war security
 

I don't know if all US cities are like this, but I'm at the Hilton here and there are cops and security guards everywhere and several helicopters hovering over downtown. It's a pretty ridiculous waste of money IMHO.

I think they're there because of the anti-war protests around Market Street, not because of the war itself. Or maybe there's a panhandler convention in town.

Yeah, you're probably right. I didn't know about the protesters at the time. Then I walked over to the BART station on Powell street and saw them all.

The police are fighting attempts by demonstrators to block traffic and, in general, screw up the city.

At the same time, Bart is taking out ads saying, "We're putting on extra trains for the demonstrations, take Bart to get there!"

I love SF.

RichardInSF, the panhandler conventions are pretty much every day. The police presense was pretty intense due to the protesters which were mostly calm, other than the handful that went nuts knocking newspaper racks over. Just under $500,000 is being spent per day to keep the protesters at bay as they want to close city businesses down. Over 1,400 protesters have been arrested since Thursday as well, though they release them after a few short hours ... I;m not so sure what good that does.

[This message has been edited by raffy (edited 03-22-2003).]