NEW YORK CITY — Protesters marched through Manhattan in 30-degree weather and heavy police surveillance, with only scattered violence in opposition to the World Economic Forum on Saturday.

The march took place under a massive police presence that ensured the activists stayed on their permitted route from Central Park to several blocks away from the Waldorf Astoria hotel where participants of the conference, including the heads of the biggest corporations in the world, are staying until Monday, when the forum ends.

The police blocked roads so that the about 7,000 in attendance could safely march down several main mid-town roads while residents got an overhead view of the demonstration from their apartments and office buildings.

Several protesters, including about 35 from Syracuse University and the Syracuse community, began their day by gathering at about 10 a.m. in Columbus Circle before joining a demonstration already in progress in the southwest corner of Central Park.

The gathering in Columbus Circle set the tone for the rest of the day as New York Correctional Services buses lined the streets, police vans parked side by side waiting to collect offenders and officers in riot gear stood in formation parallel to the sidewalk, informing activists to stay off the street. SU student Sam Alcoff was arrested within an hour of arriving for using a megaphone without a sound permit.

Alcoff began yelling ‘Free the puppets’ when other activists had problems getting their two 15-foot puppets across the street.

Only about 36 protesters were arrested in total, which pales in comparison to the arrest totals at similar demonstrations in Seattle and Quebec City, Canada.

Volunteer medics also showed up in force to aid those who incurred health problems throughout the day, whether inflicted by police or more mundane reasons like exhaustion.

Ace, a medic who lives in Syracuse, said she did not know what would happen during the protest but said she and the other medics were ready for anything.

‘You can’t have this many people in one place and not have someone not feel good in some way,’ said Ace, who would not give her last name. ‘You can never tell.’

The tone of the protesters ranged from grim pictures of President George W. Bush having his mouth sewn shut and Enron stitched on his forehead to more lighthearted song parodies like a chant of ‘I want justice’ to the tune of Bow Wow Wow’s ‘I want candy’ and the Syracuse System Shakers rendition of N*Syncs ‘Bye Bye Bye’ complete with choreography.

‘You make money while the planet dies, baby bye bye bye,’ sang the Shakers.

Clad in pink and blue pastel shirts and skirts despite the cold weather, the Shakers practiced several cheers and song parodies for weeks before the protests. The Shakers represented a ‘green,’ or non-violent, portion of the Syracuse crowd but there is diversity, said one member.

‘Protesters are often surprised that we are wearing cute little skirts — it puts a positive face on our message,’ said Laura, a freshman film major who also declined to provide her last name.

Police were enforcing a city mask law that holds that any three people who wear similar masks in close proximity are subject for arrest, said Captain Bologna, who was watching the demonstrations.

‘People had no problem with this when the KKK was marching,’ Bologna said. ‘I know it’s cold, just dont cover your face.’

It is a characteristic feature of black block, or violent anarchistic protesters, to wear all black clothing, including masks.

Another group of Syracuse protesters, calling themselves Agenda 21, decided in November that they would attend the protest when the forum’s location was changed from its normal meeting place in Davos, Switzerland to New York.

In between chanting with the crowd and eating bagels, zucchini bread and peanut butter sandwiches, the group cracked jokes about the police presence among other things.

‘Fucking corporate spoon,’ said Adam Hainer, after his plastic flatware broke in his plastic container of rice. Hainer is a freshman at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Wearing shirts with the iconic ‘I Love NY’ logo but altered with an asterisk below it stating ‘but I still hate capitalism,’ the group of five marched brandishing signs and guarding a 15-foot puppet of a man in a suit eating a globe.

At one point, as the police blockade composed of officers, paddy wagons and buses moved slowly behind the pack, an Agenda 21 member known as Duck Boy jokingly suggested a way of regaining energy before they got to the end of march route.

‘We should just get on the buses, man,’ he said. ‘At least then we would be able to sit down.’

Published on November 23, 2002 at 12:00 pm