Saturday, October 10, 2015 WXPort
 Hot TixBand GuideMP3 StudioBest Music PollSummer GuideThe Best
 DNC Daily Updates   l   DNC Guide   l   DNC Events Listings
Stuff at Night
The Providence Phoenix
The Portland Phoenix
FNX Radio Network
 
   
  E-Mail This Article to a Friend

" Bombs are dropping, stop your fucking shopping! "
Scenes from the street
BY CAMILLE DODERO

MONDAY, JULY 26, 2004 — The "End Police Brutality, Prison Abuse, and the PATRIOT Act" march came barreling down Boylston Street a little after 1:30 p.m., towing a motorcycle fleet of policemen. Since this was the first anarchist-affiliated demonstration held during the DNC, the cops had come out to the greet the anarchists in full force. Technically, the Bl(A)ck Tea Society — the anti-authoritarian group that’s organized resistance against the DNC — held the permit for the demonstration, but a coalition of activist groups (the Green-Rainbow Party, Homes not Jails, Anarchist Black Cross Boston, and the Mystic River Green-Rainbow Action) were actually sponsoring the march. And the cops had come to greet them all.

Led by a banner declaring, (A)NARCHY IS FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT IS SLAVERY, the crowd of about 250 headed from Copley Square toward the FleetCenter. They intoned, "Whose streets? Our streets!" They chanted, "Bush and Kerry are the same, only difference is the name!" They raised their fists, wore bandannas over their faces, even smoked cigarettes through their bandannas. At one point, a blonde fella with a Superman shirt got surrounded by policemen; the crowd swarmed around him and yelled, "Let him go!" The cops did, the local television cameras attacked, and the other protestors shouted at the news anchors, "Scavengers! Media parasites!"

And as the marching protestors turned corners along the parade route, cops of all shapes and sizes awaited. There were cops on motorcycles and cops on bicycles. There were cops on horses, cops on foot, cops with angry barking dogs, cops flying above in buzzing helicopters. But although they were omnipresent — above, in front, and around on all sides — the Boston Police Department did seem unexpectedly restrained. They didn’t lunge when the crowd yelled, "Fuck police from Boston to the Middle East." They didn’t even sneer.

As the march rambled through Downtown Boston, the crowd tailored their chants to spectators. In Downtown Crossing, while people with bags in their hands leered from the sidewalks, the marchers shouted, "The bombs are dropping, stop your fucking shopping!" When they passed State Policemen clad in all-black riot gear, they screamed, "Take off your stupid gear, there is no riot here!" When they passed policemen on horseback, they bid, "Get those animals off those horses."

About halfway through the march, a group of young Republicans carrying huge fluorescent-colored flip-flops started trailing the anti-corporate marchers. Their point was to show how Kerry "flip flopped" on the issues. Sure, the two groups may be united in their distaste for Kerry, but what’re they doing with the Greens and the anti-capitalists? "We’re mingling, making friends," said a college Republican hugging a giant fluorescent-green flip-flop. "Even if they are anarchists, everyone seems pretty nice."

In a departure from protests at the 2000 conventions, there were no arrests.


Issue Date: July 26, 2004
Back to the DNC '04 table of contents
  E-Mail This Article to a Friend
 









about the phoenix |  advertising info |  Webmaster |  work for us
Copyright © 2005 Phoenix Media/Communications Group