Amy Goodman:
The bulwark against tyranny is dissent. Open opposition, the right to challenge those in power, is a mainstay of any healthy democracy. The Democratic and Republican conventions will test the commitment of the two dominant U.S. political parties to the cherished tradition of dissent. Things are not looking good.
Denver’s CBS4 News just reported that the city is planning on jailing arrested Democratic convention protesters at a warehouse with barbed-wire-topped cages and signs warning of the threat of stun gun use. Meanwhile, a federal judge has ruled that a designated protest area is legal, despite claims that protesters will be too far from the Democratic delegates to be heard. More.
2 comments:
Given the planned demonstrations and marches in Denver, particularly given that one of the groups, Recreate '68, intends to "defend itself" as it occupies one of the parks that it was denied a permit for, they might just need a pretty big concentration camp for arrested protesters.
What kind of a message will that be sending?
See http://www.recreate68.com/
And don't forget the pepper balls.
A while back Democracy Now gave reports on how the armaments were being acquired both in Denver and Minneapolis. The Republicans (well the police department up there) has laid in a new supply of tasers (the number was 200 and
some.)
In Denver the armament of choice is pepper balls. This is like paint balls only with pepper spray content. I suppose they will be more 'accurate' than the usual
pepper bombs used over the years.
While these national protests are important to show dissent I reject the idea of recreate68. Nobody is trying to recreatekentstate... at least I hope not.
There is a certain amount of masochism involved with making a trip across country to relive the good old days. There were no good old days except for those who
always have good old days no matter what the era.
The more significant action is local. Look around. If you are bored, if the cops are arming up there's all sorts of stuff to do to monitor and put on notice the
local authorities. It's called Cop Watch. Citizen organizations look at what sorts of armaments are being cached by local cops and to control the amount of ilitarization and _lethality_ permitted by local police forces.
Do _you_ know what the local SWAT team has in their ready room?
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