People Shut Down the Streets of San Francisco
Michael Murphy
March 20, 2003
I'm actually at work right now, which feels strange. I want to be
outside, and will probably head back out in a couple hours and take more
pics.
By shut-down, I mean that there were literally no cars in the streets
because traffic could not get through the financial district. I saw
people come up out of the subway (BART) and join the protestors.
I photographed three or four groups (in the entries they're all jumbled
together) at different spots along Market St.
On the sidestreets of Market, there are demonstrations in front of Bechtel
and other government related office buildings. Further up Market
(according to the radio) there are mobile bands of demonstrators
(including a group of people of color) and a solid group yelling "Shame,
shame" to people going to work at the Federal building.
At one point, I looked up Pine St. (a long steep hill) and it was
completely shut-down with protestors sitting down at multiple
intersections for blocks into the distance.
People seem galvanized, spirited, excited and strong. There was a great
brass band (Brass Liberation Band) roaming around playing jazzed-up parade
music.
From my office (2nd and Market) it's all horn-honks, sirens, helicopters
and shouting. Hoots and hollers and the sound of "things going on".
Can't sit here much longer, but it's good to get these pictures up and out
there.
See pictures by Michael Murphy:
http://www.whileseated.org
http://www.whileseated.org/blog/archives/000888.html
http://www.whileseated.org/blog/archives/000889.html
http://www.whileseated.org/blog/archives/000890.html
http://www.whileseated.org/blog/archives/000891.html
San Francisco Chronicle Report on Wednesday, March 19 rally
-- Anti-war protesters gathered and marched peacefully in a 14-block column up Market Street and into the Mission District Wednesday in defiance of the Bush administration's war against Iraq -- and the weather.
Thousands of people gathered at Powell and Market streets, beginning at 5 p.m., shutting down all traffic, before a peaceful march began up Market Street to Valencia, out to the mission by 20th Street and then to stop two hours later at 24th and Mission streets.
At the start, activists spoke to the crowd through a speaker system mounted on a truck, including actor Danny Glover, who read an anti-war poem to the crowd just before the start of the march.
Chanting "books not bombs'' and "no blood for oil'' with megaphones, protesters began moving up Market street at around 5:45 p.m., just as rain began to fall.
Undeterred by the weather, the marchers waved signs and held banners that read "Don't MOAB (mother of all bombs) Iraq'' and "U.S. Army veteran for peace - once a hawk, now a dove.''
nternational A.N.S.W.E.R. spokesman Mario Santos said at the beginning of the protest, "We are not here to create trouble.''
The protest did roll peacefully through the streets and no arrests were made, according to San Francisco Police Department spokesman Bob Mammone.
"From a police point of view, it went well,'' said Mammone. "It was handled the best way it could be handled, all things considered.''
Some onlookers were not always supportive of the war protest.
During one episode, the march stopped at Market and Van Ness streets to blaring horns from commuters frustrated by the long line of bumper-to-bumper standstill traffic. One man yelled at the crowd "support our troops.''
When the marchers reached 24th and Mission streets at around 7 p.m., organizers told the crowd that a bombing had just occurred in Baghdad, "the killing has begun,'' said a speaker.
One man laid in the middle of the intersection covered in fake blood, surrounded by a crowd that was chanting and drumming for television cameras.
The crowd eventually dwindled to less than a few hundred people at 24th and Mission streets by about 8 p.m.
An A.N.S.W.E.R. speaker told the crowd to meet at 7 a.m. this morning at Justin Herman Plaza to "shut the city down'' with a civil disobedience protest.
http://sfgate.com/news/baycitynews/
Page created March 20, 2003 by Charlie Jenks
