a city under siege

Letter sent to the New York Times:

To the editor:

I was living in New York when Mayor Bloomberg was elected in the fall of 2001, and returning to the city protest at the Republican National Convention, I only wish I could vote against him again. �I have been welcomed by the mayor's belligerent disdain for peacefully assembled protestors and his warning that the city expects to arrest 1,000 protestors every day. �I am deeply disturbed by the city's aggressive media campaign to depict demonstrators as a threat and to promote their overwhelming, militarized preparation.

It's easy to see why President Bush wants to come to New York - this is the city, after all, that was willing two months after one of its greatest crises to elect a mayor almost solely on the say-so of Rudy Giuliani, whose cool and competence stood in such constrast to President Bush's silence. �Since 2001 many New Yorkers, like many Americans, have learned a great deal about the preciousness of our civil liberties and even our longstanding international alliances. �I only hope that Americans increasingly recognize the exploitation of tragedy as an empty and profoundly corrosive form of politics.

Instructions received from United for Peace & Justice:

We all know that large numbers of people are planning to go to Central Park�s Great Lawn on Sunday, despite � or because of � the court�s ruling that we may not hold a rally there.

United for Peace and Justice emphatically supports the right of people to peacefully assemble in Central Park.

We are committed to having a safe, legal protest march, that anyone and everyone can attend � kids, seniors, immigrants, people with disabilities. We therefore are NOT leading our march to Central Park, and we ask everyone who plans to participate in our march to respect our desire for a safe and legal event, and not to organize breakaway marches from it to the Park.

To those who wish both to march with us and to assert their right to assemble in Central Park on Sunday, we ask that you follow our march to the end, disperse peacefully at Union Square, and then make your own way to the Great Lawn.