(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

Dee and I attended the anti-war rally in New Orleans on Saturday. I'll have pictures to post tomorrow.

alobar was there, along with several other people I know from First UU Church.

It went very smoothly, some might say perhaps too smoothly. We were originally going to stay in the neutral ground and on the sidewalk when marching from Congo Square to Jackson Square, but there were just too many people -- easily more than a thousand -- and the march spilled over into the street, blocking Rampart, Canal, and finally Decatur.

The police who were on hand apparently decided that the best and most efficient way to handle the situation was to block intersections for us and just let us move on.

Comments

[arbiteroftruth.livejournal.com]

hey, the police ain't always bad, eh?

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

No, not at all. The New Orleans police have their problems, but they have one great talent, one task at which they excel -- maintaining the peace amidst large crowds of people.

[alobar.livejournal.com]

Back after the last demonstration (a week ago Friday) police confronted Mike & told him the next time a demonstration took to the street, he & other organizers would be arrested -- hether they were responsible or not. Mike was not arrested on Saturday, but he was saved only by the size of the demonstration. The pigs are under orders to quash this movement. Rumor has it that the pigs are working with the FBI to stiffle protest atreound the country. They acted nice on Saturday because they simply were not prepared for such a good turnout. New Orleans cops can be nice at crowd control, but when the feds pressure local government to quash protests, the pigs obey.

When you get pics, you can post them on http://www.indymedia.org/index.php3?newswire=open along with your own impressions of the march.