End the Occupation march & rally in Hollywood on Sunday
Except for forgetting my cell phone so I couldn’t
camblog photos, the End the Occupation march and rally in Hollywood was amazing, inspiring (and exhausting).
Several thousand people came. It was spirited and fun, and one of many of the worldwide peace marches in
over 40 countries over the weekend.
I was up front with the sound truck that led the
march, staying in comunication with other parts of the march via
walkie-talkies. We stopped the march a few times when the back of the march radioed that LAPD was riding motorcycles on the sidewalks and ordering people off them. The National Lawyers Guild, as always, spoke with police, alerting them that anyone can walk on a sidewalk anytime without permission from police. After we got that cleared up the march
continued!
The rally was at Hollywood & Highland, smack in the middle of upscale Hollywood tourist / shopping area. Some shopowners had been fearful roving bands of crazed peaceniks would create mischief, but fortunately for Capitalism, no such catastrophe ocurred. Well, one young man started dancing while carrying two rally posters, and police decided the pieces of wood attached to the sign
were dangerous weapons and demanded he give them to them. There are, in
fact, laws governing how thick poster sticks can be, however his were
well under the limit. There was a bit of a scuffle and last I heard police were questioning him but hadn’t yet arrested him while, you guessed it, the National Lawyers Guild was standing by and monitoring the situation. One of them opined to me this could be a lawsuit if they arrested him.
The high point of the rally was when the extraordinarily eloquent Fernando Suarez addressed the crowd. His son was killed in Iraq, and he has become a tireless spokesperson for ending the war now. The top photo shows him on the left, next to him is a translator, seated to the far right is Ron Kovic. Behind him, out of
view, stood 25 members of Military Families Speak Out, an organization of 1,000 families with children in Iraq who oppose the war. He spoke with great passion and feeling about how this insane war must be ended before more innocents die because the country was lied to by the President.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Ron Kovic were among the other speakers, and the rally made the AP wire, which means the story goes everywhere.
SF Indymedia has photos from the San Francisco and Fresno demos.
