One person's view from the center of a protest
"This is an example of the power of protest in that once a crowd realizes its might, it becomes a dangerous force to be reckoned with. There were maybe 1500 people walking down a block. Some protesters stormed the entrance of a hotel and they were hanging out in the entryway. Once the cops got them subdued on the other side, they cleared the streets. Then all of a sudden some sergeant gave the order to push us up on the sidewalk. But once they did that they blocked us in. Not 'push up on the sidewalk, dissipate and keep moving', but 'get up on the sidewalk , stand there, and if you move we'll crack your head open.' There were about 400 people trapped against the wall. There were a lot of cops standing abreast, with batons and riot gear. This went on for about 20 minutes and there was really nothing we could do. People were kind of freaking out, we didn't have much room to move around. There was a lot of confusion. We were divided and didn't know what was happening. I started to hear some noise so I put my (video) camera way up high and through the view finder I could see all these placards stretching about three blocks down - their signs said "Hail to the Thief," stuff like that - so I zoomed really far down and I was like "Oh my god, they're coming to get us!" As they approached, people on the other side of the road started to chant "free them, free them, free them." They just kept coming, tighter and tighter and then the cops stopped pushing. I'm not sure how they got incited to do it, I mean, I'm not sure why they weren't afraid, but all of a sudden they just pushed, pushed the cops back and we just started cheering and screaming at the top of our lungs when we saw that. That they could do anything. You should have seen the looks on the cops faces. Like, they were all proud that they had us cornered, then, all of a sudden they had to move - they HAD to move - back. . . . I managed to climb on top of a bus stop and I grabbed the camera and I was so ecstatic. I could see the whole crowd. I couldn't yell loud enough. I wanted to say "You guys don't know how big you are right now."
[posted 1/26/01]
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