Many Thousands Put Feet in the Street for NYC Free Palestine Ceasefire Labor Day

Union Square rally and march up Park South over Grand Central overpass past Blackrock to 53rd east to 2nd Ave south again below 49th without me...

First big time thanks to my dear friend who let me know about the event.

My zoom lens and high perches help find familiar faces except I missed the one who got me there so all the pics are a gift from you, lucky us we got this!! <3

The crowd was packed shoulder to shoulder filling Union Square so my guess is over 5,000 marchers plus hundreds of police and photographers.

These are always family friendly gatherings with signs and slogans, banners and flags, speeches and chants with drummers almost like concerts in the park vibes.

Orthodox Rabbis and others focus on Zionism is not Judiasm while many self identified Jews wear shirts that oppose Israel exploiting religion.

Of course a handful of Zionists were there itching for conflict and NYPD made a fortress between them and Union Square in a manner Capitol Police might have used if January 6th was not intended as an excuse but treated as routine crowd control. What head of State wants to put faith in any Washington entity as a defense force?

The window upstairs in Whole Foods is perfect to watch street action below & fab look at what constitutes a perimeter defense.. it’s not rocket science!

One of the most important things folks need to appreciate about the street marches is that the route is a tightly held secret and until folks organizing start walking you have no clue which direction or destination. Permits and NYPD deployments suggest many have great clues but it’s a closely guarded detail I’ve yet to pry lose on site.

They went out the east side to Park Ave South and were already pouring north by the time I got into a spot to take pictures and ran in spots but never got to the front.

If you’ve never driven the upper roadway around Grand Central at night it’s a must do on the list of iconic NYC experiences.. conversely the tunnel has an Indy 500 effect on cabbies that’s more terrifying than thrill rides at Coney Island... fair warning.

While overall police presence was pretty sparse beyond traffic management deployments it was notable to see MTA has a hybred threat force.. most of NYC commuters would be happy if we had a filth removal task force but here we go there’s funding to film peaceful protesters w NYPD phones but subway filth, meh.

The weather was perfect not too hot or too cool and feet in the street always inspiring affirmation of the goodness in our fellow humans. It was many miles so there are many pictures to sort and probably tomorrow when the album gets uploaded to Flickr but here’s a preview for friends and link will go in comments when it’s done.

Enjoy and see you in the streets!!