All for one, and one for A-31

Hey folks,

So here it was, the big day! I took the morning off and ate breakfast (yay, I’m getting sick of Clif bars) with my lovely host Jenna and pal Cathy. Then, a nap, because my 10am meeting got rescheduled to 3pm, thank the sweet meeting dieties. After tending to bizarrely-placed blisters and laundering our rancid clothes, off to the streets. I’ve fully succumbed to my coffee addiction, as well.

Off to the park, off to an apartment, eating at a wonderful deli with a nice man who not only was 20 years vegetarian, but let us use the “employees only” bathroom, receiving roles, and off to go shopping at the Mall. “WTF?” you say? Yep, a mall near 34th and Broadway, from which to see the cops clearing streets and pushing shoppers around. We caught the news coverage at 5pm, and I was actually pretty impressed, even with the mainstream news.

Our small group missed the big event. 40 people got to the middle of an intersection and sat down, blocking 33rd and 5th. Hell YEAH! It’s pretty inspiring. We were meanwhile amongst lots of confused shoppers/commuters, some fellow protesters, some freaked out RNC delegates, and lots of aggro cops. They shoved some grandmas and parents on their way to chase freaked out, yet pretty obviously unaffiliated people trying to flee the scene.

The coolest thing was that even though it was apparent the NYPD had word of our plan A, they didn’t get our plan B...and *we* did.

Anyway, after finding everyone left over from the first round, we met with more folks outside the hot zone and made our way to Union Square. Things were chill there, and it was a great study in plainclothes observation. There were, at varying points, 1 plainclothes to every 3 legit protesters. Because my pals and I kept pointing them our loudly (and singing them little songs at points), they had three shift changes in our area, very funny to watch. Then the area heated up, as some riot cops snagged a person trying to go into the subway. I heared (but didn’t see) that it was one of these nasty neck-lasso thingies. So everyone int he park rushes over and starts trying to get them to back off. We pulled back and watched, the riot cops, a squad of mounted police, and a weird SUV-thingy with an automated satellite dish. We cruised around and noticed the amazingness of our comrades inside as they started a lively chant circle to draw the attention away from the hot zones. This succeeded in de-escalating, and a platoon of riot cops who had surrounded the crowd disappeared. Poof! The undercover stayed with as well.

Anyhow, it was chill, and Midnight, so we walked home and are now attempting to go to bed.

Jenna says “OK Max, time to make a sign. Fuck your blog!” Here I am, quoting her.
Yay radical librarians.