Live from DNC: It’s Zombietime! (Day 2)
6:10 pm PST — A Big Mosque in the Center of Denver
Crossposted at Little Green Footballs
I first arrived in Denver’s Civic Center Park expecting to see hordes of anarchists and protesters. Instead, I was confronted with…
…this huge mosque made of translucent fabric.
It was put together by a group called “Pictures of You,” which is (according to its flier) part of The Manjushri Project.
The mosque is composed of photographic portraits of Iranians which can be viewed from either side. For some reason, a preponderance of the portraits depicted attractive young Iranian women. I wonder why.
“Pictures of You” handed out fliers with a quote by the Sufi poet Rumi, whom they said was their inspiration. The lines in Rumi’s poem are addressed to “you,” and the Manjushri Project folks want us to believe that “you” means the reader, but of course Rumi was actually addressing God. But in this “it’s all about me!” modern world we inhabit, the marketing team (correctly) calculated that Americans would think Rumi was addressing them personally.
The purpose of the exhibit was “transparently” to arouse sympathy for the Iranian people and discourage any US military action aimed at stopping the Iranian government from getting a nuclear bomb. Or so it seemed to me.
And it’s a great bonus to have an excuse to plop a big mosque in the center of Denver, temporary though it might be.
12: 15 pm PST — Liveblogging from the Kos Tent with Dan Rather
I’m sitting in “The Big Tent,” a “space” co-sponsored by Daily Kos for “alternative media.” RIght now, as I type, Dan Rather is standing about 8 feet above my head, giving some longwinded diatribe about media ethics to a room half full of Kos supporters.
12:38
Despite the fact that this building/tent/“space” is supposed to be for the little guy, the blogger, the citizens journalists excluded from the mainstream media tent at the Pepsi Center, it is just as elitist and exclusionary.
12:39
One has to have registered long beforehand and/or paid a fee to gain admission, and been vetted for approval by the “Big Tent” staff — I presume people like me would probably have been excluded for ideological reasons.
12:39
Luckily, I was able to charm my way in under a different persona
12:41
It’s extremely crowded with left-wing bloggers and “new media” types. Everyone is (like me) frantically posting things to their blogs. Nonprofits have little booths around the room handed out freebies.
12:41
Me, I’m mainly here for the free wi-fi connection. I gave Dan Rather about 10 minutes of my life before bailing out. Utterly tedious. And without the stage makeup, he’s a little haggard.
12:42
So, what’s happened today so far?
12:42
I started the day off at Civic Center Park once again, where there were a variety of scheduled protests. But as always, it was the unscheduled that took priority.
12:44
A group of anti-homosexual Christian activists set up camp right in the middle of the radical leftist protesters, and began shouting about Sodom and Gomorrahe through megaphones. These were the exact same guys I saw at the Tookie Williams execution and the “Walk for Life” in San Francisco.
12:45
As with those other events, they were quickly surrounded by detractors. The Christians were actually quite humourous in their shpiel, even though I disagree with them and think they’re a bit nuts.
Before long, a communist cult member (couldn’t tell which group he was with — the Wobblies or World Can’t Wait or something), tried to attack them
12:46
The police rushed in and arrested the communist for trying to get violent against the Christians, and dragged him off with a horse-cop mounted police escort.
12:48
Needless to say, this send the assembled crowd of radicals into a frenzy, and an equestrian-human melee ensued
12:48
The cops ended up literally trotting in circles around the arrestee and the officers holding him
12:49
It was like a scene out of the wild west – - very appropriate for Denver!
12:49
The horses served to scare away the hundreds of would-be “rescuers” of the arrested guy.
12:50
Then reinforcements showed up and carried him away to jail in a off-road vehicle. In the concomitant frenzy, a young protest girl wearing pink was knocked to the ground by a cop when she ventured too close
12:50
Oops, dan rather just came in
12:50
He’s five feet from me
12:50
Hi dan!
Cameras are following him
12:51
the media are descending on him
12:51
within ten seconds, he has 20 photographers encircling him
12:52
Now there are 30
12:52
He’s a real celebrity around here!
12:52
Anyway, where was I?
12:52
Oh yes — the girl.
She fell to the ground and acted like she was dead or unconscious
After playing dead to arouse sympathy, she suddenly hopped up when everyone was looking elsewhere
12:54
Then I went to the next scheduled event: a pro-Hillary march.
12:54
About 400 rabid Hillary supporters. They were angry!
12:54
I got photos of that.
12:55
Then I followed the Giant Puppets parade for a while, and came here.
12:55
That’s it for today so far!
12:55
More later.
