this afternoon march on California St.

Hey San Fransisco;
You all just rock!!!! We here in Canada are seeing your actions down there. Wow, you are just amazing and courageous. These direct action activites are incredibly effective. We are seeing you all on T.V. and the coverage is positive and factual. You are being described as "protesters engaging in civil disobedience." Keep up the great work.
AND please do not be discouraged. Sorry to hear many people have been attacked by the police, hurt and arrested. Unfortuantely it goes with the territory.
Don't give up.
In support and solidarity!!!!

Mainstream media keeps downplaying our protest numbers! Thank you for presenting evidence of our NON-VIOLENT thousands of marchers. It was a proud moment to be involved today.

Be back Ta morrow. I hope somebody made sure the officers got no sleep.

HG

pleace, don't stopp to offer resistance!
i hope thats the right way for peace and the end of the government bush!

a friend from switzerland and switzerland ist with you!

my dream
no bush
no saddam
no war
one world
one love

peace..even if the world to haevy fight!

sorry, my english ist too bad, but i hope you understand it!

It's 3:49 in the morning here in Vancouver Canada and we are incredibly inspired by your courage and wisdom. We love you all in San Fransisco!! Keep up the fight. We all want peace.

Hey peace people,

I just wanted to clarify my comments on KPFA 94.1 FM (KPFK in LA) at some point yesterday when I was arrested. 40 women and I called the station from the holding cell after being arrested. I somehow ended up being the spokeswoman and when asked about police incidents i responded somewhat to the effect that although I myself am not a huge fan of cops, that they were ok at our intersection at BUSH & POWELL. I was cuffed and could only see so far. I could imagine other places where the pigs would have been using violent tactics but did not witness any of it myself and was not going to lie on air. When i met up with fellow women who were arrested they informed me and got on air to describe of the other incidents where people had force used against them. I did not mean to downplay the police brutality that happened today in any way and I am very angry at the stories I heard from other women who were pulled by the hair or the neck or ears by the male officers. Were were in the paddy waggon labelled the "X's" and together sharing stories all day and I will never forget my first experience being arrested in the SF County Jail all day. I have been and will always be against police brutality. RIP Idriss Stelley who was brutally murdered by the SFPD at the Metreon as well as my many other brothers and sisters who have died at the hands of law enforcement. I meant no disrespect to those victims today and in the past.

In peace and solidarity,
Kelly Welsh

I witnessed a number of arrests throughout the day, but the ones that stuck out in my memory almost started a riot. We had a very large group surrounding about 50-76 pigs standing in a circle in the middle of powell & market I think it was. They started arresting two young girls very violently, tossing them around, then pinning them down in the middle of the intersection for all to see. There were something like 6 cops on these two young women, and all 6 cops were kneeling on the girls, two of the cops on the girl's heads. This almost sparked a riot, and I saw fear in the face of those police.

They're gonna learn respect for us, or they're gonna be sorry the next time THEY'RE singled out in a crowd.

Where are the "Saddam, Disarm" signs?

common sense your an idiot. Oh no, were disrupting the poor, rich middle white class people who dont give a damn about those "dark skins" as long as they can drive theyre new SUV's filled with slaughtered Iraqi's. The point is that the media never does nor will it ever cover the 'news.' This country is run exclusively on the bottom line by people like you. Too bad for you this country is also inhabited by a Silenced population that cares about people, not money.

I have yet to see any of you protest against the sanctions that the UN has placed on iraq. These sanctions kill more children every year than this war ever will. This war will end these sanctions, and in turn save people in the long run. Of course most of you are too emotion driven an uninformed to realize that.

Im all for peace, but not at the price of oppression and complacency. I understand that people are upset that they can't function for a day, but in my estimation, this is collateral dammage. If you lived in Iraq today, the collateral dammage could be your loved one or your child. They only start injust wars once in a while. Deal with it.

