NYC Protests on July 4th: 800 Say "No NSA Surveillance!"

July 14, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Revolution received the following correspondence:

On July 4th, protesters in 50 U.S. cities responded to a protest call from Restore the Fourth, a new grouping in support of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which grants that "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..."

The call was first put out on Reddit, a site that collects and distributes content on the web, to form a "grassroots, non-partisan advocacy and protest movement demanding an end to the unconstitutional surveillance methods employed by the U.S. government." The website stopwatching.us and the ACLU promoted the protests, which touched a raw nerve among people concerned about vast government surveillance.

Hundreds of people gathered in New York City's Union Square in a rally done mic-check style, with the look of an early Occupy movement gathering. The signs carried were mostly hand-made, and many in the crowd had never been to a protest. The crowd grew to more than 800, with the great majority under 35 years old, and many under 25.

The signs were earnest, and mostly witty, led by a mock Obama banner with the slogan "YES WE SCAN!" Other signs: "NSA has TMI (too much information)"; "Who Watches the Watchers?"; "1984 is NOT an Instruction manual"; "Keep your mitts off my bits." Lots of people came with boxes on their heads shaped into surveillance video cameras with lens peering at the crowd. The issue of Revolution newspaper with "STOP Massive U.S. Surveillance!" on the cover was sold, and BA quote cards "American Lives are Not More Important than Other People's Lives" went out with the answer to what people should do after the protest: "Connect with the revolution. Help get BA Everywhere."

A significant minority of signs and messages supported Edward Snowden who leaked the NSA Prism program, and other evidence of widespread NSA surveillance. A few mentioned Bradley Manning, charged with "aiding the enemy" for leaking U.S. war crimes to WikiLeaks. A mic-checked call to fill the courtroom on July 8 when Manning's defense begins in his court-martial at Fort Meade got a roar from the crowd. Hundreds of fliers from the Stop Mass Incarceration Network on the Trayvon Martin trial and the California prisoners' hunger strike were passed up the steps at Federal Hall.

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