Ta ta from Denver…
Recreate 68 Finally Lives Up to Its Name: Riot in Denver
Crossposted at Little Green Footballs
Unstoppable force:…
…meet immovable object.
But wait: how did we get to this point?
Word had disseminated among the protest crowd that there was to be an “Anti-capitalist march” as well as a “Meet-up for Fundraiser Disruption” jopintly announced by Recreate 68 and DNC Disruption 08, two radical groups dedicated to causing problems at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. A notice online said, “Interested parties will gather at 6pm at civic center park” where “top-secret information on a couple of the choicest fundraisers and parties in Denver” was to be handed out. Then, “at the appointed time monday night, we’ll emerge from the shadows to reconvene in downtown and get down and dirty.”
So every anarchist and ne’er-do-well in Denver gathered in Civic Center Park at 6pm sharp, looking for action. Problem was, no action was immediately forthcoming.
Everybody milled around for over an hour, wondering what was supposed to happen. Glen Spagnulo and Mark Cohen, the head honchos of Recreate 68, weren’t revealing anything, even though many people pestered them with questions.
An unfortunate side effect of announcing your riot on the Internet is that the police can see the announcement as well. As a result, squads of cops milled through the crowd, looking for troublemakers.
Some of the radicals had collected urine in bags (seen at the bottom of this photo) to later throw at the police (seen at the top).
Finally a horn was sounded and a jolt of excitement moved through the crowd. Finally, the moment had arrived! Hundreds of anarchists formed a procession…
…and started heading in the direction of downtown Denver.
But the police were obviously on strict orders to not let these rioters anywhere even near the fundraisers and delegate parties being held in upscale hotels and restaurants just a few blocks away. They formed a blockade to stop the procession from advancing.
Which is where we were at the top of this report. Now, moving forward…
The first confrontation between the cops and the anarchists was very brief — less than half a minute, with decisive victory for the cops, who drove the anarchists (and hapless photographers) back. [Video coming soon!]
It was during this first encounter that someone (a policeman trying to drive back the onrushing crowd, presumably) let loose a blast of pepper spray, some of which got in my left eye and throat.
The anarchists tried to turn around and leave the park from a different direction, and bumped smack into a smaller and more easily overwhelmed cluster of police. The first screams and thwacks of violence were heard and everyone came running.
Good choice on getting outta there… I hate these thugs trying to tear up my town.
One building management company down near 16th and market is advising tenants/employees there may be a six-hour building lockdown this thursday. I wonder what they know that no one has reported on yet.
Also, I have a co-worker wanting to check out some of the protests… is there any posted schedule of the protest events?
How is it legal for the police to detain (and confining you to a section of street is detaining) without charging you with anything? I’m no supporter of dim-wit anarchists, but “peaceable assembly” was pretty much what they did. The police response seems aimed at what they INTENDED to do, not what they did. That’s a Minority Report response — we detained you because in the future you were going to break the law.
How is that not a huge violation of our Constitutional rights? As a Conservative, I hate seeing our rights trampled, even if it’s some grubby America-hating liberals who got stoned and drove mommy’s car to a glorified pep rally in Denver who are the ones getting trampled.
Nostalgic about the good old days, no? Too bad the Iraq war is over. It’s still time to protest the Russian effort to gobble up Georgia. After all Georgia is till one of our 57 states, and our former president Carter reportedly still has a peanut farm there. Not the same Georgia? Who cares?
C’mon, Salmon Sam. You know those “demonstrators” would have liked to have gotten violent. Not to mention the vandals in their midst with cans of spray paint. That’s why those “demonstrators” were so brave as to cover their faces–they didn’t want to be identified when committed their crimes of violence.
I would like to see the cops hose down those punks with collected sludge from porta-potties! Now *that* would be some good video!
“without charging you with anything?”
They were charged. Violations of city ordinances. Denver Police Lt. Ron Saunier said they would be charged with disobeying a lawful order and interference with police. A news release issued by the Joint Information Center also cited obstruction of streets or public passageways.
I wonder how many bought their black sweatshirts and bandanas at Abercrombie and Fitch?
Or course I am just kidding, the Gap is where all self respecting Anarchists shop these days, stupid me.
I’m with Sam in every particular.
Salmon, I was @ the “Rage Against The Machine” concert in the “Free Speech Area” during the 2000 DNC in L.A.-let’s just say, like the LAPD’s May Day riots, much police activity is unconventional(ha)-& in the “Free Speech Area”, safely out of the media’s camera range/interest. ‘cept for “that guy who hurled the concrete chunk over the fence” at them
Well, there was certainly concrete evidence they were intending to throw urine around, and that alone might be enough to justify a pre-emptive strike.
