I was driving out of Manhattan yesterday after picking up 2 sick foster cats from PetCo at Union Square. Yes, that's how I spend too much of my time. About two blocks from the Midtown Tunnel, I heard on the radio that people were protesting last month's verdict on the shooting of Sean Bell (the unarmed black man who was shot by three police officers, of which two of them were black). The protesters had just blocked the onramp to the Queensborough Bridge, shutting down traffic. As I crossed 2nd Avenue on 36th Street, I saw a dozen police officers standing there staring south.

Down 2nd Ave, a block away, a crowd of people were marching towards me. It looked like at least a hundred people spilling off the sidewalk into the avenue. They were carrying white signs without the sticks, because that's illegal in NYC. I zipped into the tunnel just as they were arriving to shut down traffic behind me coming in from 36th Street.

I have to say my first feeling was relief. I really didn't want to get blocked from getting out of Manhattan during rush hour. I had to get these cats to the vet, go pick up my thyroid prescription, blah, blah, blah. I'm sure the drivers who got blocked behind me felt the same way – "Why inconvenience me? I had nothing to do with the Sean Bell verdict."

But as I drove home, I realized it was a really smart move. How many protests have I attended that got NO attention whatsoever from the media or officials? I remember the huge peace march near the United Nations that Kel and I went to prior to the US invasion of Iraq. There were at least 100,000 people. Block after block of 1st Avenue was filled with protesters and late arrivals were being routed up to the 60's to get onto 1st Ave. But we were orderly and didn't block cross streets or the bridges and tunnels.

Afterwards I had to search to find the briefest mention of the enormous protest. Only local rags in NYC carried it. And the number of people was grossly underestimated by the media and police. CNN showed a few stragglers, completely misrepresenting the scope of the march. It sucked in every way possible that our message was blocked by those in power.

But I woke up this morning and found that under a thousand protesters had done such a good job in shutting down the rush-hour commute that it's a top news story today. Al Sharpton got arrested. I'm not a big fan of his, but whoever thought up this idea for a protest – a peaceful pray-in at the onramps of bridges and tunnels – is brilliant in my book.

What do you want to bet that the people who were blocked from leaving Manhattan don't feel the same?