Posted on 11/03/2005 9:19:28 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO — About 2,000 people rallied and marched Wednesday to urge President Bush's ouster from office. Organizers insisted this "The World Can't Wait: Drive Out the Bush Regime" event was only the beginning of a national, ongoing movement that won't rest until the president leaves office. Similar rallies occurred in cities across the nation Wednesday, the anniversary of Bush's re-election.
Though the majority of San Francisco protesters were peaceful, there were a few incidents.
Someone threw a crude firebomb against a wall of the San Francisco Chronicle building at Fifth and Mission streets, causing no damage or injuries but burning the shoulder of a police officer's jacket. And a few protesters staged a sit-in blocking a downtown intersection toward the day's end.
San Francisco police Sgt. Neville Gittens reported 13 arrests, all on or near Eighth and Market streets: 11 for blocking traffic and two for possession of "Molotov cocktail"-type firebombs.
Speakers at the noon Civic Center Plaza rally included "peace mom" Cindy Sheehan of Berkeley, whose August vigil outside the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch made international headlines.
Suspended from a pink ribbon around her neck Wednesday was a photo of her son, Casey, a soldier killed in Baghdad in April 2004.
"He's damaged the world, he's damaged our country, he's damaged my family," Sheehan said of Bush. "He's trying to steal our humanity, and we can't let him, we must resist that."
State Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, also addressed the rally, calling Bush "a heartless, corrupt, inconsistent, uncaring, disastrous president."
Citing the mounting death toll in Iraq, erosion of American civil liberties, the botched response to Hurricane Katrina and other calamities, she said "we couldn't have made this up, this is beyond imagination.
We're going to take back our lives and our futures." Organizers had urged college and high school students to walk out of classes to attend Wednesday's events, and the crowd included many youths.
Marchers left Civic Center via Polk Street to 10th Street, turned left on Mission Street, left again on Third Street, and left again on Market Street to return to the Civic Center for a closing rally.
Oakland High School senior Jesse Green, 16, took the stage to read an anti-Bush poem he'd written. Afterward, he claimed school officials had taken Draconian measures — putting up barbed wire, greasing the campus fences to prevent climbing, locking gates and adding extra security guards — to keep students from walking out.
"There were supposed to be more of us, a hundred, coming out," he said. "A few of us made it, about 14."
But no such measures were visible at the school later Wednesday. Principal Clement Mok said administrators "don't discourage them (students) from attending political stuff, we just require them to have parental consent to leave campus for any reason" — a legal requirement.
Mok said although no students offered parental consent Wednesday, up to 50 hopped fences or found other ways off campus. "If a student is going to force their way out, we're not going to physically restrain them."
I guess there weren't enough cameras present for Cindy to engage in civil disobedience...
"Go over to the jailhouse and bring me the bullwhip"
San Fran...and they only get 2,000...wow, that's pretty abysmal numbers considering the location.
there are 2k homeless within a 5 block radius in some parts of SF
Why do they need a special rally for that in a place like San Fran?
I must be confused. I thought she was going to have herself tied to the fence in front of the White House. Did she get untied?
I thought the same thing! 2K in San Fran is just a fraction of the turnout in the Castro District on any given Sat night!
You. Lost. Get used to it.
"event was only the beginning of a national, ongoing movement that won't rest until the president leaves office."
They will rant and rave and then claim victory in '09.
These people encouraged these kids to cut school, totally unbeliviable.
The author describes this violent, terroristic act as if it were no big deal.
Someone threw a firebomb at a cop and could have killed them. That's attempted murder.
~SNORRFLE!~ Grumpy, I was hoping that was an electric fence!
"Organizers insisted this "The World Can't Wait: Drive Out the Bush Regime" event was only the beginning of a national, ongoing movement that won't rest until the president leaves office."
Great, more of this crap until Jan. 2009.
I may already know the answer to this, but who is bankrolling Cindy's various travels in this fine country of OURS?
BTW, it has dawned on me that Cindy Sheehan's initials fit perfectly with a barnyard fowl and the end result of it's eating food.
"He's trying to steal our humanity?" How in hell is the president doing that?
God, this woman is such a putz.
Cindy flys from coast to coast hunting cameras. She can't get a headline to maintain the cost of her attempts at news. Her funds should dry up soon.
And you won't find a single mention of the fact that these international peace groups who sponsor the protests were named in the Volker report as being on Saddam's pay role in the oil for food scandal.
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