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Protests in Midtown Manhattan
Aired March 27, 2003 - 13:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: To New York City now, where there has been a day of civil disobedience, hundreds of demonstrators taken to the streets in protest of the war in Iraq.
CNN correspondent Maria Hinojosa has been covering today's protests.
Maria, the last time I talked to you, it was over the weekend, and there were a lot of people out in the streets.
How is this different from over the weekend?
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, very different, Judy.
This was not an action that was called to be a massive action in terms of getting people out on to the streets. What it was a massive action for civil disobedience.
So earlier today, we have some of the footage of what happened here on 5th Avenue, right in front of Rockefeller Center, right in front of Sak's 5th Avenue and St. Patrick's Cathedral about 100 anti- war activists laid themselves down on the street.
Their intention, they say, is to make this a day where is no business as usual. They say as anti-war activists, they want to get the message out that there is a war going on across the world, and that they don't believe people here should be allowed, essentially, to continue their lives as usual without thinking about what's happening across the world.
Now, they were arrested. There was a total of 188 arrests in this area earlier this morning. But the organizers have actually had sporadic actions around the city, so that after there were the arrests here in front of Rockefeller Center, then there were other arrests in sporadic events, trying to close down the streets. We know that there are students that have now taken out -- walked out of classes at NYU, and the provost has put out an urgent message for people to be civil. It's all part of this idea, they say, to get activists to up the level of engagement.
And with me is Aaron Unger, who is one of the coordinators for the event.
Aaron, just wondering, why go to civil disobedience? I mean, there is one think about marching through the streets, but civil disobedience may seem very disruptive to a lot of people. AARON UNGER: Well, this civil disobedience was targeted very specifically at major media, because we felt there was a very specific way in which this war had been discussed. There's been a lot of military analysis from military generals rolled out by the U.S. government, and what we wanted to do was come here to NBC, write specifically to NBC here at Rockefeller Center, and show the true implications of war, show what it looks like to have all these dead bodies, to show what 100 dead bodies lying in the street looks like, to give people a concrete idea of what these look like in front of your face, as opposed to just numbers in a newspaper or numbers on a television...
HINOJOSA: But there might be some people who say that there's no way you can really communicate what a war looks like when you're doing an act of civil disobedience, and that in fact what you might be doing is alienating people, pushing them away from maybe even supporting you.
UNGER: People say that, but again, that's the same kind of things that people said to people like Martin Luther King, that people said to people like Ghandi, when they were coming up and they were breaking -- they were breaking in the streets, sitting at lunch counters when you're not allowed to. I do not believe that all the laws this government has put upon us are justified, and that we need to owe boy them all the time. We are not alienating people.
We just want to show them, people are going about their daily activities, but what's most important is they look and they understand this war in Iraq is killing people, people like us, people that, like Martin Luther King said, you don't want to look at somebody and not see them as a human being. And we want people to look at these Iraqi citizens in Baghdad that we're bombing, with Shock and Awe, destroying their homes, destroying their houses, destroying their lives and livelihoods and respect them as people that are just like us, and as if somebody was bombing here in New York City, which we know what that feels like.
HINOJOSA: So do you think that a lot of people are part of the anti-war movement here in New York, because they've been through September 11th? Because a lot of people have come by and said, we remember September 11th, and that's why we should be in Iraq. You're thinking that people remember September 11th, and that's why they don't want to be for this war?
UNGER: I believe very strongly that we should honor the victims of September 11th with peace. We should honor the victims of September 11th by not continuing to propagate this cycle of violence in the world. We should honor them by creating a more peaceful environment, that we should not go out into a war where we alienate all our former allies around the world and become Osama bin Laden's number one recruiter. This needs to be about peace. We need to create a more peaceful environment, and the only way to do that is by not going, attacking against the U.N. -- against the U.N. mission.
HINOJOSA: All right, thank you very much. Clearly, a young person. He says he is not a professional activist. He's actually an actor and a cook, but it gives you a sense, Judy, of how people are feeling so strongly about coming out to the street.
And again, we have heard there are going to be several actions across Manhattan throughout the day, but we're not being told about them specifically bought they want that element of surprise. Again, they say their message is to engage New Yorkers to be thinking about their own lives while this war is happening in Iraq -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: All right, Maria Hinojosa, with voices of protest. We've heard from Ft. Hood, Texas. The soldiers about to deploy.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired March 27, 2003 - 13:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: To New York City now, where there has been a day of civil disobedience, hundreds of demonstrators taken to the streets in protest of the war in Iraq.
