Some time ago Steve Brandt of the Minneapolis Star Tribune assured this list that their reporting of the numbers of demonstrators was accurate and even handed regardless of the political cause represented by the people demonstrating.
A pro war rally that filled the steps and the area in front of the Capitol and the block running in front was estimated by police at 18,000 and so reported by the Star Tribune. I have been at many leftist events which filled this same area and we were never counted and reported at 18,000. We were lucky if we were put at more than a few hundred. Or compare this to the antiwar march downtown on Thursday. According to the police it initially filled four blocks of 3rd Ave (but grew much larger as it went along). While it would require 5000 to 10,000 to fill such an area, needless to say we were not reported as being close to this number. But the photo in the Star Tribune (which filled a whole half page to make it look as big as possible) really says it all. Below is something Doug wrote for the Minneapolis Green Party list (he has more time to get out his magnifying glass and calculator for a project like this) Linda Mann Kingfield **************************************************************** State Capitol Pro-War Rally Crowd Estimate Attendance at the pro-war rally at the State Capitol on Sat. March 22 was definitely under 10,000. Based on photos taken by the Strib and the Pioneer press, I figure that 4,500 to 6,000 attended the pro-war rally. The State Patrol estimated the crowd at over 18,000 A nearly half-page photo in the Sunday March 23 Star-Tribune showed no more than 4,000 to 4,500 persons at the pro-war rally on Saturday, March 22, 2003, at the State Capitol. The shot takes in an area a little wider than the steps leading up to the capitol, and was taken from a point above the capitol steps (at the bottom of the picture) to a little beyond the side walk across the street that's immediately in front of the capitol (at the top). I figured the crowd density using lines of people who could be easily distinguished standing shoulder to shoulder on the side walk (near top of photo) and at the very bottom of the photo (nearest the photographer). There are about 11 persons at the bottom of the photo for every 14 persons near the top of the photo. The crowd on the side walk and from the sidewalk to the top edge of the photo is fairly sparse. A photo in the St. Paul Pioneer Press taken from the opposite direction (south of the sidewalk) suggests that the big picture in the Strib described in the preceding paragraph easily took in about 80 to 90% of the crowd. -Doug Mann TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
