For convention, New York is on alert
Rally plans, fear of terrorism fuel a show of force
NEW YORK -- A thick cloak of security yesterday enveloped the center of the city, as a huge police contingent presided over a smattering of peaceful protests. City residents, meanwhile, left by the thousands to avoid the potential for chaos here, as the Republican Party convention begins tomorrow.
The scattered protests were considered a prelude for today's events; as many as 250,000 demonstrators are planning to march through the convention site in what may be the most confrontational political convention moment since the rough-and-tumble streets outside the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. But today's events have an added source of tension: the threat of terrorist attacks. Ground zero is just three miles from the convention site at Madison Square Garden, and New York remains atop the target list of potential terrorists, US authorities say.
More convention coverage, A23-26.
Federal and city officials activated a massive security apparatus yesterday that is designed to control protests peacefully, guard against terrorism, and still allow life to proceed with some semblance of normalcy in this bustling, densely populated metropolis.
With the federal government clearing a seven-mile-radius airspace over Madison Square Garden, and authorities watching the city from a high-tech command center in lower Manhattan, the city that never sleeps is on high alert, days before the convention.
National Guard members toted machine guns alongside police officers around Grand Central and Penn stations yesterday, while other officers pedaled around Times Square, eight blocks from Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, on bicycles. Police blimps patrolled the skies and Coast Guard boats cruised the Hudson River, ready to stop boats 150 yards from the Statue of Liberty.
''We are not closing down," Mayor Michael Bloomberg assured reporters. ''We will enforce the laws of our land."
About 10,000 of New York's 37,000 police officers will be assigned to convention-related duties. For months, federal officials have warned that terrorists were planning to strike the United States to disrupt the November elections, and that New York was a prime target. Officials have insisted that the city was safe.
''We are prepared. The city's secure, it's safe," said the Homeland Security secretary, Tom Ridge.
Officials are also watching demonstrators and anarchists they say may be planning to cause problems during the convention.
Yesterday, thousands of abortion-rights activists marched across the Brooklyn Bridge, in the latest of a growing number of demonstrations. Police reported 25 arrests in such protests.
On Thursday, 22 demonstrators were arrested, including AIDS activists who stripped naked in front of Madison Square Garden, the site of the convention. On Friday, 264 people were arrested for disorderly conduct in a protest bicycle ride.
Although the ANSWER Coalition and the National Council of Arab Americans were denied permits last week for a rally in Central Park yesterday, leaders from the groups had said they would gather there informally anyway -- just as thousands of protesters are expected to do today.
However, by midafternoon, were only a few protesters had gathered near the Great Lawn, outnumbered not only by a sea of sunbathers but also by a gaggle of National Lawyer's Guild monitors in fluorescent green hats.
''We're all alone," said a Bronx health care worker who declined to give his name, who carried a sign saying, ''Down with the Bushkerry Republicrats. If ANSWER doesn't show up, they'll have a lot to answer for."
Still, plenty of New Yorkers and out-of-towners alike came out to enjoy the hot day and get geared up for today's big antiwar event.
Joel Cook, 45, who flew in from San Francisco to protest, walked through the park with two friends and anti-Bush sign, which attracted thumbs-ups and hoots from passersby -- as well as a few less friendly responses. When one cyclist told Cook to do something obscene with his sign, Cook gave a hearty laugh and shouted back, ''You hate us for our freedom!"
In another part of Central Park, the American Friends Service Committee unveiled a traveling exhibit of combat boots representing US service members killed in Iraq, and of shoes representing Iraqi civilian casualties. The exhibit, in New York all week, was also on display in Boston during the Democratic National Convention. It included the uniform of Jeff Lucey, an Iraq war veteran from Belchertown who committed suicide earlier this summer.
Wandering through the solemn exhibit was New Yorker Anne Pejovich , who works with parents in a public middle school, and said protesting is ''something positive I can do" during the Republican National Convention.
''With all the terrorism hype, I was afraid. I wanted to leave for my own protection," said Pejovich, who had planned to flee the convention and stay with friends in the Berkshires, but changed her mind. ''But this is my city and I want to let the Republicans know how I feel about the war."
In place of her original getaway plans, Pejovich is cooking meals for her brother and his anarchist friends, in town from West Virginia and are sleeping on her floor.
Other protests yesterday included a Planned Parenthood march ''for women's lives" across the Brooklyn Bridge, a protest against
The women's antiwar group CODEPINK was also sponsoring an event to get people pumped up for today's march, featuring everything from hip-hop to an appearance by Eve Ensler, author of the ''Vagina Monologues."
Police and federal agents created a fortress yesterday around the arena. Still, many of the high-tech devices being used to secure the city from another terrorist attack will not be visible. For example, some police officers will wear helmets fitted with cameras that will provide video feeds to monitors.
There is also a 24-hour command center with nine mammoth video screens focusing on Madison Square Garden, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, the Brooklyn Bridge, and other landmarks and key thoroughfares. Authorities have doubled the number of undercover police officers riding subways and buses. Even the ubiquitous doormen have gone through terrorist training.
Securing the nation's largest city during the convention has not come cheap. Bloomberg said the government provided $50 million in federal funds, while the city will spend an additional $15 million.
Bloomberg still insists that New Yorkers will not be as inconvenienced as Bostonians were for the Democratic National Convention last month, but it is clear already that getting around Manhattan will not be easy. Police will search all trains before they pull into Penn Station, and streets around the Garden will be closed.
The MTA, the state agency mans public transportation as well as bridges and tunnels, will send 1,600 officers to monitor traffic.
Police will restrict vehicles from an 18-square-block area. Authorities said commercial vehicles have been restricted from traveling to Lower Manhattan from New Jersey via the Holland Tunnel, and inspections on other crossings will be intensified.
Raja Mishra of the Globe staff contributed. Material from the Associated Press was also used. 