hudebnik | Political protest

shalmestere and I both have colds, but as usual it's hitting her harder than me, so she opted out of going to yesterday's "No Kings" protest; I had only a scratchy throat, so I decided to go stag. I've done two or three protest marches in Manhattan, and they always involve standing in one place for at least two hours before you can start shuffling slowly along the march route. You can talk to the people near you, but if there are speeches, you won't hear any of them or see the speakers. And by the time it's over, your back is sore, your legs are sore, you're dehydrated, and you're physically a wreck for the rest of the day if not the next day. So with all this in mind, I decided to go to the one two miles away in a small park in Forest Hills rather than the one on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

I ran into the first other protesters on the platform of the train station near my house (where I would normally commute to work); we touched antennae briefly, compared signs, all got on the train for one stop, then walked the two blocks to the park where things were scheduled to happen. On the walk, one of the other protesters I was talking to asked whether I had ever worked at Google, and I replied "yes, I still do." He had worked at Google NYC for fifteen years or so, retiring a week before COVID shut everything down, and for some reason recognized me from there. So we chatted a bit about the union, how working at Google has changed, etc.

Got to the park, where there were what looked like about 500 people ranging from age ~5 to 90-something, and somebody leading chants through a bullhorn. After a few minutes of that, there were a couple of brief speeches, including one by the Lieutenant Governor, Antonio Delgado. He's a good speaker; I told him he should consider going into politics. The lady with the bullhorn reminded us that this is a non-violent protest: if we encounter any counter-protesters, we will de-escalate and not take the bait.

And then the rally turned into a march, a bit over a mile from the park to Queens Borough Hall. The police had closed off the local lanes of Queens Boulevard eastbound, and marchers filled that two-lane street for five blocks (which I think means more like 1000-2000 people). As we marched, a number of drivers on the inner lanes honked and waved in support, while other spectators on the sidewalk held up signs of their own and cheered us on.

On the front steps of Queens Borough Hall they had set up microphones and loudspeakers, so I could actually hear what the various speakers and musical groups had to say, of which the consistent call-and-response was "Queens says / No Kings!". Heard from our Congresswoman, our State Assembly member, the State Assembly member from the next district to the west, a retired doctor talking about a friend of hers who used to practice here but moved to Canada because her husband was threatened with deportation, a pastor who pointed out that Donald Trump actually comes from Queens but still doesn't get it, etc. Several speakers quoted the Republican talking-point that this is a "Hate America rally", saying "no we don't, we're here because we love America and don't want to see its experiment with democracy ended." A voice-and-guitar duo took the stage and said "we're gonna take a vote. Would you like a song based on 'We Shall Overcome', or one based on the 'Hunger Games' theme?" Two thirty-somethings standing near me said "What's 'We Shall Overcome'?", and I said "Classic of the civil rights struggle, fifties and sixties." "We Shall Overcome" won the vote, and those of us old enough to know it got to sing along. After another politician or two, a different musical group took the stage: the "Revolution Resistance Choir", which I gather counts about sixty women-and-NB members, but only about eight of them were at the rally. Anyway, they did a couple of protest songs too, some of which I knew ("Woke up this morning with my mind / Set on freedom"), and the rest of which were sufficiently repetitive and formulaic that one could pick up at least the chorus and sing along. The group is quite good.

I chatted with a guy in an inflatable chicken suit, and saw a couple of inflatable frogs and Tyrannosauri. Most people were not costumed, just waving signs and American flags and sporting appropriate T-shirts. There were plenty of police, as well as volunteer marshals, lining the march route and separating the protesters from car traffic and any potential counter-protesters -- of which I didn't see or hear any at all. Things wound down, and I was home in fifteen minutes.

The NYPD, after the fact, reports at least 100,000 protesters in various locations in the five boroughs, and no arrests. Which is obviously evidence that the NYPD is incapable of maintaining peace on the streets, and desperately needs the help of the National Guard if not the regular Army.