The Hindu : International : New York to unleash fury on Republicans

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 16, 2004

International

International

New York to unleash fury on Republicans

By Paul Harris

NEW YORK, AUG. 15. The smiling face of the former New York mayor, Ed Koch, beams down from posters all over the city. "The Republicans are coming," it says underneath. "Make nice". Fat chance.

New York is bracing for one of the biggest showdowns in its political history as the Republican national convention comes to town at the end of the month. Meeting the army of delegates, politicians and lobbyists will be a vast array of protest groups that intend to make the Republicans' Big Apple stay as unpleasant as possible. Trying to keep order on the streets will be 20,000 police, secret servicemen and National Guard units. A quiet week seems out of the question.

Jamie Moran certainly hopes so. He is one of the main driving forces behind the protest movement which has sprung up since the Republicans announced they would gather in New York. He and others have been collecting information on all aspects of the convention.

They run a `snitch line' where people involved in the convention can leak details of events and where delegates have been staying. The protesters are widely believed to have infiltrated several people into working at the convention who will smuggle information out. Mr. Moran's plan is to send out teams of activists to disrupt as many events as possible.

Protest groups

"It's all coming along well," he said at a meeting of protest groups in a city church. Mr. Moran (30), son of a local cop, has become a minor media star in New York, but he is far from alone in plotting to make the city a place the Republican party will be reluctant to return to. In all, more than 250,000 protesters from all over the U.S. and the rest of the world are expected to converge on the city during the four-day event.

Maps of where Republican events are being held have been distributed. They contain details of where delegates are staying, lobbyists' parties are being held and major corporate headquarters are located. Streets will be shut down, impromptu marches held, meetings disrupted and parties invaded.

Sit-down demonstrations will block traffic, protesters will chain themselves together and delegates' hotels will be infiltrated. There will be organised protests and marches, with City Hall permits, that are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of demonstrators.

John Flanigan and Tim Doody are two other protest co-ordinators aiming to make August 31 a day of direct action. They said they would shun the idea of applying for any form of permit.

"We already have a permit. It is called the American Constitution. The idea that I have to ask for permission to protest my own Government is ridiculous," Mr. Flanigan said.

Sitting on the steps of St. Mark's Church in the East Village, the pair typified the anger felt by protesters that the Republicans are holding their convention in a city that prides itself on its liberalism. "This has really shaken everyone out of their complacency. People are outraged," said Mr. Doody.

Polls support that reaction. A recent survey showed that 83 per cent of New Yorkers did not want the convention in their city. "We all live here," said Angela Coppola, an office worker who has joined the protest groups. "We were the victims of 11 September and now they are coming to terrorise us with their asinine convention."

New York was chosen by the Republicans with an eye on associating the party with the terror attacks of 2001. But now it runs the risk of having the media coverage turn into pictures of street battles and mass arrests. However, that may not necessarily upset Republican strategists. TV footage of besieged delegates inside Madison Square Garden may boost the President, George Bush's poll ratings in key, socially conservative Midwest States.

Mayor's warning

At a press briefing last week, the Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, was firm about the police attitude to protesters without permits: "If you disrupt traffic, if you behave in a way that is against the law, the NYPD will enforce the law. Period." Huge preparations have been made to combat the threat of terrorism. New York, along with Washington and Newark, New Jersey, is likely to still be on a heightened state of terrorist alert. —

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International