Ultimately, democracy can't be stopped

by Prometheus 6
August 26, 2004 - 5:42pm.
on Politics

Even if, like the USofA, you're not really a democracy but think you are.

Quote of note:

At the organizers' request, the NYPD is also shutting down side streets between 15th Street and 22nd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenue on the east side of 7th Avenue and between 8th and 9th on the west.

These side streets will serve as feeder lines into the main march up 7th Avenue.

The organizers are expected to assign groups that want to march together to specific side streets.

Sources: NYPD, protest group agree on rally site
March route also set for Sunday
From Jamie McShane
CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The New York City Police Department (NYPD) and representatives for United for Peace and Justice have agreed on a site for a protest rally this weekend, as well as the route for the march that will precede it, sources familiar with the situation told CNN Thursday.

The rally, expected to be the biggest of 29 permitted protests scheduled around the Republican National Convention, will be held in Union Square Park, just north of the East Village area.
Organizers had wanted to stage the rally in Central Park, but a judge this week backed up the city's denial of that request.

A projected 250,000 protesters are expected to take part in the event Sunday, set to start with a march that is to step off between 11 a.m. and noon ET.

The march is to move northward on 7th Avenue past Madison Square Garden -- in which the convention opens Monday -- and progress eastward on 34th Street to 5th Avenue.

From there participants are to march south on 5th Avenue to 23rd Street, then east to Broadway, and south on Broadway into Union Square Park.

At the organizers' request, the NYPD is also shutting down side streets between 15th Street and 22nd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenue on the east side of 7th Avenue and between 8th and 9th on the west.

These side streets will serve as feeder lines into the main march up 7th Avenue.

The organizers are expected to assign groups that want to march together to specific side streets.

In her decision Wednesday, Justice Jacqueline Silbermann ruled that for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) could not use Central Park because the city did not have enough time to ensure public safety and protect the park from damage.

She also wrote that the city parks department had appropriately followed city rules when it denied the UFPJ the right to hold the rally in Central Park.

City officials said the gathering would damage the park.

The protest site has been debated by city officials and protest organizers for months. In July, the group agreed to hold a large-scale rally on Manhattan's West Side Highway after the protest march, but two weeks ago UFPJ announced that site was unacceptable.