Bush protest report

Report from bush protest

8:30am - There are about 500 people here at Lafayette Park. Things seem pretty up beat and more and more people keep coming in. People inside the park are listening to speeches and others are standing along the streets with their signs.

9ish - The march sets out down El Camino. At first there is some confusion about which way to go but within a few minutes we get moving. People are chanting and the marching band is playing ‘when the saints come marching in’. (Later a friend in San Jose Food Not Bombs told me the pro-war people at the protest site were trying to chant ‘U-S-A U-S-A’ as they heard us getting closer, but by the time we came off the exit we were so big and loud we drown them out.) There are about 1,000 anti-Bush and 25 pro-Bush people. We fill in the street/protest zone up to the police line but the cops start pushing us onto one side of the road and then onto the sidewalk. The cops and horses seem pretty on edge and are making peaceful situation hostile. At one point I saw a person lying down on the street behind the police line- I don’t know if they were hurt or were being arrested.

After things settle down a little people start dancing, chanting and doing yoga. A huge ‘smart bomb balloon’ appears out of nowhere- I can’t really see what it says on it but this thing is massive- about the length of a swimming pool. As usual there is a lot of creativity on display- the 'republican guard' are here and many homemade signs & banners ranging from 'fuck bush' to 'Bush, a kinder gentler war criminal'. One girl had a sign that read, “Bush is coming, so what?”-not much love for that guy even here in the south bay.

10:00 - I see some American flag people trying to pull down an ANSWER banner and I head over there to check it out. There is a woman and man with two children in a stroller trying to block the view of the answer sign (?) I’m not really clear what they are trying to do. Their sign reads something about supporting Bush and the war on terror. I don’t get what is so ‘American’ about trying to block free speech so I ask the lady if she believes in the 1st amendment. ‘Honey, I’ve been here for two hours’ she replies (?!). As they try to use their flags to pull down the banner the cops just stand there- if it were the other way around there probably would be arrests. At one point it seems like two people (the lady I talked to and an anti-war girl) are fighting over a flag but it gets worked out. I ask the anti-war girl what happened and she says the flag got stuck in her purse (not clear what was going on with this).

11:00 - Over by the Starbuck$ police barricade area there is a mix between pro and anti bush people. Half a dozen or so children start chanting ‘we love Bush’. Some cars drive by in the distance and the whole crowd starts making noise -maybe it was Bush? After that we start walking back to the park. The police still insist on making a big deal where there is none and keep us in our place by pushing us onto the sidewalk to protect the empty street and horseshit. On my way back, there are a few pro-Bush people in front of me talking and laughing - I realize one of them is carrying an NBC microphone- as if there was any question what side the media is on. Coming down the off ramp I see an undercover police car parked on the empty street with 3 sunglass clad men in it. I wave, and they smile back from their secret squirrel style hiding spot. Even down at the park a squad block of about 20 cops in riot gear comes out to regulate on the 30 or so protesters who are trying to pack up and go home. This time they force us off the sidewalk and onto the park ‘property’.