February 15, 2003, more than 500,000 demonstrators protested in the streets of New York City against the Bush administration's drive to war against Iraq. Mayor Bloomberg denied the organizers a permit to march to the United Nations. As a consequence, the New York Police Department developed strategies to divert the protesters from the permitted rally point at 1st Avenue and 52nd Street, 7 blocks away from the United Nations. There was much confusion in the streets. Many demonstrators compared the overwhelming police presence and enforcement tactics to a "police state." In this photo, protesters are on Fifth Avenue in front of the New York Public Library. NYC Indymedia reported more than 300 were arrests on February 15.

This photoessay attempts to give a sense of what it was like in the streets of New York City on that cold February day.