Things didn't get out of hand like some incidents back in 2004 when the GOP held their convention here (I wonder why they held it in the same city as 9/11, hmmm) but the police decided to arrest protesters today anyways. Bush was speaking at the U.N. General Assembly, mouthing off his usual bullshit in the hall him and his followers detest so much. A few hundred people gathered to protest that BS and the NYPD chose to be....well, the NYPD.
From AM New York:
About a dozen anti-war protesters were arrested Tuesday during a peaceful demonstration of President Bush's speech before the U.N. General Assembly.
The arrestees were among about 400 people opposing the Bush Administration's war in Iraq, and its incarceration in Guantanamo Bay of more than 300 men on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. Many in the crowd wore orange jumpsuits in solidarity with the Guantanamo detainees.
The arrested demonstrators were taken into custody by police after kneeling on the sidewalk in an act of civil disobedience at the rally near the United Nations. One of them, 58-year-old Bill Ofenloch of Manhattan, said they were trying to serve an "arrest warrant" on Bush for "high crimes against humanity."
The police should have followed the protesters advice. Protesting the President is part of our basic freedoms. When our leaders are acting against our own best interests (or any interests at all) it is more than our right, it is our duty to speak out. In this day and age the authorities barely allow protest, they use fear and intimidation, from wearing riot gear to treating peaceful protesters as if they were actually rioting.
The police presence is overwhelming at the U.N. Even from my vantage point at 28th and 2nd Ave, their helicopters emit an unending noise to remind us that we should behave. Well, until the President behaves, the NYPD and the President shouldn't expect us to either.
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