Crowd sizes and future actions
The S.F. police, originally estimated the Jan 11 protest crowd at 40,000. They now estimate the crowd at 150,000.
Which of course means it was probably closer to 200,000 – and the photo here, taken by a helicopter chartered by ANSWER, shows just how big the SF march was.
Why do police give absurdly low estimates of crowd size at demonstrations? Here in LA on Jan 11, the police estimated the march at an absurdly low 2,000, a number even the LA Times didn’t print. Local radio news stations said it was 20,000-30,000. So why the deliberate lie by the police?
The upcoming Feb. 15 International Day of Action has been called by European groups and there will be major actions across Europe and the U.S. There’s no one organizing group this time, instead multiple groups are planning multiple actions, probably in dozens of cities.
For example, United for Peace is organizing marches in SF & NYC. Here in LA, so far, there will be a Peace on the Beach rally organized by Santa Monica activists and a march in Hollywood by ANSWER. Many more actions will be announced soon, so find a group you like and join in.
We will probably be at war by then. King George the Mad has made it quite clear he will ignore public opinion, world opinion, the UN, and the advice of allies, and that he will have his war. A war for no discernable reason except empire, power, and oil.
Iraq arms? If that be the reason for war, then where are the arms? And why are we going after Iraq when we can’t find their weapons and not going after North Korea who cheerfully admits to having such weapons? And why, for that matter, are we going after other countries for having weapons when we are the biggest weapons dealer on the planet and possess more weapons than all other countries put together?
It’s lunacy. There’s no thought given here about blowback, like what will the unintended consequences of this imperial adventure be. Already once steady allies like Germany & France are going their separate ways, sickened by the Bushies lust for war. How do we plan to run Iraq, assuming we can even conquer it? And will it stay conquered? Will it upset the balance of power in the region? Will the populace of Gulf nations start rampaging in the streets? Do the Bushies think about any of this?
I’ve watched the peace movement grow exponentially over the past several months. It continues to grow. And now, just within the past week or so, the mass media, after months of studiously ignoring it, is now giving solid coverage. Why? Because the protests finally got so big they could no longer be ignored. That’s why.
And they will be getting much bigger.