Anti-Bush NY Protests Could Spark Confrontation

[RedEarth]

YORK (Reuters) - Protests -- and arrests -- began in New York on Thursday, days before the start of the Republican convention, where President Bush (news - web sites) will be nominated for re-election in a city that voted overwhelmingly for his opponent four years ago.


About a dozen AIDS (news - web sites) activists stripped naked and stopped traffic outside New York's Madison Square Garden to demand that Bush help developing countries fight the epidemic. They were taken away in handcuffs.


And police led two men away after they descended on ropes down the face of the iconic Plaza Hotel to drop a huge banner displaying two opposing arrows -- with "Truth" pointing one way, and "Bush" pointing in the opposite direction.


Security is ultra-tight in New York, which remains on high alert for another strike almost three years after 2,800 people died at the World Trade Center in the Sept. 11 attacks. The Bush administration singled out the New York convention and the Democrats' nominating meeting in Boston last month as attractive terrorist targets.


More volatile confrontations threatened during the weekend, as demonstrators seemed bent on gathering in the city's famed Central Park despite court rulings barring protests there.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1963&e=1&u=/nm/20040826/pl_nm/campaign_protests_dc_1&sid=96378800

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Love the sensational headline

a-holes.

[arcane1]

2. please, NY DUers, please be careful!

:scared:

[lfairban]

3. Are there any protesters that are members of a police force.

It seems to me that there will be a few.

If there are inappropriate actions by the NYPD, then the observations of protesters that are off duty police officers would be invaluable to the defense of subsequent cases following arrests.

Just a thought.

[progressiveBadger]

4. You know though...

Bush has been screwing the NYPD and FDNY as much as anyone.

[coalition_unwilling]

6. Building class solidarity

Right now, the anti-war\anti-Bush movement in NYC (and across the U.S.) should be reaching out to police rank-and-file, as each group has way more in common with each other than either does with BushCo.

Working class concerns are the same, whether you wear the uniform of New York's finest, wait tables in a restaurant, or manufacture widgets.

[freetobegay]

5. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

[Kinkistyle]

7. Aaaah I LOVE New York!

When it comes to creativity, originality, energy, liberalism, artistic flair and attitude there is just no beating the city that never sleeps. The Repugs made a huge mistake in invading our sleepy little port town.

[drdtroit]

8. Amen to that! n/t

[bluestateguy]

9. They tried to work within the system

They tried to go through the city's cumbersome permit process and the city kept saying no. They went to court and the city said no. They gave the city months to plan ahead, even offering to give the city detailed plans of their march in Central Park, yet the city continued to say no. I hope there is no violence, but if there is the blame will lay with the city, which chose to not work with the protestors, 99% of whom planned to be peaceful and orderly.

Only a small number are "anarchists", but by the time Fox News gets done with their coverage they will have their moron viewers believing that there are 200,000 anarchist protestors.

[Sugarbleus]

10. Yeah, that is the damnedable part...showing ONLY the ugly

bits and not the entire protest/message... ticks me off.

ROCK ON NYC!! Be careful though......

Old :hippie: here.