NEW YORK, March 22 -- Kneeling in the middle of Broadway and 34th, five-year-old Erelle Fuchs traced the outline of a dove on the asphalt at Times Square. When she finished, she dutifully passed a piece of yellow chalk to her sister, who drew a peace sign.
Behind the two girls, a line of New York Police Department officers were stationed to observe the massive anti-war protest sponsored by United for Peace and Justice, which attracted 125,000 people and shut down over 30 city blocks in midtown Manhattan Saturday.
Toting signs that read "Bush for best actor" and "Drop Bush, not bombs," demonstrators marched from Times Square to Washington Square Park, where the protest ended in a skirmish with authorities.
Though police characterized the protest as generally peaceful, 91 people were arrested when they failed to vacate the area once their permit expired at 4 p.m. Eight officers also received medical treatment after protesters reportedly sprayed an unknown substance at 17 members of the NYPD.
"Some of the best patriots were members of the Boston Tea Party," said Bill Steyert, a Vietnam veteran who circulated anti-war flyers from a median in Times Square. "I made a promise that if our government ever got us in another stupid war, I'd protest it."
Following the first U.S. strikes on Bagdhad, war opponents immediately staged several rallies in New York City last week, eliciting the presence of NYPD officers clad in riot gear and on horseback.
"It's not that I think I can stop the war, it's that I want history to say there were protests," New York City resident Cathy Raymond said. "We're going in for the wrong reasons."
Waiting outside a Madison Avenue coffee shop with Raymond, fellow resident Saif Ansari said he opposes military action not sanctioned by the United Nations, whose headquarters is located across town.
"Just because America has a bigger gun doesn't mean it can override the U.N.," Ansari said.
Though he said he thinks protesting the war "makes no difference whatsoever," Ansari said, "I just have to resolve my own moral imperative to come here."
As throngs of anti-war activists clogged the streets, members of the Socialist Party handed out flyers on the sidewalk near 36th street.
"How can I fault the Iraqi worker who decides to fight for the sovereignty of their country?" said Colorado coalminer Francisco Picado, a member of the Socialist Party. "We have no beef with the people of Iraq. We want the same thing."
Bearing a sign that read: "War now, pay later," a wheelchair-bound paraplegic reflected the mosaic array of citizens who participated in the march.
Not everyone out in the 65-degree weather near Times Square Saturday was there for the protest, however.
Pennsylvania residents Marie Yohey and Alice Gorman said they picked the wrong time to visit Manhattan.
"I don't want a war either, but I think if we are at war, we should support our president," Yohey said. "The war's going on now, so let's get with it."
Likewise, Broadway street vendor Esme Hill was not thrilled by the protests, which she said could have a negative outcome.
"I don't want the soldiers to come back and be treated the same way they were treated when they came back from Vietnam," Hill said, who also ciriticized the crowd's chant of "no blood for oil."
"It's just so inane," she said. "What do you think the world runs on?"
Most protesters acknowledged their impact on military policy as minimal, instead shifting their focus to solidarity.
"This isn't about stopping the war," said New York City resident Scott Keyser, who performed anti-war songs at the evening rallies leading up to Saturday's march. "It's showing that the movement is growing."
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