It was warm, but not oppressively considering it was the hottest part of the day (3:00pm), as I made my way up Arapahoe street to meet the Iraq Veterans Against the War march as they came down from the Denver coliseum. There had been a huge turnout of people along the 16th Street mall. All kinds of people crowded the street, tourists, conventioneers, right wing fundamentalist, and left wing social progressives all mixing, talking and interacting. I could not help but feel that this march had the promise of being the largest of the week. As I walked north I saw a fast moving and heavily guarded motorcade rush down the street, limos and vans of police, motorcycles, with an ambulance bring up the rear. The Denver Police officer at the corner said it was Obama. I kept moving, walked north and stopping to talk to the police in hopes of finding the marchers.
At 4:30 I saw and heard the marches ahead they had reached Broadway and Park and had been stopped by the police so that traffic could be cleared. As I expected the police presence was huge but unlike previous marches this week the march was even bigger. There were easily 4,000 people! I walked the length of the march as it stood stalled in place. At the head was the Iraq Veterans Against the War, all dressed in uniforms from there respective services. Some wore camouflage, some where donned in there dress blues with all ranks enlisted and officer alike represented. They marched in place sing a military cadence: “we are veterans, Iraq war veterans,…”; it was a moving sight.
Behind the veterans marched the protesters and there numbers dwarfed anything I had seen this week. Numerous anti-war banners waved in the air some just saying ‘no war’ and others in the shape of tomb stones with the name and date of solders killed in action. The later made a powerful point.
Soon the march started to move and I slipped into it to talk with the demonstrators. As I did the chat “out of your homes and into the streets’ was taken up by the people around me as watchers standing on there loft balconies looked on at the crowd passing by them. Demonstrators invited those on the sidewalk to join the march and many did just that. It was here that I briefly chatted with Kelly and Tobias, two marches who found themselves next to me. I asked them what had brought them out to the march and inspired them to participate? They went to go to the Rage Against the Machine concert but after being there they said they “felt inspired to join the march,” they where young and looked excited to be marching in the protest.
As I marched on in the parade I met Jesus, he to had been inspired by the concert and had decided to come along with the marchers. I asked if he had been politically active before the concert and he replied that he was a member of the young democrats. I soon found myself next to an attractive middle class woman by the name of Elaina who was attending the convention, not as a delegate but as a member of the progressive demarcates. She was well dressed and well spoken and a testament to the diversity of the group as they made there way downtown. She was excited to see so many young people marching to end the war. I asked her about the fact that so many young people seem to feel equally dissatisfied by both republicans and democrats and she said; “absolutely’, she went on to say we need to elect Obama and then go on to address a number of other issues. She felt unhappy with politics and felt that she too had had to compromise on issues and with Obama. I asked her what she felt she had to compromise on to which she said; “I was not pleased with his vote on FISA and his tough talk” a reference to military issues. Behind me stood Will a 17 year old man with a youthful look that said peace was why he was marching. He went on to tell me about how he would not be able to vote this election (his age) but was volunteering and working to make a better world.
As we passed downtown the demonstrators around me started sing ‘were not going to take it anymore’ as we passed the onlookers crowding the sidewalks. I could see that the march was growing in size and was a great deal larger now then the 3,500 that had been there when I joined it.
Now at almost 6:00 pm we approached the freedom cage but the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) refused to enter the cage proper and so the entire march stopped just outside the compound. I could not blame them it is an awful place, bare, paved with little in the way of shade. Here the protest stood in place with signs waving and songs and chants of dissent filling the air. It was hot and the marchers where tired and yet they stood for more then a half hour waving signs and waiting. As this has going on I walked over to some officers watching from behind the fence at the north east side they where with the attorney generals office and when asked about the freedom cage they stated that it was not much used today. A lone man stood in the cage proper reading the constitution. I asked if the officers had read it. They said they had but that it, the US constitution, attracted little attention from the public. DOC’s street medics, a group founded by the late Ron Rosen, asked that people start to move there legs or that they sit on the ground in order to keep there legs from cramping. Many sat down and continued the waiting.
At this point the IVAW had demanded to speak with someone from the Obama campaign. They stated they would not leave until then and the police made it clear that they would be arrests if they did not leave. The IVAW announced that all who did not wish to risk arrest should move back down Seventh Street. The Denver police then issued a dispersal order and lots of officers clad in riot gear moved forward to augment the already robust police presence.
After about fifteen minutes two IVAW representatives where taken inside the convention and the crowd started to move back down Seventh Street still very much a demonstration and still un-permitted. The police watched as they moved to the entrance to the Pepsi Center on Market Street. The police presence was massive! Again the police demand that the protesters disperse. Hundreds stood there ground while hundreds more in the way of onlookers stood by and watched. The police moved up large groups of riot clad officers to the rear of the marchers and then moved armored vehicles and more riot police to the marchers flank on the north side pinning the demonstrators between the police and a fence. It was a little frightening but all there police and demonstrators remained calm.
IVAW people came up to the crowd and announced that they where meeting with a representative of the Obama campaign and had three issues that they wanted the campaign to hear. These issues where; 1) an end to the war, 2) veterans benefits including better health care, and 3) reparations to the people of Iraq.
The meeting was with Philip Carter head of veteran affairs issues for the Obama campaign. The protesters and the crowd waited with anticipation of the results as well as some apprehension at the huge police display of strength. I a few minutes cheers went up and people shouted that the Obama campaign had herd there issues and agreed to work toward them. The tension eased significantly and the police drew back moments latter to a more respectful distance as the marches began to disperse some four hours after my joining it.
All present had remained calm. All parties had shown restraint. It remains to be seen what if any impact the demonstration will have had on the Obama policies about Iraq but since former President Bill Clinton was speaking on the convention floor it is doubtful that most convention delegates heard or knew about the protest just outside.
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Comments
None are more aware of the
August 31, 2008 by Anonymous, 1 year 12 weeks ago
Comment id: 690
None are more aware of the police trampling on citizens rights more than a veteran that has served to protect those rights for all citizens, ALL CITIZENS.
Local Police continually violate protesters constitutional rights in the 'holy name of profit' for the next convention in town..
I agree with S.P II, an old friend that said when protesters rally they should wear the same uniforms of the local police, with one difference; a patch stating clearly,
'Citizen, whom do you serve'.
But that is just the ramblings of one disabled vet.
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