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Los Angeles Protest March, on the 1st anniversary of Gulf War 2, March 20, 2004 (well, really, the finish of a 13-year long war). The protest flyers said Noon, at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. In brief, it was the full panoply of the Coalition of the Losers. Every (and I mean EVERY) group of the disenchanted was represented. The marchers were stacked at Hollywood and Vine, in the block to the East. My estimate is ~10,000-12,000. Commenced marching Westward at 1pm-ish. Only took 22 mins for them all to move past the start point. Once the head of the march column “moved on”, the sidewalks were 80-90% empty. I'd say that (above the usual Hollweird Blvd crowd on a beautiful spring day) there were no more than 2000-3000 [revised downward] onlookers. There were no more than 175 pro-Bush counter-demonstrators at the final turn on the route, going spittle for spittle with the worst of the Protester scum. And I have to quickly comment that International ANSWER Communists had their propaganda action highly organized.
Pic 002 is looking West on Hollywood, about 1130, towards the staging area.
Pic 004 is looking SW towards the back side of the closed-off staging block, about 1140. Still pretty empty.
Pic 012 - I'd parked some ways away from the mess, no need to have my mil-stickered SUV vandalized by a throng of nuts. Walking up Vine St, saw this sign, liked the irony.
Pic 015 - Not a stone's throw away from the staging area for the “Anti-War” (Hate America) march, Chuck's Walk of Fame star. He's not even dead yet, and you can still hear him spinning in his grave over today.
Following are several pictures of the intersection of Hollywood and vine, the staging area was the block of Hollywood immediately to the East.
Pic 021 - Prior to kickoff, the Protesters had ringed this intersection, crowd about 3-5 people deep. Cameramen in the middle, kneeling, getting “impression” shots of surrounding “masses”.
Pic 022 - A shot East on the sidewalk, front of protest mass is immediately to the left.
Kickoff was shortly after 1 pm, led by International ANSWER (Commie Bastards). For the next 40 pics, I stayed at the starting point, roughly across from the Pantages theatre.
Pic 032 was a lovely pieve of dreck - “Bombs dropped on Iraq fell on Madrid”.
Pic 036 - The Pink Tank Brigade, sans tanks
Pic 037 - The Socialists, with “Capitalism will always mean War”.
Pic 039 shows the backside of this, with a tight cluster of black-hooded “Anarchists”, with cardboard sign reading “Support your Local Anarchist”. LOL
Pic 041 - “Worst President Ever”, and no Simpson's Comic Book Guy puppet to go with it. Sadasses.
Pic 042 - Peace and Freedom Party.
Pic 043 - A bit of NION's banner, and a shot of the sparsely-populated sidewalk. Remember, this is at the starting point of the march.
Pic 044 - Reverse shot of near-empty sidewalk.
Pic 047 - Topanga Peace Alliance (I can tell without even looking them up). Topanga Canyon is the “Poor Man's” Malibu Canyon - a two-lane road from the inland valleys to L.A.'s northern beaches. Lots of old hippies, animal refuges, Tom Green and Drew Barrymore's house there burned down a couple years (?) ago. Fruits and Nuts. And a huge fire every ~10 years.
Pic 048 - Looking West, up the march route. Again note the lack of a spectator crowd.
Pic 049 - “New World Odor”. Yeah. No shit.
Pic 050 - The “busriders union”. What the hell is a “busRIDERS Union”?
Pic 052 - Kucinich supporters! Near as I could tell, the pair holding the banner WAS ALL OF THEM.
Pic 053 - About two-thirds gone by, getting sparse.
Pic 054 - A banner denouncing Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. They had nice masks.
Pic 055 - In sequins (yes, SEQUINS), a screed about Haiti and “Christian Empire”. Must have been the voodoo/Santeria contingent.
Pic 057 - A block of Immigracion = Citizenship folks, several flags of Mexico, and what appeared to be the entire Winter cast of tourista entertainment dancers from Cancun.
Pic 058 - “No A la Guerra”.
Pic 060 - The Green Party. All 20 of them.
Pics 062, 063, 064 had some ANSWER “organizers” trailing the freak show with a rope. ?? Considering their communist founders, I immediately thought of the Soviets “security battalions” - the troops that followed behind the cannon-fodder, shooting the laggards.
Pic 065 - Immediately after the minders passed; a shot East to where things began. Even withOUT the people, still a lot of trash there.
After the end of the “parade” passed (which took 22 mins by my watch), I started moving West up the march route, overtaking the marchers. It was easy, as you can see in the following shots, since the sidewalk was not crowded at all.
Pic 069 was entertaining, but eavesdropping on his conversation, he apparently DIDN'T mean it as a rebuttal of “War for Oil”.
