Liveblogger estimate from DC - 600,000

[Tuesday_Morning]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/1/27/104229/881

[tsuki]

1. Caught it on CSpan. Announcer said a couple of thousand on

the green. Did the same to us the last march. Marginalize, marginalize, marginalize.

[originalpckelly]

2. Even the CNN reporter said it looked at least like there were tens of thousands...

and that there were a lot more than the pro-life marchy thingy. (2 to 3 times more than the freeper march!)

[BR_Parkway]

13. Freepers should be marching in Iraq - www . goarmy . com

[bdamomma]

15. now that's a good idea.

they are always quick to comment on us, let them go.

[Crabby Appleton]

3. WaPo has "Tens of Thousands"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/27/AR2007012700629.html

Tens of Thousands Rally in D.C. for Troop Withdrawal

By Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 27, 2007; 2:36 PM

Tens of thousands of demonstrators from across the country converged on the Mall in Washington today to urge the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq as President Bush is proposing to send more troops in an effort to stabilize the country.

The event, organized by the group United for Peace and Justice, appeared to draw fewer than the 100,000 people that authorities had said might come. It began with a rally at 11 a.m. and was followed by a march around the Capitol.

...

[cal04]

4. Police officials declined to provide estimates, but spokesman says around 400,000

Police officials declined to provide crowd estimates, but Hany Khalil, a spokesman for United for Peace and Justice, said the protesters numbered around 400,000.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/washington/28protest.html?hp&ex=1169960400&en=ea1ddc2d72874058&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Tesla]

6. Awesome 400,000!!!!

I bet that is a "Conservative estimate" hahaha

[halobeam]

5. Recommending for the soul purpose of sharing the fact we are being silenced.

please rec this thread. This MUST be the outrage. I feel like there are only a few folks seeing RED right now about the fact we have NO Coverage of this MARCH.

The PURPOSE of this march was to be HEARD. O M G.

[leveymg]

7. That may be an overestimate. I would say 100,000

There were about 500,000 at the September protest. I would estimate this crowd is a fifth that size. I was at both events.

This is how I calculate the crowd size during the rally a couple hours ago:

The crowd filled the Mall from the end of the block in front of the Air and Space Museum up to the block occupied by the US Archives. Let's look at a map, and see it's about 1/3 the length of the Mall (Capitol to Washington Mounument). That's an area about 1/4 mile square (1300X1300 ft = 1.7 million sq. ft). The crowd was fairly densely packed -- estimate 6 people in each 100 sq. ft). That yields - approx. 102,000. Close enough.



Quite respectable given that this one had a shorter leadup time. it's January, and we just elected a Democratic Congress. We'll know soon enough whether we need to really fill the Mall again come Spring.

[Tuesday_Morning]

9. 6 people for each 100 square feet?

Sorry, leveymg, that doesn't sound right to me.

And wouldn't the DC police estimate likely to be the conservative one?

[leveymg]

10. Imagine a box 10X10. How many standing people fit in comfortably?

I say about 6. Some are carrying signs. They're not really packed shoulder to shoulder, until you get right up by the stage. Further back, people are walking around. The average of 6 per 100 square feet for a rally on the mall isn't really that conservative.

BTW: I read that report as saying that an event spokesperson had said 400,000, not the DC police.

I've been to a lot of these DC events on the Mall. The biggest was the Million Man March, which was well over a million. The Mall was pretty much packed from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, with a lot of people back to the Lincoln Memorial, and spill-over into the adjacent streets. This one wasn't that "thick" (spillover across the width). So, I'll stand by my estimate.

I was there today. Were you?

[Tuesday_Morning]

11. No

I was at the Sept. 2005 protest though. Police gave that one a casual estimate of 150,000. Organizers claimed it was around 250,000. And c-span at one point said 500,000. Being there, it was impossible to get a sense of the scope of the crowd. Hard to get perspective when you're in the thick of it.

But, at any rate, so far all the estimates are larger than the '05 protest...except yours.

[leveymg]

14. I walked through the crowd, and around the perimeter today

I got a pretty good idea of the density. I'll stand by my estimate.

The September event was harder to guage, personally, because I was in the march, and it was harder to move around through the crowd -- simply because it was a bigger crowd in a less open space. But, I did see aerial photos, and the best estimates I'm aware of say 500,000.

Hard to compare the two events according to the traffic cams, because there was a different route for the march. But, the march in September seemed to go on far longer.

I would have loved for there to be half a million today, but this one was smaller. It was still big, and 100,000 is great crowd. It WAS a great crowd. I enjoyed it very much, and it was worthwhile being there.

[Pachamama]

17. I got to disagree with you...I was at both as well, and this one was bigger!

Also, when I was here in 2004 for the March for Womens lives, the count was estimated by NOW and NARAL and Planned Parenthood (based on people checking in to the count stations) as being over a million. There were about half that amount today and it was very significant.

[bdrube]

18. Agreed: 100,000

I was at Clinton's first inagural, which over half a million. 
This was nowhere near that.

[Nay]

19. I was at both protests as well, and my guess is about the same as

yours. This protest was nowhere near the size of the last one, which simply INUNDATED the whole Mall and all the streets leading to it the full length of the Mall. That last one WAS 500-600,000 people easily. I estimate this one was about 100,000. Still a large number of people, but that last march took the cake.

[rumpel]

8. Virtual March has a little over 2000 right now

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/ufpj/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=447

[brettdale]

12. I knew they would do this

I have read reports from the independent media that the crowd was 400 thousand plus.

The freakin mainstream media is saying below 100 thousand.

[bdamomma]

16. the mainstream media needs to be kicked in the ass

government controlled media that is for sure.

[TahitiNut]

20. Let's sell the Mall to Disney and install TURNSTILES!

After all there's absolutely NOTHING as important as the number of people protesting - unless, of course, it's telling other DUers that something's none of their business.

Guess what? Neither Cheney nor Bush give a shit! Condi was shopping and Alberto was home enjoying a warm fire made out of copies of the Constitution. Until they're in handcuffs, they won't give a fuck if 500,000 people spend money on airline tickets and hotel rooms and gasoline to get their jollies while people are dying in Iraq. Until there's civilian bloodshed in the streets, the war criminals and profiteers will just keep on killing and plundering on the taxpayer's dime.

:puke:

[walldude]

23. Yeah well Bush and Cheney may not care but the rest of the

world does. The world press is all over this story. I think that alone may have been worth it.

On edit: Reports are in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x59954

[Kurovski]

21. K&R.(nt)

[symbolman]

22. Odd

Usually they say "Tens of Dozens" :)

[Kurovski]

24. Kick(nt)

[xultar]

25. K&R!

[tyedyeto]

26. .

:kick:

[tavalon]

27. Ah, sixty tens of thousands

like the one I attended.

I hate the corporate media and everyone who sucks off of their teat.

[unc70]

28. Sheiffer FTN: hundreds of thousands

Bob Sheiffer on Face the Nation described it in Vietnam-era terms and hundreds of thousands, if I heard correctly.