Philadelphia protests
Went and joined the march for a bit and then hopped off when it veered near my home. Anyway, I’d say a conservative estimate would be 4000 people, and growing. Was surprised there were that many people. Despite all the attempts at mischarcterization, the crowd was pretty representative cross-section of the public. Some union groups, some church groups – catholics, quakers, unitarians, some college students, some little old ladies, a small number of trustifarian types, and a lot of middle aged couples. Black, White, people of Asian descent, Latinos, the whole shebang. The signs were almost entirely on message – I saw almost no one trying to use the march for the usual assortment of lefty causes. Police seemed cooperative and everything was quite peaceful.
UPDATE: it turned out to be 10,000 or more, according to
police reports.
UPDATE: Slacktivist reports:
Went for a walk in Philadelphia yesterday with about 10,000 other folks.
The protest was really pretty delightful, with a truly diverse crowd — all ages, many religions and ethnicities — and an almost jubilant atmosphere. Some of the signs and chants were pretty funny (I liked the “Asses of Evil” one especially). There were a handful of fringe-y old lefty relics — people peddling various socialist newspapers and the like — and they were tolerated as a part of the crowd while clearly remaining fringe-y.