Letters from NYC

RNC Arrests at 1,596

Yesterday, the stats of convention related madness went through the roof. Yesterday alone: close to 1,000 arrests were made, 16 police officers were hospitalized or treated for injuries, 23 civilians were attacked by protestors (some of them RNC delegates) and were treated at nearby hospitals. There’s more, but at this point I’m just sick of reporting it and I’ll let you read it and see pictures from the NY Daily News, NY Newsday (see photos), and NY Times. Please keep in mind that these papers are very liberal and are minimizing the true effects of what’s going on.

In the late afternoon, as I went around the corner for a latte, I accidentally got caught in the middle of a protest where activists surrounded an RNC delegation bus. I stood there speechless watching for a brief few seconds as they banged, threw things and rocked the bus from side to side. Fed up and angry as hell at their terror tactics I wanted to run up to the bus, peel each one off and give them a good whooping. Instead, I ran back into my building headed straight for our security command center in the lobby, and informed our Security Director of what was going on.

Police arrived within 2 minutes of my informing him. After an intense, but well coordinated, effort, police arrested those they could and gave the delegation an escort into their hotel. By the time the police arrived, every available member of our security team (over 20) was in the lobby and ready to detain anyone coming in who was not an employee. The plan, according to our security staff, to help the police by making citizens arrest for trespassing. I looked across the street, the same was the case for other buildings, their security personnel was outside guarding their perimeter. My lasting impression of this incident, this is the kind of thing I would expect in the middle east, not in Manhattan. More about these tactics and domestic terrorism in my next post.

As if life were not stressful enough, our President will be within a half mile of my apartment building tonight. He's scheduled to pay a surprise visit to a local firehouse while he's in the area. Our local firehouse (which is 250 ft away from my bedroom) lost 2 firefighters on 9/11, one of them was my best friend, Larry. This firehouse is the closest one to the function he's attending and it's an easy place to secure, so it would make a logical choice to visit. But with all due respect, I've had enough security checks for this year and I really need a break.

It's been so stressful, the first thing I did this morning was schedule next week as vacation week for me. I’m headed for the hills or the beach and hopefully not coming back (well, at least not till my vacation is over).

To my dear fellow bloggers in Florida, Tammi and Boudicca, I will be praying you stay dry and safe!

Posted by Michele at September 1, 2004 09:08 AM