by A
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007 at 10:43 AM
LOS ANGELES, February 21, 2007 - Senator Barack Obama spoke at a rally in the Crenshaw District on Tuesday. (He is running for president of the US.)
QuickTime movie at 12.5 mebibytes
An estimated 2,000 people attended the rally. The Senator spoke for about 30 minutes. Although brief and short on details, he did however say that the war in Iraq never should have been authorized and that the war has made the world less safe. He touched on the problem of global warming and suggested a national program of developing alternative forms of energy to fossil fuels.
He also spoke of a jobs and education program for people currently incarcerated in the prison system. He mentioned the rebuilding of New Orleans. He also proposed a national health care insurance program. The crowd was very enthusiastic. Cheering often and almost on cue.
The media turn out was massive, hundreds of corporate and independent media outlets were present. Campaign volunteers for press relations seemed overwhelmed by the large turnout. They run out of press passes and had to personally escort reporters past police lines.
After the speech there was a strange situation with the LAPD where fans of the Senator were blocked from following him on to another smaller rally for volunteers and VIPs.
Some people thought they were being blocked from leaving the rally unaware of the two other exits. The police even made things difficult for Rep. Diane Watson and her staff to get into this post rally. She was eventually let in.
There were others including press and many campaign volunteers that were denied access to this post rally by the LAPD. There was some shouting and pushing by police who seemed grossly over deployed for the event. The crowd was peaceful and the presence of so many police was unwelcome. This incident has not been reported in any other media outlet to my knowledge. It is unknown if the Senator is aware of the incident.