The notice on the Internet seemed pretty clear about their plans, too.
It is too bad journalists got caught in the middle. Unfortunately, if you exempted journalists, the protesters would just get journalist cards and get away with it all.
D
What a bunch of losers, these people couldn’t carry the jockstrap of a ’68 Chicago rioter….now, those were real anarchists, not like today’s creampuffs.
I don’t think we can say they were having their rights trampled on this one. The city ordinances are one aspect, then there is the fact that they were very openly broadcasting their plans to riot and attempt to physically disrupt the convention. I am not sure if that falls under the old “scream fire in a theater” situation, but I think it comes close enough for government work (pardon the pun).
Of course, part of me would like to see them actually attempt it. I can’t take them seriously because for all shouts of “anarchy” and “riot” and “revolution” they seem very tame. I mean really, panic attacks? This was supposed to be a riot and you had people who couldn’t handle being corralled by the cops for a couple hours? How do you take people like that seriously? A protester is being cuffed and the “rioters” surround the police and…
pull out camcorders?
I was never a fan of the 60′s radicals (not even close), but they at least could put on a riot and a protest I could take seriously even if I thought their reasoning was flawed (a vast understatement there). You want headlines and change? And you want to try it violently? Then you need to do better than this. You are going to have to top Kent State and start charging National Guardsmen. Not that I am pushing that, but if you can’t even toss a bag of urine and your response to being trapped by the police on a street is a sit-in flashing peace-signs then you need to drop the anarchy bit. This isn’t even “anarchy-lite”.
Maybe a year in Somolia or a tour in Afghanistan or attending a Pakistani Madras would make them appreciate real anarchy and real violence and real oppression. Or at least give them some new fashions.
I’m not sure this kind of confrontation is wise strategy on the police’s part. They seem to be giving the trouble-makers exactly what they want.
The best police strategy I ever saw for a national convention was in Philadelphia in 2000. What they did was quietly infilitrate all the protest groups months before the event, and on the first day they quickly arrested all the leaders because they knew exactly who they were. Without leadership, the protest groups were like insects without a queen. The rest of the week was quiet and protest free. They eventually camped outside the jailhouse (MILES from the convention) chanting for the release of their leaders. They had been completely defanged. It was brilliant.
Even casual examination of these pics show that the cops seem to have learned from the history books–even if the protesters didn’t. Every cop is in nearly identical riot gear–it looks intimidating and that’s the point. Plentiful manpower is on hand (no disrespect intended towards the many women in law enforcement), evidence of good communication, coordination, and planning. Like the cops knew what the rioters were going to do even before the rioters themselves knew. Kudos to the men and women in blue on this one.
I’m no supporter of dim-wit anarchists, but “peaceable assembly” was pretty much what they did.
That’s because they had no choice Sammy. Otherwise, setting fire to a crowded theater is still pretty much illegal.
P.S. That MTV shirt wearer is a hottie.
Technically, they were in black.
Looks to me like a bunch of doodz trying to make some kind of statement about how it sucks to be a teen-aged loser. Seriously, this is about fashion, attitudes, and putting on a little show for all the other losers – not about dealing with real-life political issues. They’ll all be Democrats or Republics by the time they’re 30.
P.S. – Why the hell are they wearing masks? Nobody cares who they are.
This protest is putting me to sleep.
“P.S. That MTV shirt wearer is a hottie”
agreed
I was at that protest and I bought my outfit at “Anarchists ‘r’ Us.” They have some very hip garb for the modern protestor there.
Kidding, kidding.
I was in downtown Denver when the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup back in 2001. The police response varied from street to street. On Street A, for example, they were all lined up down the middle of the street having a good time with the revellers out in force. On Street B, one block over, they were lined up on one end of the block in riot gear, marching toward the crowd with pepper spray a-blazin’ to push them into the busy street at the end of the block. After that fun, I saw a policeman spray an innocent bystander in the face with pepper spray for simply waiting in line to enter a bar, and another for trying to cross the street to meet his friends.
I see they’ve chosen course of action B for this event. It should be a very interesting week.
Thanks for the report, Zombie. If I were in town, I’d buy you a Fat Tire or an Avalanche.
I would recommend to the brave policewoman mentioned in the above pic, not to hang what looks like a blue mouth guard on the outside of your uniform.
These “anarchists” are just whiny crybaby punks that don’t even practice what they preach: They organize to demonstrate! They eat farm food, wear manufactured clothes, get institutional healthcare, etc.
