The permitted "People's March" on Friday was a completely different animal than the illegal march I covered the day before. Thousands of people took to the streets from Oakland to Downtown and then the North Shore. The police this time weren't trying to thwart their attempts to reach Downtown. Rather, they lined the route.
Instead of wearing a gas mask and doing my best to stay out of the line of fire of rubber bullets, I was able to do my job feeling safe. There were only a few tense moments as a small group of anarchists began to stare down and chant in front of a line of riot police on Grant Street. But the situation was resolved and the march resumed.
The biggest issue I confronted was just how tired my body was. I marched for a combined eight hours or so in the two days of the G-20 summit. Doing all of that on its own is tiring, but doing it with two cameras and a backpack that holds a laptop, gas mask, and bottles of water is exhausting. I'll feel it in my feet, back and shoulders for days now.
The highlight of the march, for me, was when I ran into the man I had previously photographed wearing a polar bear mask in front of City Council. I found him in front of a row of riot police on his bicycle, wearing the same mask in protest. I felt like it was a great bookend to my coverage of the G-20. Of course, at the time, I was trying to be optimistic. I hoped that the march Downtown would be the last of the protests, and the last of the riot police I would see this weekend.
I was wrong...
Posted
Sep 26 2009, 05:04 PM
by
Michael Henninger