CNN correspondent Maria Hinojosa has been covering today's protests.
Maria, the last time I talked to you, it was over the weekend, and there were a lot of people out in the streets.
How is this different from over the weekend?
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, very different, Judy.
This was not an action that was called to be a massive action in terms of getting people out on to the streets. What it was a massive action for civil disobedience.
So earlier today, we have some of the footage of what happened here on 5th Avenue, right in front of Rockefeller Center, right in front of Sak's 5th Avenue and St. Patrick's Cathedral about 100 anti- war activists laid themselves down on the street.
Their intention, they say, is to make this a day where is no business as usual. They say as anti-war activists, they want to get the message out that there is a war going on across the world, and that they don't believe people here should be allowed, essentially, to continue their lives as usual without thinking about what's happening across the world.
Now, they were arrested. There was a total of 188 arrests in this area earlier this morning. But the organizers have actually had sporadic actions around the city, so that after there were the arrests here in front of Rockefeller Center, then there were other arrests in sporadic events, trying to close down the streets. We know that there are students that have now taken out -- walked out of classes at NYU, and the provost has put out an urgent message for people to be civil. It's all part of this idea, they say, to get activists to up the level of engagement.
And with me is Aaron Unger, who is one of the coordinators for the event.
Aaron, just wondering, why go to civil disobedience? I mean, there is one think about marching through the streets, but civil disobedience may seem very disruptive to a lot of people. AARON UNGER: Well, this civil disobedience was targeted very specifically at major media, because we felt there was a very specific way in which this war had been discussed. There's been a lot of military analysis from military generals rolled out by the U.S. government, and what we wanted to do was come here to NBC, write specifically to NBC here at Rockefeller Center, and show the true implications of war, show what it looks like to have all these dead bodies, to show what 100 dead bodies lying in the street looks like, to give people a concrete idea of what these look like in front of your face, as opposed to just numbers in a newspaper or numbers on a television...
HINOJOSA: But there might be some people who say that there's no way you can really communicate what a war looks like when you're doing an act of civil disobedience, and that in fact what you might be doing is alienating people, pushing them away from maybe even supporting you.
UNGER: People say that, but again, that's the same kind of things that people said to people like Martin Luther King, that people said to people like Ghandi, when they were coming up and they were breaking -- they were breaking in the streets, sitting at lunch counters when you're not allowed to. I do not believe that all the laws this government has put upon us are justified, and that we need to owe boy them all the time. We are not alienating people.
We just want to show them, people are going about their daily activities, but what's most important is they look and they understand this war in Iraq is killing people, people like us, people that, like Martin Luther King said, you don't want to look at somebody and not see them as a human being. And we want people to look at these Iraqi citizens in Baghdad that we're bombing, with Shock and Awe, destroying their homes, destroying their houses, destroying their lives and livelihoods and respect them as people that are just like us, and as if somebody was bombing here in New York City, which we know what that feels like.
HINOJOSA: So do you think that a lot of people are part of the anti-war movement here in New York, because they've been through September 11th? Because a lot of people have come by and said, we remember September 11th, and that's why we should be in Iraq. You're thinking that people remember September 11th, and that's why they don't want to be for this war?
UNGER: I believe very strongly that we should honor the victims of September 11th with peace. We should honor the victims of September 11th by not continuing to propagate this cycle of violence in the world. We should honor them by creating a more peaceful environment, that we should not go out into a war where we alienate all our former allies around the world and become Osama bin Laden's number one recruiter. This needs to be about peace. We need to create a more peaceful environment, and the only way to do that is by not going, attacking against the U.N. -- against the U.N. mission.
HINOJOSA: All right, thank you very much. Clearly, a young person. He says he is not a professional activist. He's actually an actor and a cook, but it gives you a sense, Judy, of how people are feeling so strongly about coming out to the street.
And again, we have heard there are going to be several actions across Manhattan throughout the day, but we're not being told about them specifically bought they want that element of surprise. Again, they say their message is to engage New Yorkers to be thinking about their own lives while this war is happening in Iraq -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: All right, Maria Hinojosa, with voices of protest. We've heard from Ft. Hood, Texas. The soldiers about to deploy.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
