New Estimate: Over 1 million in New York on 2/15

Organizers report, according to KPFA, 94.1 FM, that there are over 1 million people on the streets of New York, marching and rallying for peace, using the First Amendment as their permit to be in those streets.

KPFA is also announcing an AP report that the worldwide peace protests has caused the UN to consider drafting a more amicable resolution toward Iraq. We know for a fact that the US keeps postponing its massacre of the Iraqi people due to the worldwide peace movement. When the most powerful military force in the world gangs up to attack a country as poor as Guatemala, it is not a testing of equitable military-industrial strengths, but a massacre of the people of Iraq, as occurred in 1991, better known as the Persian Gulf Massacre.

Updates from the streets of New York, where, before the press of the world, the New York police on horses, charged penned in peaceful people attempting to get to the peace rally, used pepper spray against defenseless people of all ages who had nowhere to go and were doing absolutely nothing wrong. Every single person injured by the New York police can and should sue the City of New York, the New York police and NAZI Mayor Bloomberg for millions of dollars. We are all witnesses and can verify that these three parties are guilty of criminal behavior and millionaire Bloomberg should pay out of his own pocket the millions of dollars in damages to these peaceful people.

The whole world should stop referring to the US as a democracy, which it never was as it was built on the genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans and the exploitation of the labor of all ethnic groups. Where there is economic inequality, there can be no political democracy.

Now, the world has no excuse. You saw the New York police and they are very American. That is the stench of American fascism. And please stop eating American junk food and watching American garbage movies glorifying war. The native foods of the people of the world are very nutritious and the workingclass cultures of the world are far better than any garbage movie. I never have and never will eat any McDonald's junk food and it is rare when I see even one Hollywood movie in a year.

From: http://f15.nycimc.org/
Breaking News:
F15 3:37pm Critical mass shut down Times Square for about 5 minutes. About 20 to 30 bikes and 100 people surrounded Times Square, but we are hearing that the police have begun to move people out of the way.

F15 3:34pm Reports of 300 police at Times Square.

F15 3:24pm 57th and 2nd: The crowd has taken the streets and is chanting “Whose streets? Our streets?” Police have not made any arrests or injuries, but they are using their horses to push the crowd with their horses back on to the sidewalk.

F15 3:01pm 53rd and 3d Avenue: People on the west side of the barricade have been trying to negotiate with the police but they may be getting ready to storm it. There have been seven or eight reported arrests. There have been reports of plainclothes policemen have been getting very violent with protesters.

F15 3:00pm There have been 2 reported arrests at 2nd avenue and 57th street of people trying to storm a barricade. The crowd has begun getting very restless and has begun shouting “War means War.”

F15 2:42pm Estimate from organizers and the mainstream media on crowd size: the rally on 1st avenue streches many blocks north. NYPD usually estimates 7000 people can fill an avenue block. Including the additonal people trapped by police at 2nd and 3d organizers estimate over half a million people.

F15 2:40pm More reports of police violence at 53d and Third. There were reports of people climbing atop barricades and being pushed off by police, about 25 on horses, plus others coming out of buses. The police have started to push the crowd back from 53rd street. However, people are completely trapped with nowhere to go

2:18 pm 2:04 At 53d and 3d Avenue, New Yorkers rushed the street barricade and 15 people made it through. Ten minutes later a group of 8 or 9 anti-capitalists linked arms and organized a second rush on a barricade. About 50 or 60 other people joined them in the rush. The police brought in reinforcements, maced 15 or more people, and pushed the crowd back.

1:50 Sources report that police have begun arresting demonstrators on 54th and 2nd Avenue.

1:43 First avenue is reported to be completely inacccessible-- people who want to get there to protest cannot. 2nd avenue is full wall to wall in the 60's. We are hearing reports that the police on 3d avenue have given up, though this isn't confirmed.

1:37 A smaller group of people made it out of the 51st / 3d Avenue pen and were herded north on 2nd avenue. It is a diverse group. They are now being stopped by a row of mounted police on 54th st, and they cannot move north.

1:24 We have reports that portions of Second Avenue have been taken over by marchers as well.

1:23 The uptown Lexington avenue line has been stopped at 23rd street because of the protest.

1:21 Third Avenue is full from 50th to 53d street . Cars and buses have been trapped by the crowd-- there are US Postal Service vans, a service van, and taxis. Marchers have completely taken the street.

1:09 The police are putting up barriers on 53d and 3d avenue. They are throwing them to one another. There is a huge crowd of people stopped by the barriers and they are chanting "let them through, let them through." There have been several unconfirmed arrests of people trying to get over the barriers. There is a lot of pushing and shoving with the police.

1:07 There is a march occuring on 3d avenue; people are trying to get to the protest and are moving north. 1:00pm. A report just came in that 2nd Ave. is “a sea of humanity” protesters have taken over half the avenue and more people are joining from every direction.

12:41 "3rd avenue and 58th is ours!" says one caller. From 57th to 58th is completely full. There are no protest pens on third avenue. There are groups up third avenue as far north as 72nd street.

12:38 The Labor March marching from 59th street is back on the sidewalk. The police have broken it in half.