Protesters flooded Manhattan on the eve of the Republican National Convention yesterday, marching in the tens of thousands and shouting their opposition to Bush administration policies.
“I’m marching to get out a lousy president,” said 97-year-old Pearl Kemp, whose disgust with the Iraq war spurred her to cover the parade route in her wheelchair.
Police did not give an official crowd estimate, but a law-enforcement source told The Associated Press that the number of protesters was about 120,000.
That number was much smaller than the 400,000 that the march organizers, United for Peace and Justice, claimed turned out to join the parade on a hot, sunny day.
The march ran up Seventh Avenue past Madison Square Garden – where the convention kicks off today – across 34th Street and back down Fifth Avenue and Broadway to end in Union Square.
“When the Republican National Convention starts, theirs will be a message of war, hate and lies,” said UFPJ’s national coordinator, Leslie Cagan, whose group waged an unsuccessful fight to end the march with a rally in Central Park.
Some protesters went to the park anyway, yesterday, but most had left without incident by 10 p.m.
While often loud in denouncing President Bush, the protesters were mostly peaceful, a fact acknowledged by Mayor Bloomberg, who said, “United for Peace and Justice has behaved responsibly, as have virtually all the marchers.”
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly also commended the protesters “for keeping their word they pledged that [they] would follow the march route.”
But there were notable exceptions.
Police released an official tally about 240 people arrested for various offenses by 7 p.m.
That brought the total number of arrests since convention protests began late last week to at least 551.
Nine people were busted yesterday for felony assault on police officers who had been trying to arrest a 10th demonstrator for setting afire a papier-maché-and-wood dragon in front of the Garden, cops said.
Officers said several protesters hid smoke bombs and ball bearings inside their picket poles.
Some of those arrested also tossed wooden barriers and threw bottles at cops at 34th Street and Sixth Avenue.
One officer was treated at St. Vincent’s Hospital after being hit above the eye with a projectile, and another suffered third-degree burns to his hand while trying to arrest the person who had set the dragon on fire.
A group of about 30 bicyclists wearing shirts bearing political messages was arrested several blocks away from the parade for blocking traffic.
In Times Square, hours after the march ended, several dozen people, chanting slogans at Republican delegates arriving to see Broadway plays, were arrested for blocking sidewalks.
An NYPD deputy inspector was injured.
With Larry Celona, Murray Weiss, Justin Terranova, Roosevelt Joseph, Alex Ginsberg, Matt Sweeney, Heather Gilmore, Erin Calabrese, Tatiana Deligiannakis, Joe McGurk, John Doyle, Ed Robinson and Stephanie Gaskell
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Arrest Count: 511