NEW YORK CITY
215 arrested in 'die in' and other protests
By John J. Goldman, Los Angeles Times, 3/28/2003
EW YORK -- Antiwar protesters chanting ''peace now'' blocked Fifth Avenue
in front of Rockefeller Center during yesterday's morning rush hour. By
evening, police had arrested 215 demonstrators in that and other incidents.
Organizers of an ad hoc coalition labeling itself M27 called for civil
disobedience throughout the city.
The symbolic ''die in'' at Rockefeller Center was intended to show support
for Iraqi war victims. Later, members of the same coalition staged a mock
funeral on Fifth Avenue, while a dozen people tried to block the main
entrance to Tiffany's several blocks north of the larger demonstration.
Five protesters were arrested during a brief scuffle outside the offices of
CNN in Manhattan.
Police were well prepared for the Fifth Avenue protest, during which
activists lay down on the avenue, blocking traffic including several buses
crowded with people trying to get to work in midtown offices.
''Hey-hey, ho-ho, Bush's war has to go,'' some of the demonstrators shouted.
Police had set up barricades to contain the demonstrators on the sidewalk,
and a police helicopter circled overhead to help coordinate arrests.
Some of the protesters sprawled on towels and mats they unfolded to cushion
the hardness of the street.
Occasionally, the demonstrators were heckled by a handful of people
supporting the war.
A man held up a sign reading, ''Traitors, have you forgotten Sept. 11?''
There were brief arguments about the propriety of US action in Iraq.
But police had little difficulty in keeping people with opposing views apart.
In calling for the demonstration, patterned after much larger antiwar
actions in San Francisco, organizers said they had selected Fifth Avenue in
front of Rockefeller Center because it is the home of media outlets and
large corporations, some of which could profit from rebuilding Iraq.
Protesters charged that the war was ''setting the stage for a humanitarian
disaster of untold proportions.''
Sixteen people who blocked a Fifth Avenue intersection were arrested
Wednesday. Like the larger group seized yesterday, they were charged with
disorderly conduct.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly sought to draw the line between peaceful
demonstrations and actions such as stopping traffic.
''This is more than protest, more than free speech,'' Kelly said. ''We're
talking about violating the law.''
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/087/nation/215_arrested_in_die_in_and_other_protests+.shtml
