This is not a VIOLENT PROTEST, but members of NYPD portray it as such!

[wndycty]

This is what concerns me about the issue of violence at the Republican National Convention. We definately need to make sure things remain peaceful, HOWEVER it looks like the definition of VIOLENCE this upcoming week in NYC is going to be very SUBJECTIVE!

PLAZA KOOKS INN TROUBLE


By TATIANA DELIGIANNAKIS, PHILIP MESSING and DAN MANGAN

August 27, 2004 -- Four activists who hung a huge banner on the front of the swanky Plaza hotel yesterday in an early protest of the Republican National Convention face up to 25 years in prison because a cop was severely hurt during the quartet's roundup.

Two of the protesters from a group they called Operation Sibyl rappelled down the façade of The Plaza around 8 a.m. using grappling hooks, ropes and other climbing gear to drape the sign. It featured an arrow labeled "Truth" pointing one way, and an arrow labeled "Bush" in the opposite direction.

The two other activists assisted their cohorts from the roof of the hotel at Fifth Avenue and Central Park South, and where they had checked in as guests the night before.
-snip-

Because of Diaz's injury, the four activists who hung the sign were charged with first-degree assault — which carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years — as well as reckless endangerment, criminal trespass, conducting an unlawful street show, unlawful posting of an advertisement, and failing to obtain a license to hang a sign larger than 75 feet.
-snip-

Robert Mlandinich, a spokesman for the Sergeants' Benevolent Association, blasted Thies for his role as spokesman for the group, saying "this man is representing an organization that is conducting illegal actions, and in this particular case it led to violence."

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/27611.htm


ROOF GALL:
Terra Lawson-Rember (above) rappels from The Plaza roof into the waiting arms of a cop yesterday after hanging her protest sign.
Eric Hollender

Now let's get real, this was NON VIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE and if the Sergeants' Benevolent Association is going to portray this as violence its going to be long damn week.

[SoCalDem]

1. The cop was WARNED to stay off the skylight...

One of those cops, seven-year veteran Sgt. Joseph Diaz, cut open his leg when he fell through a skylight on the roof, and required 38 stitches when he was treated at Bellevue Hospital, according to police.

Thies, who is also communications director for city Councilman David Yassky, said one of the activists had warned the sergeant not to remain on the skylight because it was cracked, but claimed Diaz ignored the warning. "The last thing we wanted to have happen is anyone to get hurt," said Thies.



Because of Diaz's injury, the four activists who hung the sign were charged with first-degree assault — which carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years — as well as reckless endangerment, criminal trespass, conducting an unlawful street show, unlawful posting of an advertisement, and failing to obtain a license to hang a sign larger than 75

[NewYorkerfromMass]

10. Ahem- It was the cop's personal responsibility to not be stupid

The cop was a stupid fucking idiot. And I know a lot of cops. They aren't all idiots.

[wndycty]

11. Exactly

:kick:

[NMDemDist2]

2. holy crap

the activists are "violent" because a cop stepped on a skylite?

good grief

[wndycty]

3. There is probably legal basis for this, but not rational basis. . .

. . .if you commit an illegal act and someone get's hurt you can be held liable, however to call it violence is just stupid.

[sendero]

4. I think even....

... a stupid jury is going to have a hard time agreeing with this.

This is tantamount to saying that if a cop wrecks his car and injures himself responding to a jaywalking call, the jaywalker is guilty of assault. Total and abject bullshit.

[wndycty]

5. I hope that people don't roll over and accept that the protests as violent

. . .based on flimsy allegations of violence.

[telamachus]

6. I saw this on CNN

And they did not mention this 'detail'. They showed the sign for a while..though it was great. sorry about the police officer but 25 years for civil disobedience!

[wndycty]

7. Exactly

:kick:

[LondonAmerican]

8. The NYPD are swine nt.

[G_j]

9. Protester Scare Stories

why doesn't the media do more than parrot a lie?

-.-
Laura Flanders questions why demonstrators are thought
of as violent.
http://www.alternet.org/election04/19667/

Protester Scare Stories

By Laura Flanders, Air America Radio. Posted August 26, 2004.


The story we have been hearing for years about demonstrators performing acts of violence at demonstrations doesn't fit with the facts. "Anarchists Emerge as the Convention's Wild Card." That was the headline of a front page piece of the August 20 New York Times. The story by Randal C. Archibold kicked off this way:

Their reputation precedes them. Self-described anarchists were blamed for inciting the violence in Seattle at a 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization in which 500 people were arrested and several businesses damaged. They have been accused by the police of throwing rocks or threatening officers with liquid substances at demonstrations against the Republican convention in Philadelphia in 2000 and at an economic summit meeting in Miami last year. Now, as the Republican National Convention is about to begin in New York City, the police are bracing for the actions of this loosely aligned and often shadowy group of protesters, and consider them the great unknown factor in whether the demonstrations remain under control or veer toward violence."

For many readers, the story won't raise any eyebrows. Archibold's narrative goes down easy because it's the story we've been hearing for years: Violence at demonstrations is the fault of shadowy anarchists, a group with a habit of disrupting protests and attacking police. Their reputation precedes them. It's true, but it's a reputation brought to you by the status quo media machine. We the Constitution-loving public would be a whole lot better prepared these days, if we actually had the facts.

As the Kerry Swift boat story tells us, being blamed isn't the same as being guilty. Want to know who started the violence in Seattle? Ask the media who covered the protests early on. From-the-scene reports showed that it was the police who locked down the city, used chemical weapons on penned-in crowds, and fired rubber bullets at nonviolent demonstrators – even at bystanders and families trying to flee.

..more..