As for the ambulances, those guys know how to get around a bit of traffic. The firepeople weren't busy except for being used to clear streets like there was a fire. When asked "where's the fire?" they just ignored us. Flying a big flag, and working with the cops. Most people tried to oblige them anyway, but I never saw a single ambulance all day, let alone one being blocked.

My advice if you get stuck in a peace checkpoint, is to turn on KPFA or turn off your radio and just think for a minute, what life might be like if you lived in Iraq right now with your cities in flames and invading armies encroaching.

Why do you think we chant:

No Justice, No Peace! ?

It means yes, we're for peace. But more so, we know that true peace can only be obtained through Justice in the very many forms of injustice that occur in this world.

We will not be silent while our tax dollars are being used for bigger bombs and bigger guns when they already have enough weaponry to blow up the world 50 times over. Yet they are laying off teachers left and right, cutting social programs, and increasing the spending on oppression. Prisons and Cops to enforce their repression of freedom of speech like we saw yesterday.

more of 70% of italian people is against war
we are with you
we are with people of iraq
solidarity for the arrested people
love for san francisco beautiful people against war
paece in iraq, peace in our brains
ciao

Don't worry, I helped make sure the police didn't get much sleep. I was out protesting thursday from morning to 11pm, friday till 10pm, and yesterday till midnight. No sleep for the cops on those shifts. And no donuts either. They were too busy following us around and beating me with their stupid billy clubs. Those things hurt.

"Oh no, were disrupting the poor, rich middle white class people who dont give a damn about those "dark skins" as long as they can drive theyre new SUV's filled with slaughtered Iraqi's."

Hm. When I was a kid, there was a word for people who hate and stereotype others of a certain color. It was called "racism."

"Common Sense" is right. These tactics are counter-productive. They may make you feel important and let you feel self-righteous as you throw your tantrums, but at best they alienate people, some of whom might be converted to your cause by persuasion.

But apparently some of you don't believe persuasion can work. You resort to disruption. Isn't that the same logic used to justify this war? Not diplomacy, but force.

If the disruption caused by war is so bad, why must you go out of your way to make it worse?

I used to oppose this war. For good reasons. It gives government officials pretext to seize power domestically. It is pushing the USA down an imperialist path. But I am leaning toward support of the war now. Partly because of the reports of grateful "pro-war" Iraqis in the South --perhaps something good can come of this after all. But mostly because of the tactics and the apparent character of the kumbayahoos who seem to be leading the anti-war movement.

How could the local behavior of persons holding your former viewpoint affect the reasoning/sight of that former viewpoint when said viewpoint did and does not in any way involve the local behavior of persons uninvolved with the conditions for that viewpoint: if you oppose a war over there by our government on ethical grounds, how does the behavior of anyone uninvolved with said war or government of your original assessment affect that original assessment?

If A is bad and B (irrelevant to A) is bad, A is still bad.

You have a point, in that "If opposing the war is right, it may still be right even if other people claiming to oppose the war act like idiots."

However, my other point is that, as a tactic, the "anti-war" demonstrations are doing little to gain support for the anti-war point of view. They are, in fact, doing the opposite. They are alienating would-be supporters.

Nor can I blame those would-be supporters. Especially when, like me, they can also see some merit in the opposing side, and are partly undecided. When the mass of anti-war protestors appear to be hypocritical, incapable of logical thinking, or ill-informed, it's natural for me to question my own anti-war leanings.

And I must confess, Iraqi grannies hugging the feet of American soldiers ... Iraqi kids waving at American convoys ... stuff like that tends to gnaw at one's certitude that this war is not worth the price. And news reports of the "window smashers for peace" don't help.

Blocking public streets ain't peace. It's pushing people around, and feeling smug about it. It's a feel-good action that is in fact counterproductive.

Write letters to your paper, or your congress-creature. Distribute flyers. Pay for an ad in the paper. Try persuasion instead of force.