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3,000 Vets, War Protesters Hand-Deliver Their Message
By Patti Thorn
28/08/08 "Rocky
Mountain News" - - "Follow Us. Welcome to
Denver," read the electronic sign on the police vehicle.
And with that conciliatory gesture, an unpermitted march for
peace was allowed to proceed Wednesday afternoon through
downtown Denver streets - peacefully. It was easily the largest
demonstration in a week filled with them.
See video of the march
here and
here.
At least 3,000 Iraq war veterans
and war protesters marched from the Denver Coliseum to the Pepsi
Center perimeter. The veterans' ultimate goal was to deliver a
statement to presidential candidate Barack Obama, urging him to
promote the immediate withdrawal of "all occupying forces" from
Iraq, among other points.
After about an hourlong standoff
with police at the end of the march, contact was made with an
Obama aide. Mission accomplished.
Co-sponsored by the anti-war
group Tent State University and the Iraq Veterans Against the
War, the march began around 3:15 p.m. outside the coliseum after
9,800 people attended a free concert featuring the heavy
metal/rap band Rage Against the Machine and three other acts.
During the four-hour show,
audience members were urged to join the demonstration. Band
members and others stressed the need for the march to remain
peaceful.
At one point, rapper Jonny 5 of
Denver's Flobots referred to conservative radio commentator Rush
Limbaugh, who has been widely quoted as saying it would be his
"dream" for riots to break out in Denver during the convention.
The musician told the crowd the worst thing they could do was
make that dream come true.
While some feared police would
attempt to stop the march, officers surprised the group by
escorting the protesters through city streets, redirecting
traffic and pedestrians along the way.
"Under the totality of all the
circumstances, it was handled in a manner that best addressed
the public safety at the time," said Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman
for the Joint Information Center, a clearinghouse for convention
security information.
The group of mostly young people
walked behind a banner that said: "Support GI Resistance."
Wearing T-shirts and stickers
with slogans such as "Arrest Bush" and "Make Out Not War," they
sang rolling chants, Marine- style. "Tell Me What We're Marching
For," sang one group. "Stop the torture, stop the war," answered
another.
People lined the streets to
watch, most approvingly.
As the marchers wound their way
through the neighborhoods west of the coliseum, they found
solidarity with a group of Latinos holding up an anti-war sign
and cheering them on. "Si, se puede!" shouted some young
marchers. "Yes, we can!"
But not all were supportive.
From the balcony of an apartment complex, a man yelled at the
throngs to move on. "Don't come back here," he said.
As the march wore on under a hot
sun, some dropped out. Others found ways to take shortcuts. Two
teens on the 16th Street Mall shuttle wearing Rage Against the
Machine T-shirts admitted they had skipped part of the march and
planned to join it as it neared the end.
One foot clad in a black shoe,
the other barefoot, James Koller, 17, explained: "Someone
clocked me in the face and took my shoe in the mosh pit. This is
a quicker route to the Pepsi Center."
Koller's friend, Joey Minicucci,
18, of Littleton, noted that his brother was in the military and
would soon be sent to Iraq. That was one of the reasons he was
going to the march.
Anne Hill, of Montrose, had
other reasons. "I'm marching because it seems to be the last
vestiges of our free speech and because people have demands and
our government's not listening," she said.
The march came to a standstill
at the perimeter of the Pepsi Center around 6:30 p.m., at which
time the veterans attempted to have their statement delivered to
Obama. Tension with police seemed to escalate, until several
veterans stepped forward and saluted police.
"We are your brothers and
sisters in arms," said one. "We don't want to hurt you. We don't
want you to hurt us."
With that, the standoff melted
away and soon an appropriate aide was contacted.
"I figured as long as we kept
things peaceful, they would hear us, and they did," said Army
veteran Jeffrey Wood.
Staff writers Allison Bruce,
Daniel J. Chacon, Abigail Curtis, Jeff Kass, Dan Kelley, Sue
Lindsay, Steve Myers and Judi Villa contributed to this report.
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