The crowd filled 2nd Avenue for many blocks, trying to reach the main protest at 1st Avenue.
Hundreds of thousands showed up to make our message heard.
 
 

A sampling of signs carried by protesters.
 
 

Some people got really creative - dove; four horsemen of the apocolypse.
 
 

The good people I came with.
 
 

It's fun for all ages!
"Elmo thinks Bush should go back to school and learn his ABC's.
Elmo thinks Bush should put all the $ into schools not bombs."
 
 

A few hours later, we managed to reach First Avenue.
 
 

Later on I came across a last group of protesters, including some Cornellians.
 
 

Oh, did I mention I got arrested, not very gently, and for no good reason?
These are some of my wounds after two days of healing.  More details below.
 
 

John’s story – events of  Feb. 15, 2003 (written a few days later):

 I was at the peace demonstrations in New York City with a friend from Ithaca and some of her friends from the city, along with the hundreds of thousands of others who converged on midtown Manhattan to express their opposition to war with Iraq.  We walked with a large crowd of protesters trying to reach the main protest location, but police had blocked off many roads so I relied on radio broadcasts to hear the speakers at the main protest location.  The city had denied the organizers a permit to march, but there were so many people that police had to let them fill some streets.  The protesters were very considerate to each other and to police, and most of the day was very positive.
 
 Late in the afternoon, we stopped at a nice little Chinese restaurant to warm up and have lunch.  Afterwards, the rest of the group planned to meet another friend in a different part of the city, but I decided to stay around the protest area and meet up with them again later.  Most of the demonstrators had started to leave, but I found one group that marched down one side street and then went on the sidewalks of Second Avenue.  When we reached the intersection with 53rd Street at about 5:00PM, police went beyond just containing the group and started to actively disperse us.  They herded people in two different directions, and near me I noticed a woman upset and trying to explain to an officer that she was being separated from her sister.  I kept moving but slowed down out of concern.  They put her under arrest.  I turned, and while walking slowly in the direction they told us to go, I tried to take a picture of the arrest.

 As soon as my camera’s flash went off, one officer rushed toward me, grabbed my coat collar and told me I was under arrest.  I explained that I was trying to leave as they had ordered, but he said it was “too late for that”.  Soon about three cops had grabbed me and were pushing me out into the middle of the intersection, away from crowds and toward other cops.  They pushed me down on the ground, causing my camera to fall onto the pavement, even though I never physically resisted them.  One hand pushed down hard against my head and ground my face against the asphalt (hence the bruises and abrasions you see).  I did my best to put my hands behind me, but this was initially difficult because they had pinned at least one arm underneath me.  They used plastic cable hand restraints, pulling so hard to tighten them that they broke the first pair.  They pushed me down again and used another pair, pulling them extremely tight.

 They put me in a paddy wagon with two others, and we spent at least an hour picking up more arrested people.  Then they transferred me onto a Metro Transit bus filled with other detained demonstrators, where I spent about four hours waiting.  During this time we were denied water and could not use a bathroom.  About three hours after my arrest, I finally convinced an officer to substitute the plastic cuffs, which were causing great pain in my wrists and a lack of feeling in my hands, with normal metal cuffs.  When they took off the plastic cuffs, I noticed some bleeding on my left wrist.  I asked a few times about getting medical treatment for wounds on my face and wrists, but my requests were ignored.

 Finally, around 10:30 or 11:00PM, I was placed in the downtown central booking facility, in a holding cell with about 40 other men arrested during the protest.  In talking to them, I learned that many had been arrested for equally pointless reasons.  During the 8+ hours I spent there, I was photographed, fingerprinted, and asked a few pointless questions (I declined to talk about the arrest without a lawyer, and they never even read me my rights).  We were only given water until the first container ran out, police refused our requests to refill it.  The holding cell was also very cold, even with my winter coat on, and there was no comfortable place to sleep, so I got no sleep.  Around 7:00AM, I was released, and finally informed of my charges.

 I was charged with one misdemeanor count of resisting arrest and two counts of disorderly conduct, one for blocking traffic and one for disobeying an officer.  I have a court date on March 10.  I can’t see any validity to any of these charges against me, but I don’t know how much trust I have in our legal system.  I’m still looking into my legal options regarding the abuse I received at the hands of the police.  The NYPD prides itself on “CPR:  Courtesy, Professionalism, and Respect”.  They seem to have fallen short on these basic standards of decency in my case and others.

 My camera was seriously damaged.  I also lost my Nalgene water bottle and my winter hat during the arrest.  While searching me, they also cut through the strap of my backpack to remove it from me (they had cuffed me while I still had it on) and sliced the wires of my headphones.

 The wounds on my face really don’t hurt; I can only feel them if I squint my eyes.  I’m still experiencing some pain, swelling, and numbness in my wrists and hands, but the doctor I saw at Gannett on Monday thought everything should heal fairly soon.

 Basically, I’m in good health and spirits, just about ready for the next peace protest.  I want to make sure my negative experience doesn’t reflect the emergence of a new police state intended to protect the power of undemocratic leaders like Bush, Cheney, and Ashcroft.  We need to keep this government from abolishing our constitutional rights in the name of defending freedom.