Tens of thousands of demonstrators in New York City condemned war in Iraq yesterday in a protest that exceeded crowd expectations and triggered a fierce police mobilization during a high state of terror alert.
Beginning just north of the United Nations and stretching more than a mile uptown along First, Second and Third avenues, it was the largest political demonstration in New York since the anti-nuclear proliferation movement two decades ago.
Crowd estimates ranged from 100,000 by police to 250,000 by a spokesman from one of the rally's organizers. Despite security concerns about such a large crowd, there were few confrontations. Police said Sunday that 250 people were arrested.
"I want peace," said Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of several speakers to address the crowd from a platform at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza near the UN complex. "Can you imagine what we'd be able to do if half of what we invested in war, we invested in peace?"
"I'm not giving my students everything I have for the last 29 years only to have them spill their blood on the sands of Iraq," said Glenn Tepper, 52, an English teacher at Jane Addams High School in the South Bronx and a member of New York Teachers Against the War.
They joined a variety of placard-holding protesters lining First Avenue for more than 20 blocks — from 52nd Street to 75th Street — hemmed in metal pens by police officers in riot gear and on horseback.
The demonstration coincided with others around the world, including London, Rome and Seoul, South Korea, and came as the UN continued to resist the prospect of U.S. military action against Iraq.
"It was orderly," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a brief late afternoon news conference, calling the rally "one of the biggest in recent history."
Police last night said the arrests were mostly for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. At least one person was charged with felony assault after allegedly punching a deputy inspector in the face. Another protester was arrested for kicking an officer in the head, but charged with a misdemeanor, Kelly said.
To manage crowds that were larger than expected, the Police Department's highest ranking uniformed official, Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, declared a Level 4 mobilization, the force's largest emergency deployment, at 1:45 p.m., almost two hours after the rally's official start.
"This is the best way to prevent terrorism," said Maria Tayyarah of Manhattan, speaking of the rally. Tayyarah, 60, a retired Syrian-born physician, warned that a war in Iraq would unleash a spate of terrorism in the United States.
"It seems to me that we have issues to take care of here," activist Angela Davis added. She joined several other noted figures speaking from the platform, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, actor Danny Glover and Donna Lieberman, head of the New York chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Singer Harry Belafonte drew a loud ovation when he quoted the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: "If mankind will not put an end to war, war will put an end to mankind."
Others struck a lighter theme, despite the rally's earnest message.
Anti-war folk singer and activist Pete Seeger played "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on his guitar. One placard spoofed the nation's reliance on duct tape, a suggested antidote to a biological attack.
A trio from the Green Mountain State wore T-shirts reading: "Why Should Vermonters Die for Texas Oil Billionaires?"
"If Saddam Hussein's people want to get rid of him, that's their business. When did it become our business?" asked one of them, Yvonne Daley of Rutland County.
Huddled against a wind bringing temperatures below freezing, protesters clashed in some spots with officers who prevented them from entering First Avenue and enforced a federal judge's ruling that limited the protest to a stationary rally — not a march past the United Nations, as organizers had wanted.
It grew especially heated several times between 1 and 3 p.m. on Second and Third avenues, when officers prevented arriving protesters from walking east to join the majority of the crowd. Police officials later said demonstrators refused to walk north where they were allowing protesters to enter First Avenue.
One confrontation broke out at about 1:45 p.m., when dozens of police officers with billy clubs filed near 51st Street and Third Avenue to block thousands of protesters from getting to First Avenue.
"Let them through!" a crowd of protesters screamed. "Shame! Shame!"
Several protesters, such as Max Thornburgh of Princeton, N.J., grew agitated as officers penned them into a corner. Shouting matches erupted between the helmeted officers and frustrated protesters.
"First, we couldn't have a march, now we're being threatened for trying to get to the legal rally," said Thornburgh, 29.
Similar standoffs ensued during the afternoon, with police using pepper spray and plastic handcuffs.
"They pushed people onto the sidewalk with the horses," said Kristin Casper, 25, of Denver.
There were no reports of serious injuries on either side. Eight officers were hurt, including the deputy inspector, Kelly said, and two protesters were taken to the hospital — one for an epileptic attack, the other for a diabetic attack.
Two horses also were injured; one was punched in the face and pushed to the ground and the other slipped on ice, Kelly said.
Kelly said the department spent about $5 million in overtime.
While the rally exceeded crowd expectations, march organizers did not claim total victory. They said that would come if war were averted — a prospect speakers said was not entirely out of reach.
"People marched and demonstrated and the Berlin Wall fell down, and communism was ended," Tutu said. "People marched and demonstrated and apartheid ended, and democracy was born."
This story was reported by Jerome Burdi, Valerie Burgher, Wil Cruz, Zachary R. Dowdy, Chau Lam, Rocco Parascondola, Joshua Robin, Christiana Sciaudone, Simone Sebastian and Bob Suter.
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