No Kings

On my way to the very early marshal meet up I ran into my neighbor, a cab driver, who asked me where I was going. I told him about the No Kings protest not knowing what kind of response I might get, but he was happy to hear about it. "A cop stopped me while I was working," he told me. "He was young enough to be my son. He asked me if I had a green card. I told him, 'I have been a citizen since before you were born.'" He then went on to tell me that his son, who is studying mechanical engineering at a private college, has not received his federal financial aid for this semester. "The fee is $70,000 a year," he said. "I make $150 a day. How could I pay that?" We chatted for a few more minutes, and then he left me with the words, "Trump has pushed the hating between people. It should not be like that." When I got to the meet up point, several hundred people in neon green vests were milling around a public plaza, getting organized into teams for all of the intersections and the back, of which there were two because 7th ave and Broadway split at Times Square and we knew we would have people backed up on each, although we didn't imagine both would wind up as far back as 50th St. As we got our teams together, we created signal groups, although one woman declined to join, explaining that they hadn't needed signal chats in the 60s! As the streets ahead of us rapidly filled up, we kept falling back up Broadway. At 48th St we encountered a conundrum - the crowd was getting closer and closer to the intersection, but traffic was still driving through, creating an unsafe situation. The lone traffic cop seemed clueless, so I approached him and pointed out that once the crowd spilled into the intersction, the traffic would be trapped. "They need to shut it down at 8th ave," he told me, preparing to do nothing. I gestured to the radio in his hand "can you let them know that?" This appeared to be a novel idea, and he got on the radio. In the meantime, BC and I started telling people to head over to 7th Ave to reduce the numbers of people in harm's way. Eventually, BC and I wound up at the very back of the march on 50th St., and suddenly a lot of high speed skateboarders and other high speed wheeled devices came flying down the bike lane right at us. We started directing them to turn instead of plowing into the march, but they just kept coming. Mostly men, young ones with cameras in hand filming themselves, and older ones with rips in their pants, and the occasional woman or girl. Eventually a couple of organizers showed up and we found out that it is an annual event, a competition, and that the fast ones in the front were world-class skateboarders competing for a prize. Next to me, BC's parental mode kicked into gear and she was practically wincing at every turn cut close and every daredevil maneuver. "Slow down and wash your face!" she said to me jokingly. Eventually the back started inching forward and then we had the usual back marshal problems - people with walkers and wheelchairs and canes and strollers and small children having trouble keeping up, people with no situational awareness stopping dead still to take selfies, people selling flags and buttons from carts stopping to conduct business, and people joining the march from every possible direction who had to be herded in front of the back marshals. We also had a family with several kids walking and a stroller, parents and maybe a grandparent, who somehow acquired an entire pizza and were trying to dole it out and eat it, which made them fall behind. I know kids have to eat, but bananas or yogurt would have been much easier. For a while we just had a police van behind us, which was fine, but then a line of all black, non-uniformed officers formed behind us. I have no idea why these specific officers were assigned this duty, but they started pressuring people to keep up or get on the sidewalk, which was fine for people making videos and what not, but was problematic when it came to disabled people. One woman in particular, who was making her way at her fastest possible speed, was resisting their efforts. I grabbed a legal observer and pointed out the issue to him, in case it escalated, but in the end they let her stay in the march. (note: at the marshal debrief I found out these were private security hired by one of the national orgs). The issue of including less mobile people in these marches bothers me every time we have one. I was once a non-walking marcher in the Queer Liberation March, jolting along in a wheelchair over the uneven NYC streets. The next year I rode in the vehicle for people with disabilites which was even worse. Completely enclosed, there was no way to interact with the march. We might as well have been an unrelated bus trapped in the march. I would really like to see people with mobility issues at the front of the march where they could set the pace rather than falling to the very back. I also think an open vehicle that people could ride along in - for some reason what comes to mind is a hay ride - would be useful. The march stepped off at 11am, and finally, after 3pm, those of us at the back arrived at 14th st where Alexis, dressed in overalls and a frog hat, was singing "this is the end of the march," into her megaphone. I used the last of my voice to tell people to get on the sidewalk before the streets opened back up to traffic, and then hauled my tired legs over to Union Square to get on the R. By the time I got home, estimates were coming in - 100,000+ from the NYPD and 350,000 from MSNBC, with the real number undoubtedly in the middle. The NYPD reported no arrests, making it clear that the republican characterization of us as violent terrorists is wildly inaccurate. As an activist, I prefer civil disobedience as a tactic, but I think these huge marches serve two purposes - they show the powers that be how widespread the opposition is, and they give our people a chance to see that they are not alone, and to gain the hope that is necessary for continued resistance of various forms.