Peaceful protests at the RNC turn into the biggest riot in more than a decade in the US. Is more to come as the week goes on?
With the leading lights of the GOP hanging back to see what aid they can render to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf coast, protesters from about 180 diverse groups gathered in St. Paul on Monday to express their dissatisfaction with the Republican party, global capitalism, meat eaters, big oil, washing regularly, neocons, corporate coffee, the military industrial complex, Jews, immunization, working for a living and of course "the man" in all his forms. The protesters included a lot of the usual hippies and peaceniks plus a surprisingly large contingent of several hundred black-uniformed hardcore anarchists who had brought their own gas masks and riot gear. Unlike the bulk of the protesters and in a way contrary to their ideology, the black-shirts were organized and far from peaceful.…
Article comments
26 - Clavos
the savage use of das boot to quell unrest
Why were the police using U-boats?
27 - Arch Conservative
Any way you wanna try to spin it, these people are worthless losers and that's all there really is to say about the situation.
28 - Pablo
Nice German lesson, thanks I needed that.
Arch,
No you spun it just fine kiddo.
29 - Dr Dreadful
Das Boot is a mesmerizing film*, and the suggestion of its use to quell riots is not all that far-fetched. A judicious and well-timed screening (projected against, say, a side wall of whatever building was being picketed) would be sure to make the rioters quickly forget about throwing Molotov cocktails and become absorbed in the gripping tale of the crew of U-96.
* Actually, it was originally a 6-part TV miniseries, edited to buggery for theatrical release.
30 - Deano
Did you ever by chance see the SCTV version Das Boobs?
31 - lLumpy
there's a right way to protest and a wrong way to protest. breaking windows and attacking people and damaging property is the wrong way. it negates completely whatever message you want to send and just tells people you're thugs.
32 - Cannonshop
The lack of national coverage may do more than a thousand riot cops could. Rioters and self-described "Anarchists" do what they do as a means of advertising their cause (such as it is). If they can trash downtown, and it Doesn't make the evening news, they lose even if they make a mess.
33 - Frankster
Faux news? i like how if you go to CNN's election center, CNN dot com/ELECTION/2008/ you have a greater than 50% chance of seeing an Obama campaign ad.
Fox does not have a McCain ad up at all.
And if you go to Foxes Forums you get Dems and Repubs, at CNN you get Ultra Leftists that scream in your face allllll day.
34 - Frankster
I love it, PEACE demonstrators RIOTING. Ony Libs
35 - Dave Nalle
I was watching some of the CNN convention coverage today. Their idea of covering the GOP convention is to put 6 liberal pundits on screen and discuss how the various stories are being reported while ignoring anything actually going on at the convention.
Dave
36 - Dave Nalle
Just to make Lisa happy, I have to report that about 1000 peaceful (this time) protesters seem to have been gratuitously tear gassed by the St. Paul police in an effort to move them to an approved location farther from the convention hall.
Dave
37 - Jordan Richardson
I was watching some of the CNN convention coverage today. Their idea of covering the GOP convention is to put 6 liberal pundits on screen and discuss how the various stories are being reported while ignoring anything actually going on at the convention.
Yep. That was also their idea of covering the Dem convention, except with 6 conservative pundits and, for some reason, less drinking water.
38 - Clavos
I have to report that about 1000 peaceful (this time) protesters seem to have been gratuitously tear gassed by the St. Paul police in an effort to move them to an approved location farther from the convention hall.
They must not have had enough cattle prods...
39 - Dave Nalle
Since the RNC Welcoming Committee may have distributed hundreds of tasers to the protesters I imagine the police stuck with tear gas to keep a safe distance.
They did get them herded into a fenced in coral, though. I imagine next it's onto the conveyor belt and down to the hammer and the sluices.
Dave
40 - Cannonshop
Hmmm... St. Paul cops? but isn't St. Paul a Democrat stronghold? The cops should have had no trouble moving the protesters without gassing them.
huh. curious.
41 - Ruvy
Looking st all these comments, the obvious seems to be staring you all in the face - AND YOU JUST DON'T WANT TO SAY IT OUT LOUD.
