Anti-War Protests Spark Outrage
By Joshua Robin Staff Writer
About 190 anti-war protesters were arrested Thursday after they blocked traffic on Fifth Avenue -- part of a daylong series of demonstrations throughout the city.
The blockade, near Rockefeller Center, started at 8:20 a.m., snarling rush-hour for about 15 minutes and triggering scores of confrontations between those supporting and opposing the war in Iraq.
"I'm furious. These people are such an irritation," Mia Smith, 33, of Manhattan said, her cab stuck in traffic on the avenue.
"I have friends in Iraq and these are the images they're going to see," Smith said, scowling at the protesters, some of whom painted themselves red to recognize Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. and British fire.
Organizers said the protest was meant to disrupt "business as usual."
Arun Aguiar, a freelance writer with the Independent Media Center who helped coordinate the demonstration, said anti-war activists were forced to use extreme tactics because so far other methods failed to halt the war. It was the second such act on Fifth Avenue in two days.
"The anti-war movement has been doing demonstrations and teach-ins for months," he said. "We were not successful in stopping the war, so now we have to ask ourselves, how do we prevent the war from going on?"
Police in riot gear and on horseback broke up the demonstration before 9 a.m. and there were no immediate reports of injures. The protesters were charged with disorderly conduct and blocking traffic, and were expected to be given desk appearance tickets.
The blockade was followed by several planned and impromptu demonstrations around New York, including a 12:30 p.m. rally near Washington Square Park that drew about 200 people and about 15 counter-demonstrators.
One speaker who lost her brother in the Sept. 11 terror attack said the Bush administration was tainting her brother's memory by justifying the Iraqi invasion as a battle against terrorism -- even though there is no evidence the Iraqi dictator was involved in hijacking American planes.
"He uses the face of terror to convince all of us that we have something to fear," said Dawn Peterson, 25, a graduate student at New York University, whose brother, Davin, worked at Cantor Fitzgerald.
"Having our own soil attacked, we know what it's like to lose people. So then why would we further propagate that?" she asked.
Several police officers and a row of sawhorses separated those on both ideological sides, with heated debates breaking out between cops' shoulders.
Michael Davila, an NYU student from Forest Hills, said he was so incensed with the anti-war rally that he bought a poster and scribbled on it "Support the Troops."
"Nobody killed more Muslims than Saddam Hussein," Davila, 20, yelled to the crowd.
An anti-war demonstrator, Veronica Yuspraikh, shouted: "How do you have any right to sit there and say that it's okay to kill women and children?"
The two argued for a moment, and a police officer separated them. A moment later, police handcuffed one man after he confronted a pro-war demonstrator and refused an order to back away.
Scattered demonstrations were staged throughout the day across the city as part of a "no business as usual" theme, including a dozen people blocking the entrance to Tiffany's and five people arrested after a scuffle with police outside CNN offices.
Civil disobedience actions also were held or planned at New York University, Stuyvesant HIgh School, Riverside Church, 28th Street and Broadway and 25th Street and Sixth Avenue.
Wil Cruz, a freelance writer, contributed to this story, as did Associated Press reports