page_title: 15 February 2003 anti-war protests
section_title: Other U.S. cities
hierarchical_section_title: 15 February 2003 anti-war protests / Americas / United States / Other U.S. cities
caption_attribution_description: February 16, 2003: An elderly American woman raises her fist in opposition to her country's imminent invasion of Iraq. On February 15, an estimated 6,000,000 to 10,000,000 people in over 60 countries around the world took to the streets to show their opposition to what they considered a war of oppression.
context_page_description: On 15 February 2003, a coordinated day of protests started across the world in which people in more than 600 cities expressed opposition to the imminent Iraq War. It was part of a series of protests and political events that had begun in 2002 and continued as the war took place. Social movement researchers have described the 15 February protest as "the largest protest event in human history".
  According to BBC News, between six and ten million people took part in protests in up to sixty countries over the weekend of 15 and 16 February;
  Some of the largest protests took place in Europe. The protest in Rome involved around three million people, and is listed in the 2004 Guinness Book of World Records as the largest anti-war rally in history. Madrid hosted the second largest rally with more than 1.5 million people protesting the invasion of Iraq; Mainland China was the only major region not to see any protests on that day, but small demonstrations, attended mainly by foreign students, were seen later.
context_section_description: At a demonstration in Los Angeles, California, 50,000 (WSWS estimate) to 60,000 (GLW estimate) protesters (CNN said "thousands") marched down Hollywood Boulevard filling it for four blocks. Amongst the protesters were the actors Martin Sheen and Mike Farrell and director Rob Reiner. Martin Sheen, who at the time was playing a fictitious U.S. president in The West Wing, said that "None of us can stop this war ... there is only one guy that can do that and he lives in the White House".
  Other activists in California originally planned to hold a protest in San Francisco on the Saturday but they changed to the Sunday in order not to conflict with the city's Chinese New Year's parade. The protest was held on Sunday 16 February. The BBC estimated the crowd size to be 150,000 people, while protest organisers and police agreed that the crowd count was 200,000 people. However, a San Francisco Chronicle photographic investigation estimated that the number in attendance at the peak period was closer to 65,000 people, although it did not state how many people were in attendance for the duration of the demonstration.
  There was some controversy over Rabbi Michael Lerner not being selected as a speaker for the rally at the end of the demonstration. Lerner claimed that he was not picked to speak for reasons of anti-semitism due to his support for the existence of the Israeli state. The organisers responded with a statement that he was not picked because of an arrangement between the groups that organised the demonstration that there would be no speakers that had publicly attacked any other anti-war group and that "since he had publicly attacked A.N.S.W.E.R. in both The New York Times and Tikkun community email newsletters, his inclusion in the program would violate [this] agreement." They also noted that two rabbis with views similar to those of Michael Lerner would be speaking.
  In Austin, Texas, 10,000 protestors marched down Congress Avenue from the state capitol building.
  In Colorado Springs, 4,000 protesters were dispersed with pepper spray, tear gas, stun guns and batons. 34 were arrested on failure to disperse and other charges
  and at least two protesters had to have hospital treatment.
  In Seattle, organisers aimed to have 20 to 30 thousand people join a march from Seattle Center following a giant blue planet, the emblem adopted by the march organisers. On the day 50,000 people (GLW estimate) turned out to protest under the dual slogan "Stop the war on Iraq; Stop the war on immigrants", more than on the Seattle protests against the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999.
  Demonstrations also took place in Philadelphia, where thousands (CNN estimate) joined a march to the Liberty Bell, and in Chicago, where 10,000 people demonstrated (GLW estimate).
  In Florida a small number of protesters staged a naked protest on Palm Beach. They initially had some problems getting permission for the action, but on the Thursday before, a U.S. District court ruled that the planned nude protest was legal at the public beach. Most of the attendees had come from the four-day Mid-Winter Naturist Festival that was taking place at the same time. There was also a demonstration of 900 people (USA Today estimate) on the island of Puerto Rico.
caption: 60,000–200,000 protesters of various ages demonstrated in San Francisco, (accounts vary as to the total number present)
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