Pic 070 - Catching up with the Anarchists again, saw this charming sign: “My other sign is an AK47”. Oooh. PHEER THE REVOLUCION.
Pic 072 - Pali flags on the horizon, and what do I see before me? Two heads desperately begging for a Stooges-like clonking together.
Pics 073 & 074 - More Pali supporters.
Also along the way, I came across a grizzled old man - think the sterno dude from Andromeda Strain - on the sidewalk, holding a sign: -----------
Pics 075 & 076 - At this point, we reached Highland and the turning point of the march. Correction. They turned - wait for it ..... Left.
Not only did they turn Left, they turned away from the Gap. Just dripping with symbolism.
Pic 077 - Dead Che. 'Course I was aiming for a shot of keffiyeh-wearers, they saw the camera aimed their way and Revolted.
Pic 079 - “Anti-Capitalism Contingent”. Geek to the right of banner is wearing a gasmask.
The NE corner of Hollywood and Highland was the Land of the Free(pers). I solidly joined them in solid solidarity /LLLoony Idealogue Almost all the rest of the pics were taken in this area, or from the street in front of the Gap. The guy in 80 was my Hero for the day. Sort of a riff on the Cox & Forkum Super UncleSam - guy had on a padded superman suit, had a megaphone, big sign. Tattered battleflag cape (wasn't thrilled about that, dragging on the ground and all). The Pali contingent, most of the socialist/anarchist crowd went nuts when they saw the counter-demonstrators all waving U.S. flags. Screaming “Fascists!” at them/us. Super-Sam gave 'em back, “Fascists are SOCIALISTS. Hitler was a SOCIALIST.” They didn't like that very much.
Screwed up a bit of numbering here. 80-overwatch - LAPD spotter/sniper(?) team on the Gap's roof.
81 with LAPD helicopter which was circling the march the entire time.
Pic 082 - King George puppet head!
Keep your eye on Mr. Keffiyeh in that pic, you'll be seeing him later.
Pic 083 - The only Magen David I saw today.
Pic 084 - “Real Men ♥ Bush”. Yes, yes they do.
Pic 085b - Keep your eyes on the Wanted Posters for this Henry Rollins Jr. This guy was moving in circles in front of the Counter-folks, with a very disturbingly evil look and some epithets. I'm a strapping former Marine, and this nut made MY hackles rise. Immediately wanted to “preempt” his ass.
Pic 086 - Getting Loud. Freepers vs. Palis.
Pic 091 - Stanley Kubrick from Beyond the Grave. “Buck Fush”. Such nuance.
Pics 097 & 97b - Of particular interest. This particular individual along with a cluster of “Vets Against Bush” was going nose to nose with Super-Sam. Railing about war dead, economic talking points (which we've debunked here often enough). This guy went off the rails at Super-Sam's prodding, whipped out what appears to be a valid/current US military ID card - coincidentally enough, a neighbor's nephew just knocked on the door yesterday, fresh out of Navy “bootcamp”, and showed me his - I had no idea what the current version looked like. It's got an e-chip on it. Pretty neat. Anyway, Mr. Anti-Whatever, was yelling “F*ck you!”, flipping off the Freeps, waving his ID card around. And IIRC, the cowardly bastard has carefully placed his finger over his NAME. Chickenshit.
Pic 105 – OK, remember Mr Keffiyeh? Well, when ALL the cops in a group are looking in ONE direction, something is “up”.
Pic 106 isn’t him. Another dhimmi.
Pic 107 - Apparently there was some form of physical contact between Mr Keffiyeh and a Freeper. He's getting restrained and cuffed. Cops descended like a pack of White Corpuscles. LAPD must have been practicing some form of “Catch and Release” that day, because I did not see him get led away.
Pic 109 - I think this was supposed to be some sort of Dead Tree of Liberty, or something. Maybe it needs more Blood.
Pic 110 - In a nice move, the Freepers “batted cleanup”, falling in behind the Protest marchers. Sort of a palate cleanser.
Pics 111 & 112 - Me walking East immediately after the tail of the column passed. Street empty like NOTHING happened.
The march continued southward on Highland, and according to the Politburo's flyers, was going to circle a block. Don’t know what happened at the end. Cap it all off - after coming down here to document this foolishness, breathing their stink, walking a few miles, parking my marine-stickered SUV away from potential damage, I get back to my vehicle and find a PARKING TICKET - how’s THAT for a jizzyah? Goddamned societal failures and leeches parade without a care in the World, and I’m STILL PAYING TAXES FOR THEM. And that was what I saw in Los Angeles, mid-day, March 20th 2004. rayra |
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