March 20, 2003, E-mail report of anti-war actions in downtown San Francisco:
What a busy morning around here. My building woke me up with a siren. Then, simultaneously, anti-war protestors, as promised, hit the streets promptly at 7 a.m. The groups had a very amazing and successful strategy to break up into many smaller (yet large) groups and are roving around all the major intersections, freeway on ramps into the city (including the Bay Bridge). It shutdown downtown. I did not think that they would be successful, since they tried this last Friday. But, many more came than I expected, and they are hard core, ready to be arrested. The news reports advise the public to stay out of downtown. I thought it would be over by now. Not. And, the police have now seemingly given up. There are no police stopping them. There have been about 350-500 arrests, but the protestors created such a traffic halt that the paddy wagons and buses could not get to the arrestees. I have been hold up in my apartment. You can't get out, and if you get out, there is!
no guarantee that you can ever get back in any time soon. The news reporters admitted that they just can't keep up with the roving protestors.
Market Street is a ghost town, just the protestors walking up and down the street at will. I tried to get out to run some errands, I thought the crowd had moved on to another intersection. When I came out of the stores there they were again. I ducked back into my apartment as quickly as I could as I found myself walking with them side by side, quite accidently. I realized I could be scooped up by police as a protestor.
As I try to conduct work, I find the noise from the helicopters, the horn honking of frustration and support, and the crowd itself is quite deafening and very distracting. The television is 100% reporting the war combat, with local news breaks reporting on 100% anti-war protestors. BART is now shutdown after hundreds of high school children stormed the Fruitvale station, a major station - and this is the Black community of Oakland. Ironically, the Asian Art Museum opened today. Major dignitaries there requiring police. Today, police are stretched. This is really amazing to experience.
The protestors are also at Civic Center, in front of City Hall, about 100 yards across the street from the Asian Art Museum. The Fire Department is reporting that it is experiencing major delays in being able to respond to calls. The reports are that at any given time, 20-30 major intersections are being blocked.
-- Marta Russell Los Angeles, CA http://www.disweb.org