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9/12 Tea Party Protests: Crowd Estimates?

MattusMaximus

Intellectual Gladiator
Joined
Jan 26, 2006
Messages
15,948
Okay, I asked this in another thread and got no serious response, but I'm actually looking for a serious response. Does anyone have any sources of crowd-size estimates from the Tea Party protests in DC this past weekend?

Thanks in advance.
 
Okay, about 270,000 - thanks. Mhaze, do you have a link for that estimate?

Anyone else got anything?
 
The 800k figure is a fraud based on a picture of a 1997 demonstration

Pictures that show 800k 9/12 crowd in DC are from 1997 Promise Keepers
event

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...arty-photo-shows-large-crowd-different-event/


... Yet the photograph [claimed to be from 6/12] so widely posted
showed the crowd sprawling all the way to the Washington Monument,
which is bordered by 15th and and 17th Streets.

There's another problem with the photograph: It doesn't include the
National Museum of the American Indian, a building located at the
corner of Fourth Street and Independence Avenue that opened on
Sept. 14, 2004. (Looking at the photograph, the building should be in
the upper right hand corner of the National Mall, next to the Air and
Space Museum.) That means the picture was taken before the museum
opened exactly five years ago. So clearly the photo doesn't show the
"tea party" crowd from the Sept. 12 protest.

Also worth noting are the cranes in front of the Smithsonian Museum of
Natural History. According to Randall Kremer, the museum's director of
public affairs, "The last time cranes were in front was in the 1990s
when the IMAX theater was being built."

It appears that the photo was actually taken in 1997 at a rally for
Promise Keepers, a group for Christian men. According to the group's
Web site, nearly 1 million people attended the event. Photos of the
Oct. 4, 1997, event that were posted on various Web sites in 2003,
2008 and earlier this year show either the same picture or a similar
photo that has identical tents and what appear to be TV screens in the
same locations.

Conservative bloggers who originally posted the picture have backed
down.
 
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The 800k figure is a fraud based on a picture of a 1997 demonstration
No, it is not. That the photo is of the wrong rally shows that the photo is just not relevant to the question.

As I mentioned in the other thread, recent, quantitative estimates of the Obama inaguration showed that could to be some 850,000. On this basis, we could agree that the 912 rally had a lower count. How much lower? At one location, an electronic meter registered 450,000 in one hour. (But I have not seen this verified...eg...what kind of meter??? who had it???)

A spokesman for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services estimated the crowd at "in excess of 75,000" people.

This is also unsatisfactory. Who? When? Got a name? An actual web link? NO? Okay, then stop repeating the rumour as factual.

Somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000, perhaps. I'll stick with a best guess of 270,000.
 
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Okay, I asked this in another thread and got no serious response, but I'm actually looking for a serious response. Does anyone have any sources of crowd-size estimates from the Tea Party protests in DC this past weekend?

Thanks in advance.

Whatever the actual number is, it will be far less than the teabaggers claim.

Most credible sources put it around 60-70K.
 
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Okay, I asked this in another thread and got no serious response, but I'm actually looking for a serious response. Does anyone have any sources of crowd-size estimates from the Tea Party protests in DC this past weekend?

Thanks in advance.
It was estimated at 60,000 to 70,000 people:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tea-party-protesters-march-washington/story?id=8557120

The other figures are fantasies by crazy people. Some who have apparantely infiltrated this forum.
 
There is absolutely no way that the crowd was anywhere near 270k.

Maybe, at the most, 100k. But probably closer to 70k.
 
If attendance was as high as a quarter million people, I would suspect hard data supporting the higher numbers exists. An unexplained increase in sales of bottled water? Portapotty rentals above average? Higher gas sales, higher convenience store sales, higher fast food sales? Hard numbers would be good but even anecdotal evidence from interviews with store managers would be something.
 
As I mentioned in the other thread, recent, quantitative estimates of the Obama inaguration showed that could to be some 850,000. On this basis, we could agree that the 912 rally had a lower count. How much lower? At one location, an electronic meter registered 450,000 in one hour. (But I have not seen this verified...eg...what kind of meter??? who had it???)

A spokesman for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services estimated the crowd at "in excess of 75,000" people.

This is also unsatisfactory. Who? When? Got a name? An actual web link? NO? Okay, then stop repeating the rumour as factual.

Interesting, you dismiss this claim and then...
Somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000, perhaps. I'll stick with a best guess of 270,000.

...you make up a suitable range using no data whatsoever. You should also note that I posted in the thread where you arrived at the 270k and provided my rationale why it would be significantly less than your estimate.
 
If attendance was as high as a quarter million people, I would suspect hard data supporting the higher numbers exists. An unexplained increase in sales of bottled water? Portapotty rentals above average? . . . .

Don't be silly.
Portapottys provided for common use at the gathering would be socialist. You know they just held it until they got home, then went out in the backyard behind the rose bushes. Can't be too careful - those socialistic public wastewater treatment systems are putting us on a slippery slope to communism.
 
As an aside, while not liking poop in the streets, I don't agree with government arguments that they can put a halt to "peaceful assemblies seeking redress for grievences" claiming not enough potties is thus not peaceful.

If push came to shove, the porta-pottie thing should be waived, by the SC if necessary. I no more support that than I do Bush's "protest permitted" zones, well away from the parades.
 
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Maybe this is a stupid question, but aren't there enough overhead photos of the crowd that someone who really wanted to know could actually do a head count and a reasonable extrapolation?
 
Whatever the actual number is, it will be far less than the teabaggers claim.

Most credible sources put it around 60-70K.

What sources?

ETA: Got the link from ABC News and the DC fire department - thanks. Any others? I'd say that based upon this info, so far, it looks to me like the Tea Party folks came in at under 100,000. But I'm willing to look at more data.
 
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This is also unsatisfactory. Who? When? Got a name? An actual web link? NO? Okay, then stop repeating the rumour as factual.

Somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000, perhaps. I'll stick with a best guess of 270,000.

Ahem, mhaze... please follow your own advice, and provide me with a link on your 270k guesstimate. I know, I know, I'm lazy for not wanting to go back through the other thread and dig past 5-6 pages of ranting to find it.

C'mon, help a brother out :)
 
Crowd guessing is tough "science"...;)

But what does it matter? 70,000 racists are no more powerful
than 60,000 racists...

If they were wearing white hoods (opps, I meant hoodies) the count would be sooooo much easier.
 

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