"Torture is a War Crime" Day at GCT

Corrie sends me emails that she gets from signing specific petitions and the like, and sometimes I try and act on some of them. The Karl Rove thing at Radio City was an email forward from Corrie. Yesterday, Thursday the 28th, there was a demonstration at Grand Central put together by The World Can't Wait, an organization that's calling for the release of torture photos and prosecutions of those at the highest levels sanctioning "enhanced interrogation techniques".

I made it a little late to the event, but they started later than I though they would. The group of demonstrators was split into one or two "officers" wearing black pants and shirts, leading the majority of the "prisoners" into Grand Central Terminal and up to a balcony on the East Wing. The prisoners wore orange jump-suits and black hoods covering their heads.

Here's a shot of them coming in:

Once they made it to the balcony they unfurled a series of banners, one lady began to give a speech, using her best outdoor voice, booming it all around the great marble hall, and the crowd grew, sometimes cheering, sometimes booing. Occasionally you could hear different suited white guys yelling things like "Why do you hate America?" and "Get a job!" who would then become accosted by younger scruffy looking supporters, and get into animated arguments with us commoners.

Here's a shot of the assembly and banners:

I eventually went up the one of the stairwells and took some pictures from behind, listening to their chants ("Torture is a war-crime",  "Prolonged detention is torture", "Release the photos"), and watched the crowd snap pictures with their cell-phones.

Of course I don't disagree with their message...I just find it hard to motivate myself to protest anything anymore..I guess I would have to be really into something to stand with signs and chant things, I mean, I'm thirty years old (plenty of people here in costume were older), and I did the protesting/demonstration thing before, when, you know, we had a real bastard in charge.

Here's a shot of the speaker:

Here's a shot from the stairs (most of mine looking down were not good enough to post):

This is the back of one of their posters...they had images on both sides, and I like the John Yoo mugshot (the Bush mugshot is too obvious). My camera was having trouble with the lighting, making it look like nighttime inside Grand Central, then when I'd take the flash off, it was always blurry. Eh, what can you do, beside figure out your camera before Marc and Linda's wedding at GCT in two weeks(!).

The group, after leaving Grand Central, marched a few blocks south to the Union League Club, to protest Henry Kissinger, et al, at a ceremony with Negroponte awarding Petraeus some Public Service medal. Corrie and I went home instead. She wanted to yell obscenities at Hank, which I endorse, but really, I'm having a hard time mustering an automatic hate for guys like Petraeus, just because they were appointed by El Busho, just because they run the Army, just because.

If this text shows up blue, I'm sorry...I don't know why that happens.