Weasel Protest Sign Report! (New York City) --by Mary Titus

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    I just got back (6 PM) from demo.

    I came out unscathed. Believable reports put
crowd in New York at 1 million. At least that.
I arrived on time to general midtown staging
(Carnival artist's feeder march) but whole UN
area was already overflowing. No access to avenues
closer than Madison Ave. Police were violent, so
I wandered away a bit from the UN-East area
when I saw crowds of riot-geared cops getting in
formation to bust up perfectly ordinary UN march
attendees. Violence wasn't club swinging ... rather pushing
crowd forcefully to cause stampede type of injuries.
They charged peaceful (sort of suburbanite crowd) with
horses. Didn't witness but when I wandered away

    I was tired and went to a deli to eat and rest. A young woman related the story of planned police violence ( police weren't responding to any particular 'situation') She was so frightened seeing the horses charge she threw up. She was still very upset.

    In fairness, I should report that my personal experience with the local precinct police was very civil and friendly. The rude behavior was from the imported riot squad officers who were decidedly unfriendly. Their Commanders wearing unprofessional looking black leather jackets gave me pause. What's up with the S.S. jacket?

    Many here are very angry at the city (Mayor Bloomberg specifically) denying a parade permit for this march. Just permitted a rally with just a fraction of the space needed for the expected crowds. Since originally the march was going to in Times Square, many wanted to regroup there. It was shut down by the riot police but youths and resisters badgered the police by going a block away and attempting to enter the shut off streets again. I joined in one of these mini-marches and
it went east towards Madison Ave. and down to 34th Street and back towards Broadway again taking to marching in the streets on about 4 occasions. Most of that mini-march was police-free.

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Weasel Report:
    The Idiot Usurping Lying Weasel dummy [Oh, Bush attended? LOL! --Sorry, I couldn't resist. --Lori Price] was a BIG hit!

    Since NYC wants to limit marches I made my own march by walking the 6 miles from my Harlem apt. to Midtown. I got many thumbs up etc. walking down ...not to mention many wanted to pose with the weasel for photos! The weasel was a big photo attraction for tourists too. Carrying the weasel, I was interviewed by Holland TV and Japanese TV.

    Weasel is extra sturdy as I constructed it for possible snowy day. This proved most valuable.

    All that wear 'n tear and weasel only lost an ear. The only disrespect the weasel had was from an ambitious riot-helmeted cop who felt a compulsion to slug the weasel from behind as I obeyed his order to back up on the sidewalk in the volatile Times Square area. A cop slugged weasel with a police baton and it did NO damage!!!

    I'm tired.

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Mary Titus
New York City
February 15, 2003