Report from RNC protests in NYC

by Zack Taylor Wednesday, Sep. 01, 2004 at 1:32 AM

plainclothes police rush protesters with motocylces

I've been New York for two days now. I've never seen so many Police in my life. They are posted at every subway entrance, at every other street corner. People that live around Madison Square Garden have to show I.D. to get through lines of cops to get to their apartments. There were about 200 hundred arrsts on Friday nights. Mostly critical mass bicylcists that slowed down traffice in Mahattan. Yesterday saw the big celebrity studded rally with just a few arrests. Today the climate changed from intimitation to terror. Today the police used violence and terrorizing tatics to disrupt protests. After a march that started at the UN building, the several thousand people march was led down 8th ave. The protesters were met there with metal barricades set up along both sides of the street to keep them contained in the street and off the sidewalks. The Police then used similar barricades to draw a line in the march and devided the march into 2 halves. People shook on the barricades which were being supported by a line of riot cops then the barricades opened for an instant followed by two plainclothes/under-cover cops driving directly into the congested street of protesters with motor-cycles. They wore regular clothes, no badges, no sign they were cops other than they rode on police issued motorcycles. Multiple injuries. More then anything an act to terroize the protests as the march was doing nothing illegal or violent. It seems the climate had now changed form the big paparttzi celebrity studded march yesterday to a brutal stand-oof between the protesters and the New York police state. The worst part was that the half of the protest the under-covers rushed with motor-bikes was one populated with children and disabled people in wheel chairs.

Original: Report from RNC protests in NYC