Police Misuse of Protest Pens Causes Scuffle at "March for Our Lives"

Alex Vitale, nyc-justice

Today's March For Our Lives demonstration started as a model of flexible
policing. After having denied a permit for the group to march, the police
agreed to a march just before the 4 PM rally. The march took up two lanes of
traffic and went south on Second Ave from 47th St. to 23rd St and then west on
23rd to 8th Ave, where it proceeded north.During the march their was a heavy police presence on motor scooters, bicycles
and foot, with numerous vans in back and two arrest wagons in front. There
were also some arrests and searches of bags along the route increasing the
tension. Neither the police, nor the demonstrators, however, attempted to stop
or divert the march. The mood was generally relaxed with chants music, and
cheers from the radical cheerleaders.

As the march moved north on 8th Ave. some people attempted to leave the march
route to go home. They were prevented from doing so. No one was allowed to
move south or across any side street, People were also prevented from joining
the march. This is a common technique used by the police to "lockdown" a
demonstration. It is designed to prevent break away marches, but in the
process denies individuals the freedom to leave the demonstration area. This
penning in of the demonstrators is a direct violation of a recent federal
court injunction requiring that people not be penned in at demonstrations to
the degree that they can neither enter nor leave the penned area.

The march continued north the 30th St. and the pen between there and 29th St.
began to fill in. When it was about 80% full the police attempted to pull a
line of barricades across the southern part of 29th St. from west to east to
divide the crowd in two for the purposes of establishing two separate protest
pens, leaving the intersection open to crosstown traffic, despite the fact
that 29th St, was closed to unauthorized vehicular traffic. People in the
intersection did not want to be forced into separate pens. As the police began
to force the interlocked barricades across the street demonstrators stood in
their way and at time pushed back against the barricades. At no time were any
verbal instruction or notices given to the crowd about what was happening or
why. Given events the night before in Times Square, it's possible that some
demonstrators may have thought they were being arrested and were trying to get
away from the area being barricaded.

After an initial brief scuffle the police managed to get the barricade a
little over half way across the street and then stopped and radioed for help.
They then tried again to push the barricade through the crowd. By this point
many demonstrators had linked arms to block the progress of the barriers. As
this was happening 12-24 police in riot gear stormed the crowd from the north
with a two handed baton charge knocking down numerous demonstrators. Seconds
later about a dozen unmarked police scooters charged the crowd from the south
running into many of the people still on the ground. Police officers and
horses then cleared the intersection forcing demonstrators east on 29th St.
Eventually people were allowed to disperse and only a few arrests were made.

This event highlights the misuse of protest pens by the police. These barriers
have been an ongoing source of tension between demonstrators and police and
deny people of their basic right to freely assemble. The NYCLU
report "Arresting Protest" highlighted the misuse of pens at the Feb. 15, 2003
anti-war rally, and it is clear that this practice has continued despite a
court order to the contrary. As long as the police continue to aggressively
divide legal demonstrations in this way, they will have incidents of
confrontation. The job of the police should be to protect demonstrators and
the public and not to escalate confrontations through pointless micro
management of protests.