Indymedia Reports From A Besieged NYC

Over 200,000 people have marched in New York City against US President George Bush. Indymedia's NYC based news-site reports a huge turnout designed to upset Bush's Republican Convention inside Madison Square Garden.

The contrasts between those inside the Republican Convention and those outside on the streets is stark. The Republican's election message will be about tolerance and reason. Those outside are totally intolerant to the mass killing that has taken place in Iraq under Bush's presidency and in the name of America.

Direct confrontations between protesters and RNC delegates. People are chanting "Go Home." At least 1/3 of the people on the streets in Times Square are protesters.

Between 100-150 people have been arrested in Times Square. There are about 15 legal observers within the pen.

Meanwhile, south of this location at 41st and Broadway, Billionaires For Bush are successfully performing a street theater protest.

The streets around Madison Square Garden were lined with concrete barricades, thigh-high highway dividers with dark metal grilles bolted onto the top. The air was sticky, polluted, miasmic, the most uncomfortable summer weather New York had to offer. Half the street was blocked by barricades, forming an alley guarded by police.

"Well, if Mayor Bloomberg wants to bring George Bush into a city where three-fourths of the people can't stand him, they've got to put him in a fortress. The normal upscale cocoon of midtown Manhattan isn't enough."

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