so, there were tons of people and it was a great show of citizenship.

It was hard to get to the actual ‘legit’ rally but my cohorts and I made it eventually.

I met some people at the New York Public Library at 42nd St. and 5th Ave. at around 11:30AM. We headed out for 49th St. and 1st Ave at around noon.

Problems started at about 42nd and 3rd, we’re weren’t allowed to cross the avenue and were directed to start uptown on 3rd. As we headed uptown it was getting more and more crowded and the police wouldn’t allow people to cross the avenue at all. We finally crossed the avenue at around 51st but got caught in a big crowd. Everyone was supposed to stay on the sidewalk, but people wanted to move and after 51st the avenue became filled with people.

We were stuck between 51st and 53rd for a long time. At one point mounted police attempted to force people back onto the sidewalk but there was just way to many people and the police seemed to realize that with all the different people in the crowd including young children in strollers, older folks, and people in wheel chairs that it was to dangerous to treat the crowd roughly.

After that the police seemed to just want to keep the cross streets clear but were content to let people march up the avenue between blocks. Some cars and trucks had gotten caught by the crowd and were patiently waiting for the crowd to clear.

At 62nd we were allowed to go over to 2nd Ave. then they stopped us from going over to 1st so we kept heading uptown. Word on the street was that they were allowing people over on 72nd st. We got fed up at 68th and there were only 2 police manning the barricade. They tried to stop people from going through, but once you made it across they didn’t seem to care so we snuck through. After we got through a big crowd pushed through behind us and filled 68th St. between 2nd and 1st.

Now we had made it! But at every cross street they had barricades up. At 66th we just hopped over it. Once you were over the police didn’t pay any attention to you. At 65th people kept opening them up and stepping through and the police would close them up after a few people would slip through. My cohorts slipped through and I got stuck on the other side. Eventually people opened up the barricades and we all pushed through, as I went through I pulled it wide open. It felt good to let all the people out but then a girl came up to me and told me to be more careful; she got hit in the stomach when I had pulled it open. I apologized and felt guilty about it for a while.

By this point I’m feeling pretty crappy as I’ve been sick all week and am taking antibiotics so I only hung around for a few speakers and left. permanent link to this post