DNC protesters, public can use VIP lot at Invesco

[davidnc76]

Source: AP/examiner.com

DENVER (Map, News) - Protesters and anyone else who's just curious will be able to gather in a VIP parking lot next to Invesco Field at Mile High on the closing day of the Democratic National Convention.

The city announced Monday that the designated 53,000-square-foot-area in parking lot J is within sight and sound of delegates arriving to hear Barack Obama's acceptance speech. Previously the city had released a map of a parade route for protesters that would have kept them at the border of the stadium's grounds. Protesters will use that route and then enter onto Invesco's grounds to get to the demonstration zone.

In a written statement, mayor's spokeswoman Sue Cobb said people in the demonstration zone are entitled under Denver law to use bullhorns to get their point across. In addition, the city will also provide a riser and a microphone attached to at least two speakers outside the area.

At the Pepsi Center, the site for the first three days of the convention, protesters may only demonstrate in a parking lot far from the entrance to the arena.

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/a-1521359~DNC_protesters__public_can_use_VIP_lot_at_Invesco.html

[sorval]

1. now we are as bad as they are

The convention should be a showcase for rolling back the BS of the Republican years, including their fascist "protest zones" idea -- as if the right to non-disruptively object was something they are able to grant and not something that is guaranteed to us in any public space by the constitution.

They would do well to just allow the protesters to protest where they want, minus a walking corridor and tough it out.
Grow some stones Dems, show them how it's done. Let's get back to the way things should be, and end the fascism.
Plus most of the protesters will be Neanderthal Repub morons, and it pays to give them a spotlight, they will embarrass themselves, you can bank on it.

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

2. Wrong - many protestors will be on the far left

Think of 1968 or 2000 for that matter...most of the protest outside the DNC was from the radical left, not the right.

[formercia]

3. Radical Left

Many were FBI agents infiltrating the movement.

[endarkenment]

6. Oh bullshit

were you there? Of course there were some intelligence operatives in the movement, but the movement itself was us, the people, the sons and daughters of america, we were out in the streets because we were getting our asses hauled off to fight in the previous really fucked up war, we were out in the streets because Martin, Malcom, Jack and Bobby had been gunned down, we were out in the streets because we had a vision of a different path, a different world and we thought we could make it happen, not because some FBI idiot made us do it.

[formercia]

7. The violence was provoked by the authorities

and it did the job intended. It discredited the Left in the eyes of the voters.

Read Agents of Repression and background on COINTELPRO.

[endarkenment]

8. The violence at the 68 convention was initiated by the Chicago Police

department and not by, as was insinuated by the post I responded to, FBI agents among the protesters.

The left was never credible 'in the eyes of the voters', at least not since the 30s.

Take a small step back: Bobby Kennedy had just been very conveniently assassinated, ending an insurgency candidacy within the Democratic Party that actually threatened the War Party's control of the system. That assassination and the subsequent nomination of Humphrey were what guaranteed Nixon's victory. Who benefited? Who the heck was Sirhan Sirhan? If you want conspiracies and covert operations try looking over there.

As for the violence in the streets after the assassination of Martin and at the 68 convention after the assassination of Bobby, and the turmoil of the Nixon years - we did what we had to do. We created a climate of resistance and a support network that wrecked the draft and ended the ability of our government to field a conscript army for their imperial adventures. It took them 30 years to re-organize a new 'professional' (and half mercenary) army to resume the game.

Fear of the cointelpro boogeyman is just another way they have to paralyze us.

[zanne]

10. And the victors have written history. nt

[formercia]

11. And municipalities spent Billions buying riot gear and paying

the salaries of officers assigned to tactical units over the years that could have been used more effectively elsewhere. If anybody won, it was the Military Industrial Complex that manufactures the equipment.

The right wing reactionaries got their rationale for a counter-revolution, and if you hadn't noticed, they're still in charge and we're still engaging in illegal wars of aggression.

[formercia]

12. "Were you there?"

Not in Chicago, perhaps, but I was in Philadelphia during that period and watched first-hand as some of Frank Rizzo's crew beat a group of totally innocent black men to a bloody pulp. When the onlookers that gathered protested, the police attacked them too.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Rizzo

Rizzo joined the Philadelphia Police Department in the 1940s, rising through the ranks to become Police Commissioner in 1967. He served in that role during the turbulent years of 1967 to 1971, garnering a reputation as a tough, hands-on Commissioner.

One of the most notorious moves by Rizzo's police officers were the raids on the Philadelphia offices of the Black Panther Party on August 31, 1970. The raids took place a week before the Panthers planned to convene a "People's Revolutionary Convention" at Temple University. As pretext, the police used recent killings of two cops (one incident was the August 29, 1970 shooting of Fairmount Park Police Sgt. Frank Von Colln), which were not connected to the Panthers. Rizzo forced the arrested Panthers to strip and stand--some in their underwear, some completely naked--in front of the news cameras. The picture ran on the front page of the Philadelphia Daily News, and was seen around the world. <1> <2><3>

In other respects, Rizzo was also not a typical commissioner. He sometimes quarreled with the city's mayor, James H. J. Tate. He was boisterous and brooding, particularly to media. A biography of Rizzo, with an introduction written by future police commissioner John Timoney, recounted: "Of one group of anti-police demonstrators, he is reported to have said, 'When I'm finished with them, I'll make Attila the Hun look like a fag.'" A female reporter who covered the Rizzo years, Andrea Mitchell (now of NBC News), recounted routine brutish behavior as part of a broad pattern of bravado.

--snip--

[annabanana]

4. yeah. . . the "radical left" was outside in '68

:eyes:

[formercia]

13. I was trying to be sarcastic

The "radical left" was a creation of the authorities and the media.

[TechBear_Seattle]

9. What do you mean, "as bad as they are?" Bill Clinton created the "protest zones"

Seattle, Washington, 1999, the WTO Ministerial. When things got out out of control (largely because of severe overreaction by the Seattle PD and the King County Sherrif's office), the entire downdown was declared a "no protest zone" at President Clinton's order. He did not want to "embarass" the visiting dignitaries and decided that unilateral elimination of First Amendment rights was the best way to accomplish this. When there was a very strong public outcry, he relented somewhat: the size of the "no protest zone" was reduced from the entire downtown to about 24 blocks, and a special zone within that 24 blocks was set aside for protestors. Of course, that zone was as far away from the meeting venues as possible.

[jdadd]

5. Heres the response I recieved from the DNC

along with my E-Mail to them....

Thank you for contacting us. Details on the public viewing areas and parade routes are managed by the City of Denver, not the Democratic National Convention Committee. For additional information on this matter, we recommend you contact the City of Denver at 720.913.1311.



From:
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 6:43 AM
To: Info
Subject: No Free speech zones.....



This letter is in response to the planned "free speech zones" at the convention. Hey people get a clue...this whole country is a free speech zone!! I'm a life long Democrat, I got my feet wet working to elect Democrats in 1964. I feel this is something the Democratic party should not even consider.

John
Lexington, Ohio