[IP] two comments re nyc demonstrations

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Some, apparently including those who wrote these notes, assumed the
restrictions of the NYC police were directed at them totally. I think an
important point is missed. NYC has been on a much higher security alert than
most of the country.

Recently in the UN Security Council and other UN meetings there have been
high
level diplomats attending, at the Ministerial level. I';m not sure if Collin
Powell stays in NY or flies back and forth. NYC police must protect them
too.
They have rights also. The fact is, if we do not protect them, other
countries
will not protect our visiting diplomats.

These are the people trying to find a diplomatic solution to the issue. Why
try
to endanger them? Did anyone ever think of having a march elsewhere in the
city? Fifth Ave? Broadway? Perhaps that would have been more acceptable for
safety.


Lynn

And

Someone I know well who was at the rally reported being butted by
a police horse's head.  She said that the police were riding their
horses into the crowd; one of her friends saw news photographers
being roughed up.  They couldn't get east of 3rd Avenue, and for a
while wasn't allowed to move west, either).  Later, she met others
who had been at Times Square; there, they say, the police were
beating people and were using tear gas.  CNN reports that one of
its producers saw police using pepper spray.

What isn't clear to me is whether this was police malice towards
the demonstrators -- I certainly saw a lot of that during the
Vietnam War protests -- as much as lack of ability to control the
crowd in any other way.  The NY Times noted that they seemed
unprepared for the number of demonstrators, and that around 1:45
pm they ordered their highest level of mobilization.

Steve


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