The Truth About Protester Scare Stories

[G_j]

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..

[G_j]

1. ~kick

[G_j]

2. Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests

http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/mickeyz08272004/

Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
(But More Generals, Please)

By Mickey Z.

The August 26, 2004 New York Daily News headline blared: ANARCHY, INC. The idea, of course, was to paint the upcoming RNC protests with the broad brush of corporate media propaganda. An influential ingredient of wartime spin is shaping public perception of the anti-war movement. As a result, coverage of demonstrations is usually a tepid combination of low crowd estimates and footage of police arresting “unruly” protestors.

“War, and the threat of war, sells newspapers,” says media analyst Danny Schechter. “Peace does not. The ‘action’ of war builds TV ratings. In contrast, the quieter work of diplomacy and negotiations is boring and not highly visual. War gives journalists a chance to show how brave they are in a macho sport where only the strong survive. Peace is far headier, an intellectual’s vocation, a game for lawyers, softies and sissies.”

Protest for peace also suggests the turbulence of the 1960s...turbulence that led Lyndon Johnson to conclude, “The weakest link in our armor is American public opinion. Our people won’t stand firm in the face of heavy losses, and they can bring down the government.” The protests didn’t end with the Sixties. At a 1971 anti-war demonstration in Washington, DC, 14,000 protestors were arrested. As author H. Bruce Franklin notes, 14,000 would have been considered a “good size march in 1965.”

Clearly, our “memories” of that era must be purified.

..more..

[liberal N proud]

3. This is the image that the GOP wants everyone to see when they think

about protest. It is part of the fear and smear campaign tactics they propagate.

[ikojo]

4. These scare stories resonate with the public...the weekend of May 16

2003 St Louis was host to the World Agricultural Forum which was a pro Monsanto and pro Genetic Engineering meeting. Well there was also an alternative conference at one of the local community colleges. There was also a protest planned for that Sunday.

St Louis media and police got wind of the planned protests and engaged the services of some "security" organization from SEATTLE who painted pictures of "50,000 "Seattle" anarchists" on their way to disrupt the serene and empty streets of downtown St Louis. E mails were sent to downtown businesses urging them to suggest that employees who drive SUVs not drive them to work that week (because we all know the "anarchists" hate those who drive SUVs). Businesses boarded up their windows.

The police also did what was called "preemptive" arrests. They raided two places in South St Louis, a collective housing group and the home of St Louis indymedia, the CAMP building. They ransacked the places and took computers and other equipment. Both places were being rehabbed so both places had nails and such laying around. These things were taken as proof that the groups were working on pipe bombs and presented to the media as such.

Bicyclists with the Banana Bicycle Brigade (a sort of bike circus) were arrested for riding the streets of St Louis without a permit. Come to find out no such law existed at the time and had been removed a couple of years prior to this gathering.

An organizer who met with the Chamber of Commerce was stopped after the meeting and arrested for the crime of possessing VITAMINS that the cops mistook for DRUGS!

This is but a short and incomplete summary of what happened the weekend of May 16, 2003 in St Louis, MO. Oh by the way the mayor and governor of Missouri are DEMOCRATS.