By our search of reports of antiwar protests and demonstrations during the week of March 15 to March 20, OB RAG has now determined that 232 Americans were arrested for their activities during protests of the Iraq war and occupation by US forces. This is a conservative number, and only represents the arrests reported in news and blogs that are available on the internet.
Most of the arrests occurred at the demonstrations staged on March 19th in two large cities, those in Washington, DC, and in San Francisco. 32 protesters were arrested in DC on the East Coast, most in front of the IRS building, and the largest number of arrests occurred on the West Coast, 143 were taken into custody for blocking traffic during a day of civil disobedience in downtown San Francisco.
Twenty people were arrested in Syracuse and at least 2 in Chicago. The remaining numbers of the arrests were scattered across small city America: 4 in Portland, 2 in Grand Rapids, 5 in Hartford, CT., 2 in Des Moines, 3 in Madison, 7 in Memphis, Tennessee, 8 in Chicopee, MA, and even 4 in Cape Cod. Brief outlines of the actions are recounted here in the pages of OB RAG. And I will attempt to post a recap of the protests in the very near future.
But you heard it here, first, unfortunately, as the corporate press does not want you to know, and the alternative press is not yet organized sufficiently, 232 of our countrywomen and men were taken into police custody because of their protests of this war. Our hats are off to them, may there be more Americans that are ready to put their body where their heart is.
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We’re not getting this kind of info.
I have to add 6 more arrests to this total, to make it 238. I did not realize that the 6 antiwar protesters who disrupted Easter mass service at a Chicago church had been arrested. See our new post from 3/31/08.
The latest account is 304 arrests. See our subsequent posts.
Readers should check out the updated posts on number of arrests. We eventually counted nearly 400.