I saw claims of 400k… pretty inflated… not impossible, still improbable. Still how do you calculate so many dispersed groups ?
The police all over America largely gave up on providing estimates for marches because they would always catch grief from both sides for their numbers. They have a pretty good scientific formula about it–sq. feet per person, etc., but they mostly don’t use it now. However, one reporter said that using her own formula they numbered about 150,000.
Go to NY1.com for good coverage. I don’t know why anybody would watch Fox for news of an anti-Bush protest, it’s like watching a news program geared towards kids for an update on Courtney Love.
I was downtown and went to the Great Lawn itself–only a couple of hundred people there, sitting around chanting ineffecutually (you need a permit for amplified noise). Softball games and sunbathing going on peacefully all around them, largely ignoring them. Cops and Park police watching carefully, but relaxed, chatting with them and each other. I also saw a few protestors in the subway but that was it. If you weren’t right on the parade route, I don’t think they bothered ordinary people. I’m glad about that. They also had a plan to ruin Broadway shows by chanting outside, but fortunately, according to this leading Broadway message board, there weren’t too many. Broadway theaters are right on the street and you can hear sirens, loud motorcycles, etc. right through the walls if your section is on the street side. It would have been very disrespectful to the artists.
I’m proud of my city. Pretty much everyone behaved themselves. Only 200 arrests and no serious injuries or property damage that’s been reported.
AP claims “over 100,000,” which IMO is a conservative (heh) estimate.
The New York Times has some nice photos of the protests, and they look impressively big to me. This photo is especially impressive IMO.
Let’s hope first of all that nobody gets hurt, these things have a way of getting out of hand. That being said, the optimal outcome from my point of view would be huge, passionate crowds and the networks running a split screen during Bush’s speech showing the protests outside alongside the charade inside. We don’t need a replay of Chicago 1968, but the bigger the peaceful turnout, the better. If the numbers are truly spectacular (like 1,000,000 people) then that will take away some of the luster of the television production inside MSG and hurt Bush, albeit minimally. IF the protests turn violent or the police get jumpy and start tear gassing the crowd for no good reason, then all bets are off on how this impacts the election. I really don’t see any good for Bush coming out of these protests.
Well, NYC still has a lot of Holocaust survivors who probably could do without all those silly “Bush=Hitler” signs and all. And I for one also plan to vote against Bush but I don’t belive that Mumia Abu-Jamal is innocent, that a woman has the right to choose to end her unborn child’s life, or that the war in Iraq was all about oil. All of those are stances that could push people watching who are sitting on the fence right off it–on Bush’s side of it.
Do people following the protest coverage think that the majority of the protesters shown represent main stream America? Are they coming across as calm and rational in their protests in your opinions? Are they striking a cord with voters, or do you think a lot of folks watching the protests are rolling their eyes at some of the signs/props (I saw a large cartoonish Bush mask with a Hitler type mustache and Nazi symbols on his forhead, wearing some kind of German SS top…and a pink tutu on the bottom. What does THAT symbology mean exactly?? 
)?
I’m curious on everyones take on this so far. For myself I think they have been reasonably peaceful (for which I’m pretty happy), and many of them are certainly coming off as just main stream Americans protesting an administration they disagree with. However, many (well, most that I’ve seen on TV anyway) of the protesters I’ve seen are coming off as particularly strident…and almost a joke in some cases. Many of them come off as an rjung OP in fact…an rjung OP on a bad day too boot. 
-XT
That just shows how far off you are.
Especially considering that rjung isn’t in NYC with the protesters. Which either means NYC has 400,000+ loonies in the streets – not very likely – or that the Administration has really managed to piss off the mainstream middle…
But you got to admit the Hitler-Bush mask with the tutu thing was just funny.
-XT
…and a just a LITTLE over the top. No?
-XT
Well, although I personally believe that men of good faith can generally settle these little disputes in a gentlemanly manner over port and cigars, some of these leftist hooligans just seem to need to get all emotional.
On the other hand, the protestors in NYC are, well… protesting. They’re angry about the Bush administration’s policies. Why would you expect them to be “calm and rational”?
Regarding the numbers - a guy I work with just hopped on a $500 plane ride to NYC so he could take part in the festivities, apparently he’s been saving up his vacation days… now, he’s always had a kind of a glint in his eye, but I never thought of him as a fringe loony type. Still, I’ll be keeping an eye on him from now on.
Although this is only one individual, if the lengths he’s going to are any indication, there may be quite a turn out.
Well, so much for hope.
Still 4 days, though. Anyone wanna take bets on Assha-err, ‘protester’ behavior for Thursday?