The first organized march of the RNC began Monday morning when the Coalition to March on the RNC — several hundred strong — left Perry Harvey Park and headed toward the free-speech zone near the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
The march was preceded by more than an hour and a half of speeches made by dozens of local and national attendees. However, the event was greeted by far less than the expected 5,000 people that organizers had said would be in attendance (and leads credence to CL's story from last week questioning the total number of 15,000 protesters, which the mainstream media steadfastly maintained would be in Tampa for the convention).
"We all know that the weather has affected the turnout at this rally," said organizer Mick Kelly, to begin the series of short speeches. "I want to be very, very clear about this. Many people thought the storm would be a grave threat."
But Kelly admitted that the attendance was "a lot lower" than expected. Co-organizer Jared Hamil told CL he heard that one company was to send three buses from Miami but refused to do so, mentioning fears of Tropical Storm Isaac.
The show did go on, though much of the first hour took place as rain pushed down on the audience.
This article appears in Aug 23-29, 2012.