Whoever came up with the plan for crowd control today, it was brilliant but disgusting. The cops created bottlenecks where there were none strictly for the purpose of keeping us frustrated, though we weren't allowed to stand still. They could have opened and closed the cross streets to let traffic through and give free access to each block, but the city's crowd control designers chose not to. Apparently they were afraid that we would end up in mini-rallies on every corner, which happened anyway since they couldn't move everyone. The cops themselves were assholes. I would have expected better, considering the makeup of the crowd. The first few times I dealt with them I was friendly, but after a while I stopped giving them the benefit of the doubt. The best that could be said was that the vast majority, regardless of race or gender, and most of them of course were white men, just didn't give a shit.
You really have the sense that the state in this country, however one defines it, has a systemic incomprehension of democracy. As much as an invasion will lead to more terrorism -and from new sources- the shutting down of debate leads to it being taken over by fringe elements. I heard the word 'revolution' coming out of the loudspeakers today more times than I could count. Political immaturity breeds political immaturity.