The police state warned of by "conspiracy theorists" and "wacko nutjobs" that so many of you make fun of seems to have arrived, in force. In comment #20, Dave wrote, They did arrest several bloggers in advance, including some of those performance-art style protest journalists like the guys who got arrested in Beijing who I covered in a previous article.
This You Tube video links to the arrest he referred to. The fellow who had his stuff confiscated by the police was walking to a friend's house with his colleagues when police vans pulled up to confiscate their equipment. They were doing nothing illegal. It is not illegal to walk on a street in Minneapolis. G-d knows, I've done it enough, I should know. Note please, this video was released to You Tube on 27 August. This was before the RNC began.
Now, I don't necessarily like the National Lawyers Guild. And I tend to like Pam Geller, who puts up Atlas Shrugged, Dave's link to the arrests of that bunch of folks where the cops planted weapons. But that is not the point. The point is that those who could have kept the peace in the Twin Cities were deliberately taken out of the action by the police - before the action even began. So, the violent demonstrations that took place were foreordained by the St. Paul Police and other "law enforcement" agencies.
This is the point my friend Dori tried to make in her letter to several state legislators that I posted above.
I have not heard from her, by the way. I find that worrisome.
So forget that shit about what may happen soon. The dictatorship has arrived in the States.
You may not like that, and you may like it even less coming from someone who is writing from overseas, but I understand English just as well as all of you. In the land of the free, those who seek freedom will go homeless.
Have fun in Yankeeland, folks. With time, you will see Technocrati and this site (which Technocrati owns) intimidated as well.
MARK MY WORDS - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
42 - Arch Conservative
Why is it that when abortion protestors stage their protests they don't feel the need to riot, damage public property, throw things/assault others who disagree with them and disobey and assault police officers like these fine upsatnding citizens in Minnesota who are just expressing their first amendment right?
43 - Cannonshop
Well, Arch, I would suggest it's because they're busy quietly planting bombs or shooting doctors. (Hey, if we're going to play the Stereotype Game, then it's Game On. Plenty of blood to go around, I say!)
Most Peace protesters are...Peaceful. MOST of them aren't interested in hurting anyone or vandalizing property. If anything, they need to be protected from the dickheads that ARE interested in hurting people, and WANT to damage property, because that sort, the violent, fanatical fringe sorts, crowd out the message with destructive idiocy.
44 - Arch Conservative
Cannonshop I can count on one hand the number of people in the anti abortion crowd that have actually blown up a clinic or shot someone in the last 25 years.
The other day alone there were 284 of these idiots protestors arrested for getting violent and destroying public property.
If you're going to enagage in a compare and contrast argument please have some fucking idea what you're talking about. Is that too much to ask?
45 - Dave Nalle
Sorry, Arch, I think we have to put every thug who stands outside a clinic shouting 'babykiller' and trying to intimidate and scare the customers in the same category as the rioters.
Dave
46 - Arch Conservative
"Sorry, Arch, I think we have to put every thug who stands outside a clinic shouting 'babykiller' and trying to intimidate and scare the customers in the same category as the rioters."
Why? They're not rioting.
They're not destroying public property.
They're not throwing things or hitting people.
They're not blocking public ways.
They're not assaulting cops.
They actually believe in the reason that they're there.
47 - zingzing
"They actually believe in the reason that they're there."
locomotion?
48 - Cannonshop
Arch, they CAN be, because intimidation is intimidation, threats are threats. It doesn't matter how much the person "Believes" or not-except possibly that someone weak in their belief is less likely to step over the line from making threats, to killing people.
49 - Arch Conservative
So basically you're saying that every abortion protestor when taking part in a protest, threatens to kill someone?
If you can't at least make an effort to deal with the relaity of these two different types of protestors I cannot take you seriously Cannon.
50 - Cannonshop
Well, are you saying all peace protesters are violent, vandalizing, mask-wearing thugs? Because from the start of this, that WAS your insinuation. Recall, I said..."Hey, if we're going to play the Stereotype Game, then it's Game On. "
This was in response to your comment:
"Why is it that when abortion protestors stage their protests they don't feel the need to riot, damage public property, throw things/assault others who disagree with them and disobey and assault police officers like these fine upsatnding citizens in Minnesota who are just expressing their first amendment right?"
Now, I guess I could've addressed your point with deadpan seriousness, or not warned you ahead of time.