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By Maura Madden
Here's a great idea: if you have a crowd of people that you want to try to control, bring a bunch of huge animals and armed men into the middle of the crowd and see what happens. Yup, don't issue warnings over loud speakers or try to direct people out of the area by peacefully guiding them to a different space. Why should you do that? I mean, people don't respond to instructions, right? No, if you want to get results, there is really only one way to do it - mounted police and men dressed in riot gear. That is the way to calm and control a crowd. Especially a crowd of anti-war protesters, because even though they are protesting against war, I mean, it's pretty obvious that they are blood-thirsty psychos intent on committing acts of horrific violence if they aren't allowed to get to their rally. That's what anti-war protesters are into - violence.
This is how it all went down: on February 15th, my friends and I met at 50th and 5th Avenue at 11:30 to walk over to the rally together. We were ready to join the masses in voicing our message of peace. But when we arrived at 50th and Lexington, we were told that weren't allowed to go further east on that block and that we should walk uptown to find the next crossover point. And for the next hour and a half, we tried to get to the rally. It didn't work. We had to be satisfied with joining the spontaneous mini-marches that were occurring on Lexington and Third Avenues. At around 1:30,we went to take a bathroom break at a Borders bookstore on Park Avenue. When we returned to 57th and 3rd, the huge crowd that had been assembled 25 minutes earlier had disappeared. The street was eerily empty of anyone except the police. We wondered where everyone had gone, and one of my friends suggested that perhaps the police had allowed people to make their way to the rally. That seemed possible, until I saw the horseshit on the street. That shit smelled like trouble.
We walked away from the empty block towards the next large gathering of people. Every street going east was still barricaded by cops who wouldn't or couldn't give out any additional information. Frustrated, we walked down to 53rd and 3rd Avenue, where a large crowd had gathered and once again taken over the street. Some people were standing on top of the kiosks and there were even people standing on a large vehicle that looked like a police truck. As we neared the center of the crowd, we saw a barricade being passed over the heads of the crowd. Not the best idea, I'll admit, and probably not an action appreciated by the NYPD, but it didnŐt seem to shift the placement of the crowd and wasn't followed by any kind of battle cry. As we stood there trying to figure out where to go next, a number of empty buses slowly pulled in behind us. People moved to get out of the way. And just then, a woman who was sitting on her boyfriend's shoulders, looking over the masses, interrupted our conversation to say, "They're bringing in mounted police on the other side of the street." And just as suddenly, right behind her there were horses.
Oh, ha, ha, that's funny! Ten cops on horseback in the middle of the crowd! Gee, that seems safe. And what's this surrounding them? More cops with helmets and masks and shields? Oh, isn't that riot gear? Well, that makes sense because this crowd is so crazy. Yeah, we are crazy. We are standing around holding cardboard signs and trying to figure out a way to get to a place where we can hear people speaking about world peace, but we are crazy. Sure, the St. Patrick's Day Parade is practically a televised boxing match. Yes, there were gangs of men roving through Central Park molesting women during a recent Puerto Rican Day Parade. It's true, police barricades are often pushed out of the way by suburban moms so their offspring can get a better view of Barney at the Thanksgiving Day Parade, but wait 'til you get some people protesting for peace before you send in the big guns. They may seem like they are a thoughtful bunch of idealists attempting to make the world a better place, but it is very clear that they are secretly armed and ready to attack the NYPD.
We were now in a crowd that was in a panic. People were trying to move away from the huge and scared looking horses and get to safety. In the rush, we lost track of two of our friends. Turning back to look for them, I saw a horse rear up in a panic. I couldn't see where he landed or whom he landed on. We made it to an empty part of 53rd Street. Making good use of cellular technology, we called our friends who were now in the shelter of a Duane Reade on the corner. They didn't want to leave because they saw cops pushing and dragging and hitting people. So we tell them to stay where they were until it seemed safe and we would wait for them. We joined an enormous crowd of people camped out in a nearby coffee shop, trying to warm up and calm down. On New York 1, the channel that supposedly covers everything important to New York as it happens, there was nothing about the current events. Instead, there appeared to be an extensive story about an off-Broadway play that has just recently opened. The sound was off, so the sirens were painfully audible. And stronger than the aroma of coffee, I could still smell the horseshit.
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