If they had the intelligence, they would see that a true anarchist must give up all use of anything that comes from organization. But then, an intelligent and honest liberal is an oxymoron, with emphasis on the “moron.”
Humans need and crave organization, which is why the idea of an anarchist is just like most ideas from the left…illogical, impractical, and ultimately irrational fantasy-thinking.
Ugh! what scum…
Golly gee wilikers. Seems like crowd control has advanced since the days when I was a pup.
Doesn’t seem like the lefites have made such advances though….
“Peaceable assembly” with masks, bags of piss to fling at the police, spray paint, and an announced intent to cause disruption?
Where’s the “peaceable” part of that?
Bravo to the Denver police for keeping this situation under control. These nitwits came looking for trouble and they found it. Glad our illustrious Zombie escaped (mostly) unscathed!
Want a truly masterful handling of rioters?
The 1972 Republican convention was held in Miami. During the month of the convention, the whole state of Florida was absolutely FLOODED with Quaaludes, a quarter each. The chicks REALLY liked ‘ludes and would get very friendly with one down the gullet. Who wanted to riot when better forms of entertainment were at hand?
Or so I heard.
Now that’s the way to do a Dirty Trick.
The advances made by the left are not in thought. Ward Churchill is one of their leaders. “recreate 68″ would take this country back about 40 yrs.
Progress may be in the eye of the leftist beholder.
I love the “golly gee wilikers” though, makes when I use “groovy” new age.
I don’t understand why first, Obama gives in to Hillary about the roll call delegate count. And now, Hillary is acquiescing to Obama regarding a decision NOT to have a roll call vote. These characters are the worst. They are BOTH flakes!
They can’t make up their minds. They can’t decide. When they decide they then change their mind. When they change their mind things change again. What fools.
What a circus! We don’t need the Democrats. Everything about BOTH flakes stinks.
Get a back bone Hillary! Go PUMAs. Hope the delegates get a chance to CHANGE their votes to Hillary is they wish.
I’m voting for McCain.
Hey!…my hubby has those exact same riot gloves the female cop is wearing. lol He loves riots. And looking intimidating can help preemptively stop a lot of mischief.
If I were observing in that crowd I’d probably get a panic attack too! Then again I wouldn’t be there as a protester.
This is exactly what I pictured would happen down town. If these ‘anarchists’ hate our country so much…THEN GET THE HELL OUT! We don’t have any walls keeping you here! Hell our borders are pretty loose too! LEAVE!
I find it disgustingly ironic how they hate this country yet absolutely love and exploit the rights they have by simply being born here. They don’t mind exploiting our justice system either with frivolous attempts at civil rights violation lawsuits. Funny, they file frivolous lawsuits whining to the same government they detest. Hello?????
And I agree, you can hardly call them anarchists! I happen to have a loved one in blue down town on a riot team and what has been displayed is that these are COWARDLY ‘sheeple’. Not that I want to encourage them to escalate the lawlessness they’ve already displayed but my gosh, c’mon!
Running when a skirmish line of officers is relieved by another line of officers behind them is stepping up 2 steps to relieve the front line? Yes, that’s what’s happening folks. These ‘activists’ take off screaming for about 1/2 a block and then realize the officers are not going to do anything except for stand still and keep formation so THEN they come back and scream in their faces some more and taunt them.
Get a backbone, get an educated world view, get truly organized, take it to your representatives and GROW THE HELL UP! Really.
It is so heartwarming to see young people taking part in civil discourse and the democratic election process. Sigh. It al speaks well of our wonderful education system with a tip of the hat to reformers like Bill Ayers. Hopefully, we can all look forward to more educated, socially aware, consciencious young people like we are seeing on the streets of Denver, with a Obama administration that will help push for more reform and place brave reformers like Bill Ayers and Ward Churchill in key positions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpjmPPUHD98
If you need more liveblogging of the DNC, head over to our blog at votingwhileintoxicated.wordpress.com
Protestors?, anarchists?, what a buncha momma’s boy pussies. Give me the old days when the Chi cops broke some fuc#in’ heads!! Wannabe, chickenshits.
Recreate 68, wotta load! Just not as much fun for the new generation of wannabes as they thought it would be.
Nice work Zombie!! The Denver Police’s history in such matters over the last ten years is to be a bit quick on the trigger. Add to that the City’s partisan, political interest in protecting the Circus of the Century, the Socialist Convention, and yeah, I think there’s some preemptive bashing of these anarchists, educators and “culture workers” going on.
To whomever asked, those who hide their faces do so because they’re hoping for good opportunities for an anti-capitalist (i.e. anti-freedom) crime spree, and they know it would be videotaped.
