Across the U.S., Protesters Rally Against War

Thousands of people opposed to a war with Iraq protested across the United States on Saturday, staging rallies in New York, Southern California, Detroit, Miami, Chicago and other communities that recalled the peace demonstrations of the 1960s and ‘70s.

In the largest protest, more than 100,000 chanting demonstrators here braved freezing temperatures and jammed 20 blocks near the United Nations, with thousands more spilling into Manhattan’s side streets. Protesters young and old waved banners, sang antiwar songs and shouted slogans condemning the Bush administration’s plans for a military campaign.

Although the rally was generally peaceful, some marchers grew angry when they could not reach the site because of heavily congested sidewalks.

Some protesters scrambled atop cars and phone booths, and 50 were arrested for disorderly conduct when police on horseback tried to move them back to the sidewalk, said New York Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. Eight police officers and two horses were injured in the scuffles, he added.

Despite the violence, the vast majority had come to talk about peace. Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu of South Africa, voicing a theme heard at many U.S. rallies, said, “Any war that you fight before exhausting all legal alternatives is immoral! We must resist this war!”

Speakers standing in front of a banner reading “The World Says No to War” demanded that U.N. weapons inspectors be given more time, and marchers implored American leaders to heed what they said was a growing consensus against a military campaign in Iraq.

“We know Saddam Hussein is evil, and we have to track down Osama bin Laden, but carpet-bombing Iraq is insane,” said Jan Powell, a Queens resident who, like many in the crowd, said she hadn’t been to a demonstration since the Vietnam era.

“Any idea that we should kill innocent Iraqis to avenge 9/11 is cynical and wrong,” said Andrew Rice, whose brother, David, was killed in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. “We can’t exploit our anger to murder children halfway around the world.”

Peace marches were held in about 350 cities around the world, including Berlin, London, Rome and Madrid. In Southern California, about 30,000 people marched peacefully down Hollywood Boulevard to listen to actor Martin Sheen, while others staged a group meditation on the beach in Santa Monica and chanted peace slogans at smaller gatherings in Long Beach, Orange, Brea and Laguna Beach.

“We are left empty and trembling at the level of arrogance of our leadership,” said Sheen, who plays President Josiah Bartlet, a Democrat, on the NBC series “The West Wing.” “We must lift up the world and all its people to a place without fears.”

The U.S. rallies were organized by United for Justice and Peace, a coalition of more than 200 national and local organizations opposed to war.

Besides Tutu, the speakers in New York included Martin Luther King III, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Julian Bond, board chairman of the NAACP. Celebrities included Susan Sarandon, Rosie Perez, Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte. Singer Richie Havens opened the rally with “Freedom,” the same song he played to open the Woodstock festival 34 years earlier.

“This is what democracy really looks like,” said Sarandon, surveying the crowd, which organizers estimated at 350,000 to 400,000 -- well above the 100,000 that police announced hours after the Manhattan rally had concluded.

“As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, ‘It isn’t enough to talk about peace; you have to believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in peace, you have to work to make it happen,’ ” Sarandon said.

Reacting to the protests, White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said “the president views force as a last resort.”

“He still hopes for a peaceful resolution and that is up to Saddam Hussein,” Mamo said. “The president is a strong advocate for freedom and democracy, and one of the democratic values that we hold dear is the right of people to peacefully assemble and express their views.”

Protesters in Miami included veterans of World War II, the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War, and they joined 150 other demonstrators for speeches in the Overtown neighborhood. Demonstrators in Madison, Wis., filled the sidewalks outside the University of Wisconsin’s sports arena, and a rally in Detroit drew a mix of veterans, students, seniors and parents with children.

Elsewhere, thousands marched to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, in a group that included students chanting anti-war slogans, Quakers walking in silence and a Korean group banging drums.

In President Bush’s home state, thousands turned out for an antiwar rally in Austin, Texas.

“We’re saying ‘no’ to the boy from our hometown,” University of Texas professor Robert Jensen said to raucous applause.

The New York event was engulfed in controversy before it began, when city officials -- citing security concerns -- denied organizers permission to march through the streets in front of the United Nations. Leaders of the event protested bitterly, and were forced to schedule a stationary antiwar rally on Manhattan’s East Side.

But they may have won a victory when police Saturday forced the larger-than-expected crowds to walk up dozens of heavily congested blocks to reach the site. As they inched forward, people staged their own impromptu demonstrations.

“We’re marching, we’re doing exactly what they didn’t want us to do,” said Bill Cohen, a Greenwich Village resident who looked warily at police on horseback trying to keep the crowd orderly.

“You better believe that’s right,” added Ignacio Salinas, who rode on a bus for 16 hours from Kalamazoo, Mich., to reach the demonstration. “Today we send a message to President Bush that he’s out of touch with the American people -- and we’ll keep sending that message.”

As the main Manhattan demonstration continued, hundreds left the rally site and headed to Times Square, Rockefeller Center and other areas to mount additional protests.

Security was extraordinarily tight near the U.N. and adjacent streets, with hundreds of police officers lined up along sidewalks, in squad cars, on horseback and rooftops. Dozens of streets were closed, and police mustered an anti-terrorism contingent that included sharpshooters, undercover officers with radiation detectors, bomb-sniffing dogs, hazardous materials decontamination stations and air-sampling equipment designed to pick up traces of a chemical or biological attack.

“We all respect the right to protest peacefully,” Kelly said late Saturday afternoon. “And I think this event went well. It was orderly. We certainly did the best we can.”