More than 400 protestors turned out in Santa Cruz for a march and rally to coincide with the 2nd inauguration of George W. Bush as President of the United States. People gathered on the steps of the Santa Cruz County Courthouse and heard musicians and speakers, before collectively taking an oath of office as President Pro-Tem of the United States. Since no bible's were on hand, a a copy of Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" was used.

Soon after, the crowd made its way to the Town Clock, site of the Collateral Damage statue, where a number of drummers and other musicians performed. Speakers there cited a need for better health care, slammed Bush's environmental record, and called for an end to the US military occupation of Iraq. George McGovern, former South Dakota Senator and the Democrat Party's presidential candidate in 1972, addressed the crowd, and said members of the Bush Administration are masters of fear and deception.

Great peice! covered everything and I like the word
Shit! heard it on FRSC today.

FYI: Indy Media put the body count at 400 at Thurs' counter-inaugral protest in SC; The Sentinel 300, KPFA News 250. If the count was taken at the pre-march assembly at the steps of the county building, it would have been a fairly easy task to get right. I was thinking of making a count myself but left it at a approximation of a few hundred. I think it is important both from the standpoint of fairness and accuracy in reporting but also to get proper credit for expression of anti-war sentiment.
Crowd estimation at demonstrations has been a contested subject since the Viet Nam era where the variance in totals of rally organizers, the police and mainstream media was huge, with each group having their reasons for spinning the numbers up or down.

The Sentinel reporter relied on figures from the rally organizers. Lame!!! I didn't hear the coverage from KPFA, and I doubt they had a reporter there.

IMHO, most rally organizers are too busy to get an accurate count. That's why we have reporters!!! So, at most demos, I count people myself.

When the march left the county building, I got in front, stoppped in the bike lane, and counted people. I counted a total of 428 heads, but there were some small people (kids) on the march who I might've missed. Also, a number of bicyclists whizzed past me, too fast to count. So it is accurate to say "more than 400 people." It would also be accurate to say, "about 450 people."

While I'm venting.... often, I'll be at a march, counting heads, and someone will recognize me and say "Hey V-Man," or something similar. Please don't do this!!! And don't get offended when I ignore you...

If you see me at a rally and I'm holding a microphone, I am trying to RECORD ambient sounds. When you yell my name, IT RUINS MY RECORDING!!!! Please just smile and nod!!

When was the KPFA report on the air? I skimmed thru the mp3 archives of kpfa newscasts on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, they only mentioned that a protest was happening, didn't estimate the size. I didn't hear the report on the Santa Cruz protests on Friday's cast, but, like I said, I only skimmed thru the file... When was it on?

"Don't get offended if i ignore you I am the V-man!" Vinny Lompardo speaks with such authority and love. The counter inauguration protest wrap has an accurate count of people stopped in the bike lanw of the county building. I is accurate of who i might have missed. Vinny You are my amazon queen.

Re: KPFA report:
It must have been Friday, because after the counter-inaugral festivities on Thurs., I went to the McGovernevent and returned home late. I heard it on the KPFA news on KZSC, I think it was a summary of different inaugaration day protests from FreeSpeechRadioNews, but they didn't give anything more than the number. It went something like "and in SantaCruz a crowd of 250 turned out"
Keep up the good work, Vinny

Richard

Houston Indymedia Radio Show looks at J-20
radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/01/3423.php

"our special j-20 themed show included coverage of houston actions, the new orleans jazz funeral for democracy, police brutality & video activism in austin and san diego."

7:30 into the audio, Tish of HIMC begins to read about actions across the nation. At 7:52 into the show, she reads, "250 in Santa Cruz."

I'm not sure where she got that number, but HIMC does a show on KPFT in Houston, TX and KPFT is a Pacifica station.