report on the nyc protest

hey everyone,

so, there were tons of people and it was a great show of citizenship.

It was hard to get to the actual 'legit' rally but my cohorts and I
made it eventually.

I met some people at the New York Public Library at 42nd St. and 5th
Ave. at around 11:30AM. We headed out for 49th St. and 1st Ave at
around noon.

Problems started at about 42nd and 3rd, we're weren't allowed to cross
the avenue and were directed to start uptown on 3rd. As we headed
uptown in kept getting more and more crowded and the police wouldn't
allow people to cross the avenue at all. We finally crossed the avenue
at around 51st but got caught in a big crowd. Everyone was supposed to
stay on the sidewalk, but people wanted to move and after 51st the
avenue became filled with people.

We were stuck between 51st and 53rd for a long time. At one point
mounted police attempted to force people back onto the sidewalk but
there was just way to many people and the police seemed to realize that
with all the different people in the crowd including young children in
strollers, older folks, and people in wheel chairs that it was to
dangerous to treat the crowd roughly.

After that the police seemed to just want to keep the cross streets
clear but were content to let people march up the avenue between
blocks. Some cars and trucks had gotten caught by the crowd and were
patiently waiting for the crowd to clear.

At 62nd we were allowed to go over to 2nd Ave. then they stopped us
from going over to 1st so we kept heading uptown. Word on the street
was that they were allowing people over on 72nd st. We got fed up at
68th and there were only 2 police manning the barricade. They tried to
stop people from going through, but once you made it across they didn't
seem to care so we snuck through. After we got through a big crowd
pushed through behind us and filled 68th St. between 2nd and 1st.

Now we had made it! But at every cross street they had barricades up.
At 66th we just hopped over it. Once you were over the police didn't
pay any attention to you. At 65th people kept opening them up and
stepping through and the police would close them up after a few people
would slip through. My cohorts slipped through and I got stuck on the
other side. Eventually people opened up the barricades and we all
pushed through, as I went through I pulled it wide open and it felt
good to let all the people out but then a girl came up to me and told
me to be more careful she got hit in the stomach when I had pulled it
open. I apologized and felt guilty about it for a while.

By this point I'm feeling pretty crappy as I've been sick all week and
am taking antibiotics so I only hung around for a few speakers and left.

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