Bush was in Hartford on Friday, and, on very short notice, local antiwar groups organized a demonstration. Bush was due at the Northwest Boys and Girls Club sometime after ten a.m. to talk about controlling malaria. The club is on Granby Street, a few hundred feet north of Weaver High School and just down the hill from Mark Twain School.
Granby Street was blocked at Manchester Street, about a quarter mile from the club, and I had to take Lyme Street to Durham Street. All the adjacent streets were barricaded. I arrived at about 10:30 to find, about a half-block away from the closest unbarricaded street, a crowd of about 200 people loosely assembled on the school playing field. Some were pressed against a makeshift snow fence that had been erected for the occasion. The area where the crowd was assembled and the club where Bush was to be speaking are separated by a city-block-sized soccer field and Granby Street. The armed men on the roof of the club could hardly be made out from where we were, and a man with binoculars pointed them out to me. I had to pass a phalanx of plainclothes and uniformed officers to get to this designated free-speech area. (more…)
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