Massive anti-war, anti-Wall Street protest in San Francisco

[Webster Green]

(03-21) 14:25 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Umbrellas mixed with protest signs today in San Francisco, where demonstrators marked the sixth anniversary of the war in Iraq with speeches, chanting and a march up Market Street that stretched about three blocks long.

In typical San Francisco fashion, the demonstration, which began at Justin Herman Plaza, attracted a broad medley of causes. Protesters carried signs about the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Israel-Palestinian conflict, 9-11 conspiracies, jail time for Wall Street bankers, single-payer health care and Proposition 8, the same-sex marriage ban.

The protest remained peaceful until the main group arrived at Civic Center Plaza. There, a couple hundred pro-Israel protesters waving Israeli flags were waiting for the larger contingent, which included many pro-Palestine protesters.

The pro-Palestine group broke off from the larger demonstration to confront the Israel supporters, who were carrying signs including "Hamas, stop using children as human shields." Both sides yelled angrily at each other and some protesters got into a physical fight, shoving each other. Police arrested at least two people.


More: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/21/BA5416KSPJ.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

[marmar]

1. The biggest protest I've ever seen was in San Francisco 2003, just before the Iraq invasion.....

...... I was visiting and a friend and I weren't even marching - we were taking a bus over to Haight-Ashbury and the bus driver had to park for about an hour and a half while the protest march went by.

[Webster Green]

2. I was there for five days in a row starting on March 19th, 2003

We came very close to getting arrested. We got surrounded by cops in front of Bechtel headquarters, but managed to sneak away. :patriot:

[norepubsin08]

3. How many were there yesterday?

We had about 250-300 in Tacoma which isn't bad for our town....Seattle is where the big PROTEST IS TODAY...YESTERDAY WAS JUST A WARM UP!