What/Where/When?
Peace Protest/Hollywood and La Brea, Hollywood, CA/earlier today.

Pictures?
Right here. (These might be a little too dark for PCs and a little light for Macs.)

Numbers?
Much less than previous protests, maybe 2 or 3 city blocks worth. The word about the cheering Iraqis seems to have gotten out. Maybe the threat of rain had something to do with it, or perhaps the movement has been distilled down into its diehard components. Very few "middle-class" dissenters were on display. Only the first Hollywood protest I went to had fewer people, and that was in December 2002. (See this page for links to all of my previous "peace" protest reports and pics.)

What were they fighting for?
Well, now that the war is just about over, it's time to protest the unjust, illegal, immoral etc. etc. occupation. No sense letting a good tableau featuring the Bush administration as Nazis go to waste.

Peaceful?
Pretty much, although I didn't stay around to see if they tried any civil disobediance. Since the crowd was beginning to disperse towards the end, that didn't seem too likely. The gent with the "Bomb Saddam, Liberate Iraq" sign was hassled a bit and, as can be seen, his sign got several holes put into it by the "peace" protesters. He eventually left the front of the protest.

Wacky Slogans?
There wasn't that much chanting this time, but then again I missed the march to the stage location. During Jackie Goldberg's time at the mike, she kept repeating over and over and over "This is about resistance!", having little else to say. Other statements from lesser-known speakers followed: "Shame on NBC, Fox, etc." "whole neighborhoods are being destroyed" "bring our troops back" etc.

A lady from the Asian-Pacific Islanders something-something began listing all the nations represented by her organization: Bangladesh, China, the Philippines, etc. etc. At her brief pause after the voluminous list of nations, the crowd started to applaud such diversity, before she interrupted them and launched into all the religions her organization represented. "We're familiar with U.S. Imperialism, etc."

Someone read his own poem.

Whence followed a brief celebratory speech about how beneficial it was to sing along.

Then an OG got up to the mike and discussed how he was in it for the long-term, seeing as he'd spent prison time for resisting the Korean draft and he had since been arrested in several states which he listed. "The problem is not in Iraq, the problem is not in Syria, [other fine countries deleted], the problem is in the U.S.!" "They still believe in white supremacy and white domination!" He ended his fine speech with an exhortation to disrupt city life in L.A., such as had been done recently up north.

The final speaker was announced as a supporter of the Revolutionary Communist Party, and the spoken program ended with the reading of a letter from Mumia. Due to the time required to get the letter to his supporters, Mumia indicated that the war might have already started before his words were heard.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it actually seemed like they were sweetening the applause with a bit of the recorded version. Maybe a big giant APPLAUSE sign next time?

Police Brutality?
None seen.

Arrests?
None seen.

Evidence of Capitalism/Swapmeetism?
A vendor or two of the non-protester variety were selling T-Shirts; the A.N.S.W.E.R. people passed through the crowd collecting donations.

Sc!ent*l*gists or Sc!ent*l*gy references?
See the pics for a couple.

Christina Gonzalez?
Not seen.

Transvestites/Transsexuals/Hustlers/Hollywood Freaks and Weirdos?
Not seen.

LaRouche adherents?
Not seen.

Can't we all just get along?
Someone yelled to the cops something about feeding people or something.

Nudity?
Not seen.

Deja vu?
None.

Flag Burning?
None.

Other incidents?
Fugly the Klown provided a welcome suggestion writ small that the Washington Monument should be encondomized.

UPDATE: According to this, the draft protester mentioned above was imprisoned for protesting the Korean, not the Vietnam war as I had in the previous version. He's also black and not white. Which makes his quote above perhaps even more disturbing.