a bright sunny afternoon in la, as i walked to the federal building. i was a bit late for the 1 pm start time, so i saw several hundred people already there when i arrived.
i did an informal head count, and estimated that there were about 3,000 people there by the time i left, with hundreds more just showing up. (i didn't include kids, police or dogs in this count. hundreds of people brought their kids, and there were several anti-war canines happily enjoying the crowd). there was a big police presence, with a line of at least 15 cops spread out, keeping us from the lawn in front of the building. the crowd was forced to line the sidewalk along wilshire blvd., or gather in the plaza in front of the doors of the federal building.
there were also at least a dozen police cars and two helicopters over head, as well as newsvans from the abc affiliate and kcal news (which is now owned by the cbs affiliate). we'll watch the local news tonight to see if any coverage happens.
there were native american dancers, a make-shift drum section, large george bush puppets, dozens of people with videos and cameras. several organizations had set up booths to pass out literature, buttons, t-shirts (my favorite: "i support regime change in the united states"), bumper stickers and signs. many people had bull horns, and were giving speeches. lots of chants were going on. cars passing by often honked their approval at our actions. some people had decorated their cars with slogans and other anti-war paraphenalia.
all in all, it seemed like a success. i sincerely hope many more demonstrations are on the docket.
[ed. note:
here is an index of several photos from around the country of different anti-war demonstrations this weekend (thanks to yahoo news).