By the way, the “brown note” rumor would seem to have been started to excuse some prominent Leftist’s pooping of his pants during some “direct action.” Anybody know the who, where, and when on that??
I think I would ask the RNC to move to move their convention to CO. The MN. police will not be up to it.
is it me, or does that policewoman look like she might be kinda hot. Then again, it might just be teh uniform and baton.
The person who filled up that urine bag needs more fluids in his diet. Yuk.
I love it.
Fox news just interviewed some of these ‘protesters’, and they could not identify pictures of Dick Cheney and Nancy Pelosi.
Fry and Laurie were right on target.
LOL.
Recreate 68 showed up with the express intent of rioting. They are damned lucky more of them didn’t get their heads busted. Those pissant little punks look like they average about 150lbs apiece, they shouldn’t start a fight with men.
The two pronged police attack was brilliant, hounds to the hunter.
Is the baggie full of piss or gasoline?
Those little turds would prolly do no worse than blow themselves up.
So, now Obama and the DNC want to hold the roll call away from the main hall, and stop the vote partially through … just in case Hillary does well, which might embarrass Obama and the DNC. This is what happens when a candidate and a party manipulate the process, and try to force a candidate down the throats of the constituents. Obama might have trashed the Clintons, and gotten over 90% of the black vote, but in the process America has been thrown under the bus.
Let me just say once again, for the record:
Rioters who hide their faces are cowards. Period.
If you that that your cause is worth fighting for, then you should fight it under your own name, and fight proudly. If you think it’s worth breaking the law for, then do it, and deal with the consequences.
What the masks tell me, more than anything else, is that I don’t NEED to know who these people are. They are faceless, and they deserve to be.
Keep up the good work, Zombie!
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
F*** the police! Go anarchists.
Some of you just don’t understand why we anarchists and anti-capitalists wear masks. We aren’t wearing masks because we “are cowards” (this isn’t some kind fo macho fight), we wear masks to protect our identities from police cameras. This may be news to those of you who watch Fox New constantly, but the U.S. is a police state where people don’t have freedom of speech. The police video and photograph protesters to create files on leftist activists. Almost all of the people who are surveilled by the police never commit any illegal acts, yet the police feel compelled to keep files on any kind of leftist protester.
Masks are our way to keep our rights, however poorly, in a growing police state.
“The best police strategy I ever saw for a national convention was in Philadelphia in 2000. What they did was quietly infilitrate all the protest groups months before the event, and on the first day they quickly arrested all the leaders because they knew exactly who they were. Without leadership, the protest groups were like insects without a queen. The rest of the week was quiet and protest free. They eventually camped outside the jailhouse (MILES from the convention) chanting for the release of their leaders. They had been completely defanged. It was brilliant.”
That just isn’t what happened. There were some pretty boisterous protests in Philadephia in 2000.
Your comments also reflect an ignorance about how anarchist and protest groups organize. We organize in a leaderless fashion, relying on small groups called affinity groups. The police will foolishly go and arrest “leaders” and not understand that protests are designed to go forward without any leaders. The “leaders” the police arrest are usually just people who helped faciliate meetings or talked to the media.
The police just aren’t very bright.
Makhno,
Hard to find a phrase more fitting for you than juvenile moron.
So, if I get your drift, you cover your faces so you won’t be on police videos, not that you are the cowards that we all know you and your pathetic group really are. Of course as “anarchists” you hate this country and hate capitalism but unwilling to live in North Korea where your brand of politics would fit in perfectly.
So you say that “almost” all of those who are surveiled do not commit any “illegal acts” but what about those who do? Why should I as a taxpayer or the property owners whose businesses are the target of your juvenile and misplaced wrath have to suffer the economic consequences of those who act out by the brave acts of hooded thugs who spray paint or throw urine bags?
Even if the police take your photo as a protestor (and if the police do this then they are subjected to ACLU inspired law suits) what is the problem? If you are marching peacefully like normal protestors to try and gain some support for your idiotic demands, then what consequences would there be? The police going to come to your home and arrest you for peacefully demonstrating?
Makhno, time to go back to the basement in your mother’s house and read your anarchist manuals and go to meetings with your doped up friends and pretend you make a difference.
Let’s face it: you had a shot at a meaningful life but the drugs fried your brain. No one will hire you and you are always trying to find money to live your anarchistic lifestyle.
Makhno – let me be one of thousands who will brand you as a total loser. Think about those who wrecked Chicago in 1968. What did they really accomolish? Do you not see a lot of them these days in business suits? Or maybe they have died of drug overdoses?
Put your silly masks on and throw the urine bags – nobody listens to you. You are less than marginal.