than righties) that were holding a line between the freeps and the lefties. According to a cop I spoke to, apparently there was one guy among the freepers that was "further over the top, just by himself, than the thousands of protesters across the street". The lineup of cops had apparently been drawn between opposing forces to prevent a confrontation. Dang, I so wanted to give a couple of those guys a good whooping.

Also, about 3:30 a breakway group of Black Bloc members left the gathering. We were walking toward our car (way over by Dolores Park) and at every corner we turned, it seemed we encountered the breakway and their pursuing cops. It was really funny because the cops were all on motorcycles and in vehicles, but the Black Bloc was swift and mobile. We were laughing that they really had the cops on the run.

About 3/4 hour into the breakway, the Bloc found themselves pinned down in the middle of a block heading out toward Portrero. They quickly reversed course and we actually saw cops laughing because they simply could not keep up. Finally, about 6 kids locked down hard in the middle of the intersection, and stayed there until they were arrested. A large group of people on all 4 corners stood watched, providing verbal support and lots of cameras to keep things well-observed and recorded. I got a lot of shots myself.

The arrests were all pretty peaceful, and those who were hauled off were absolutely given a chance to stand up and walk away. All preferred to sit with arms locked around each other, and forced the arrest situation.

Peace out for now.

[ailsagirl]

6. Oh-- this was according to the event's coordinator (who was

interviewed on KQKE)-- or maybe it was the commentator for KQKE-- but that's the number that was mentioned.

Thanks for your description of the event-- I'm glad it didn't rain!!

[GregD]

7. yeah, I heard it too.

That guy Laz was at the event - they had a booth right next to the stage and KPFA. He reported the number as provided by ANSWER on Laura's program. I've been to so many of these marches now, including all of the rallys before the war. Those were huge numbers in those days, today unfortunately was not.

We were at Dolores Park early, around 10AM. The crowd was nice, but fairly meager, and we accounted that to the downpour of rain overnight and early this morning. My sense was that the march from the park to downtown occupied about 8 blocks in all, from start to end. I know that because we were toward the front, stopped mid-way for burritos, and watched as the cop cars passed us that were trailing the group. It took a while, but nothing like 2 years ago.

When we got to the Civic Center, the place was far from over-flowing. I think ANSWER overstated their figure; we just didn't see those sorts of numbers.