Just how many people were there?

So, the mass media sources took a number stated as unofficial from an official at the fire department in Washington D.C. and has posted it around as if it were cast in iron. What am I talking about? The September 12 protest rally. Ever since the Million Man March came up half a million short, the government hasn't given out crowd estimates for events. At least that is the official policy. Somehow they still managed to estimate 1.2 to 1.8 million people for this past January's inauguration even though they have a policy not to make crowd estimates. Hmm... At any rate, there was a rally held on September 12, 2009 for the Tea Party movement. This is a rally of people who have become so fed up with politicians on both sides of the aisle not listening to their constituents, that they finally took to the street. They felt disappointment, dismay and betrayal by the Republican party during the Bush years and now see the Democrats and the new administration spending even more than Bush did. Folks, that is what this rally was about. Not racism as the media is currently claiming. After all, remember how those on the side of Republicans shouted that dissenters were unpatriotic or un-American for opposing Bush? Well, guess what? That opposition to Bush who claimed their right to dissent and even proclaimed that dissent was in fact the highest form of patriotism have now decided that if you dissent or disagree with this President, you're a racist. Neither argument has any merit and both prove the point of the people protesting in Washington on the 12th. So, all that said, just how many people were there? Nobody knows for sure because there are no official counts taken. However, the are easy sources to look at in order to get a good estimate. Did the media do this? No, they just took a number from someone who isn't qualified to give one and spouted it as truth. That number? 60-75,000 people. Thus the tens of thousands you keep seeing reported. Well, I lived in DC for 20 years and I know for a fact just from looking at the coverage on the internet and tv that the turnout was significantly larger than that. Of course, I also am not qualified to make that judgment. So, let's look at information that is easily available to the media if they'd bother to look for it and see if we can get an estimate of some sort. First, the mass of people that marched down Pennsylvania Avenue took 3 hours to complete. Wow, three hours of people walking down and (according to traffic cameras) filling Pennsylvania Avenue. That's a lot of people. Well, there are some mathematical equations that can estimate this crowd and a few people have tried, but again, those are still best guesses. They came up with somewhere between 750,000 and 1 million depending on the equation used. Okay, that might be a bit large, but other photos of the event clearly show that there were people marching who didn't even take Pennsylvania Avenue, so maybe it isn't too large. Another source comes from the Pennsylvania Avenue traffic counter at 11th Street. Barbara Espinosa reported that actual traffic counters from the march organizers reported about 450,000 crossing Pennsylvania at 11th after about an hour of the march, and nearly 1.5 million total. Wow, that's a lot and certainly consistent with the mathematical guesses but wait, the traffic counters were set up by the organizers. Well golly, those can't be trusted so let's move on. The next piece of evidence is this: there were at least 4500 bus parking permits for the day in Washington and a bus typically holds about 50 people. That's a lot of buses. Let's just argue that not all those buses were there for the 9/12 event but had other business. Let's just go with half of those buses being there for the 9/12 event. That's a logical compromise. Using that number, that would be 2250 buses bringing people to the mall at about 50 people each which makes 112,500 people. But wait, there was a lot of complaining about Metro being overcrowded. So, does the subway system report its ridership? Actually, yes it does and Metro reported its ridership was 235,000 more on 9/12 than the previous weekend which pretty much blows away the 60-75,000 estimate reported in the media all by itself. So, just Metro and bus permits suggest at least 350,000 people showed up. So, can we STOP with the tens of thousands already? The evidence proves a much larger number. Perhaps not the 2 million some people suggested, but certainly 500,000 would be a logical number to go with based on the evidence I've presented here. For the only good image of the crowd taken that day that was from a source other than traffic cameras, go to this link and see Matthew Beck's picture. For a time lapse video of the cameras on Pennsylvania Avenue, see this YouTube video.

Remember

On this day, September 11, 2009, may we remember those who lost their lives and those who survived. May we remember that we were attacked because of who we are, not what we do and don't support in Middle East politics. May we remember how important freedom is and cherish it because it is what makes us different from everyone else in the world. Always remember. Remember to believe in something. Remember to love those around you. Remember to strive to be better. Always remember.