- NEW YORK (Reuters)
-- Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators toting colorful banners and shouting
"no more Bush" took to the streets of New York on Sunday, the
day before the Republican convention was to open, to decry the U.S.-led
war in Iraq and President Bush's policies.
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- Organizers for United for Peace and Justice coalition
estimated 400,000 people marched for more than five hours in summer heat
and humidity. Police declined to estimate the size of the crowd, but it
stretched out more than a mile along two main avenues in central Manhattan.
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- "I am just burning with anger about what our country
is doing," said protester Cornelius Boss, an ex-Marine from Columbus,
Ohio, about Bush's foreign policy.
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- Police said there were more than 200 arrests during the
day, most unrelated to the march, but there was at least one clash between
self-styled anarchists and police along the route. Three police officers
were injured.
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- About 500 people have been arrested since anti-Bush protests
began on Thursday when AIDS activists stood naked in front of Madison Square
Garden.
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- Within an hour of the march ending, police arrested as
many as 60 protesters who went to Times Square theaters to encounter Republican
delegates. Thousands also gathered in Central Park in defiance of a city
ban on a rally there, including a comic troupe of clown-faced soldiers
in military green jumpsuits.
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- Hundreds of people lay on the grass in the park and formed
a massive human peace sign.
-
- Among the demonstrators in Times Square were "Queer
Fist," a group of young gays and lesbians who took part in a "kiss-in"
on the sidewalks of the theater district. Police moved in and arrested
them and put them in handcuffs outside a hotel.
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- In the march, people of all ages and demonstrating on
a wide array of issues from the war, to health care, the environment and
the economy, chanted, "Hey Ho, Hey Ho, Bush Has Got to Go."
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- CARNIVAL ATMOSPHERE
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- The peaceful crowd walked in a carnival atmosphere, banging
drums and waving banners past the Madison Square Garden convention site.
Republicans and other visitors arrived in the city for a four-day event
where Bush will be nominated for another four-year term. He faces Democratic
candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts in the Nov. 2 election.
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- "Some people say that it is not patriotic to protest
but we're taking back the flag because free speech and speaking out for
what you believe in is patriotic," said Shana Berger, one of 14 people
carrying a large U.S. flag in the march. "We do support the troops
but we want them to come home now."
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- Thousands of police -- many clad in riot gear, some on
bicycles, others on horseback or on foot -- monitored the large crowd.
Protesters carried signs reading "Osama Loves Bush," "Bush
Lies Who Dies?" and "Hate is not a Family Value."
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- A small group of masked anarchists set fire to a float
just one block from the convention site and hurled bottles at police in
riot gear who rushed them and made 15 arrests, police said.
-
- UFPJ march organizer Leslie Cagan told Reuters that the
event had gone "very, very well" and "people have come to
protest the Bush administration on very many issues, but today we were
united in speaking out against the Bush agenda."
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- Many held banners opposing the war in Iraq. The Bush
administration said it invaded Iraq to rid Saddam Hussein of weapons of
mass destruction that threatened America's security, but no stockpiles
of weapons have been found.
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- "He (Bush) is ruining the country that I knew as
a child growing up," said Joan Azulay, a retiree from Austin, Texas.
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- One group carried 1,000 coffins as a tribute to American
soldiers dead in Iraq and to highlight what they see as the true cost of
the war there.
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- Security around the arena has been called the tightest
in the history of U.S. political events, with thousands of police officers
and Secret Service agents on guard.
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- Streets were closed and concrete barriers put in place
to deter truck bombs amid warnings from Washington that al Qaeda -- the
group responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- or others might attack
America before the November election.
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- - Additional reporting by Larry Fine, Mark McSherry and
Christine Kearney
-
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