July 17, 2004
I <3 n00 y0hk (again)
Okay, I performed from a thorough cleaning of my car. As annoying as it was, it was some much needed quality time with myself- holding a mantra for the many hours of scrubbing nasty chemicalness of the caked on grime that has become an unfortunate reflection of my life :/. There was a bit a futility in trying to wipe off the embedded playa dust of Black Rock City, but ke sera sera. It was a good session of "Carma" yoga. Harr de harr.
Anyway, I spent the remainder after visiting my sister in Manhattan attending HOPE, and seeing perrenial but not forgotten friends. As usual, I fell in love with the flow, grime, and women of the city and did not want to come back.
While there, I was approached with offers of a place to stay many times should I choose to come back to New York later in the summer to protest the Republican National Convention. Alongside the mainstream red-shirted democrat canvasers that were seemingly on every block of midtown manhattan (and I guess in every other major metro area as well), the vibe of the streets seemed amazingly pitched politically: even the crackheads, schizos, and generally crazy hardcore lunatics got in on the action - causing the NY daily news to run the following cover:
NPR as well ran an extended segment on the upcoming plans, and a spot on the Hacker Con, which ironically was held at the same hotel in which several weeks later tons of republicans will be staying at.
The challenge of penetrating the convention is a very tempting one just on it's technical merits. The city of new york will be fencing off a good chunk of midtown and piling boatloads of security- police, private, and national guard- in the subway system. Madison Square Garden is being turned into a virtual fortress. Protestors have been denied permits anywhere near the area. The planning for the protests are going through myriad of tactics- ranging from the "invisible bloc" - getting up all the demonstrators in polo shirts and khakis for infiltration - to the less pratical but still cute wireless bike spray chalking.
While from a tactical perspective, locking down what is arguably America's busiest neighborhood (with penn station across the street having hundreds of thousands of commuters every day) seems difficult, the security at Madison Square Garden will of course be operating off of the miami model- meaning overwhelming police and military presence anywhere near the convention repleat with meter-by-meter cameras, snipers and rumors of exotic crowd control weapons backed by some $25 million in federal money alone. In a Darth Vaderesque manner, wireless communications within a 5 block radius of GWB will be jammed. Manhattan's gridded streets serve as very easy chokepoints with steel barricades and double and triple rows of police. Countering this is the easy access to underground transit, and the ability to mix in with anonymous crowds of business people and tourists in midtown (which is why it is so easy to shut down Market Street by Union Square in SF).
As per a federal ruling, the main protest/free speech zones have to be within "sight and sound" of the protested event: meaning and embedded pen on 8th and 31st.
Perhaps the best way for infiltration is to take the front door and sign up as a volunteer.
Posted by Da Mystik Homeboy at July 17, 2004 08:34 PM