Anarchists wander Pepsi Center perimeter

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/26/anarchists-wander-pepsi-center-perimeter/

PEPSI CENTER — Four self-proclaimed anarchists trolled the perimeter of the Democratic National Convention grounds late this afternoon looking for comrades and a confrontation.

But action was hard to find.

They started at the Auraria Parkway entrance to the Pepsi Center rounds where the convention is being held and surveyed the heavy police presence and took some video of what they saw with a small hand-held recorder.

“No pictures!” shouted an officer from behind a perimeter fence.

“Why not?,” asked Chas Robles, of Ridgecrest, Calif.

“Because the Secret Service says so,” the officer replied.

“That’s not right. You’re not my mom,” Robles said.

“Then go home to your mommy,” the officer retorted.

Robles, who leads a conservation crew in the Mojave Desert, and his compatriots moved on.

“Where are we going guys?” asked Brendan, a Norman, Okla., resident who asked that his last name not be used so he can’t be identified. “I’ve been antsy to see something all day, and we haven’t seen anything.”

They all say they want to join with fellow protesters and confront police again like last evening in Civic Center, where police on horseback and in riot gear used pepper spray and batons to break up a demonstration and arrested 91 people. Robles said anarchists are here from all over America and stay in touch via a Web site to coordinate their civil disobedience efforts.

Robles and John Artakovich, 18, of Santa Cruz, Calif., said they were part of last night’s confrontation and were detained by police but not arrested. They maintained the anarchists were protesting peacefully and police provoked the confrontation.

“You could see it in their eyes, that they wanted some sort of aggression ,” said Robles. “They treated us like animals.”

They wanted more tonight.

“I don’t want to get arrested, but I’m willing,” said Artakovich.

“When the people you elect don’t protect your freedoms, you got to do something,” added Robles. He wore a red cloth triangle pinned to his dirty yellow T-shirt sleeve and said it was the symbol Nazis used to designate political prisoners in concentration camps .

They moved on to the Market Street entrance south of the Pepsi Center grounds where Robles and his pals made a beeline for a group of anti-abortion protesters. He entered into an animated debate with one of them that lasted nearly 10 minutes.

“I probably shouldn’t have done that,” he said later. “I just can’t help myself.”

Robles said anarchism means something different to each individual involved.

For Attila Balazs, a café manager from Norman, Okla., it means changing to a completely local form of government, a system he calls “self-sustaining local government.”

“Fuel your bike with local organic fuel,” he said. “That’s anarchy for me right there.”

Ending big government isn’t Robles' objective. The big issues for Robles are ending the war, providing affordable health care for everyone and ending corporate influence in America.

“I’m not opposed to big governments, but they have to protect the people from big corporations,” he said, “but right now they aren’t protecting us or helping us.”

The quartet checked on the free-speech area set off near the Pepsi Center for use by protesters.

“I guess we were too late,” Robles said after finding it nearly vacant.

“Tell the truth,” he said as the four anarchists headed away from the Pepsi Center in search of a meal and some like-minded comrades.