The police barricaded many intersections.  The sidewalks filled with thousands of people. 

At some intersections, police allowed only those with RNC credentials to cross the streets.  Everyone else -- locals trying to get home from work, tourists from Denmark, and protesters alike -- was forced to find alternate (much longer) routes. 

While protesting behind the barricades, I was pressed back into the doorway of a shop. A man who had recently come to the U.S. from Egypt was also stuck in the doorway. He had a big smile on his face but was nearly crying.

“This is freedom!” he said.

He explained he wanted people in his own country to have the right to speak out freely, but that he did not believe it could happen there.

New York has the cutest pirates I’ve ever seen!

A spokesperson for the RNC said officials recommended delegates not respond to heckling and taunts, which he said have been "few and far between."
   Still, he said, "Our delegates understand the old adage, do unto others as they do unto you."
     -- Leonardo Alcivar, as quoted in the New York Times, Aug. 31, 2004.