Live from DNC: Eyewitness to Mayhem (Day 2)
Read Day 1 of Charlie’s diary here.
8/26 1:10 PM
A quick update on Hickenlooper: no response yet, since my original call at 9AM, and about an hour since my second call. Will continue to update. (I’m filing at 1305; nothing so far.)
So, on to the “riot”. We were back in PJM Central — which turns out to be exactly 0.00 miles from where my mother lived through most of my childhood; when I say I’m a local, I’m not joking — when we got a call from one of Robert Stacy McCain’s contacts back at the Sheraton, where I’d gone with Steve Green to have a drink following the Mint dustup. (The other McCain is amazing. Somehow he managed to make enough of an impression on a woman there in the bar that she called him with a tip. How does he do that?) Anyway, there was something happening down at the Sheraton, so Jim Hoft and I headed back out — “ride to the sound of the guns” — to see. Sure enough, there were about 50 riot police in full gear, including gas masks, lined up to close Tremont at 16th street. There were probably 100 civilians lined up watching them. There were two cute young things in sort of Gypsy costumes with a drum, so I asked them what was up; they told me that they’d been demonstrating over near the Civic Center when the police had started pushing them down 16th Street (which is a pedestrian mall there.) They’d gotten separated from their demonstration and they seemed kind of lost and at loose ends. Poor kids.
The thing was, we couldn’t find anything much to get excited about. That’s when I phoned in that it was “the world’s most boring riot.” So we kept looking, until we found the actual crowd a ways further down the street.
From this crowd I learned something interesting: anarchists don’t organize well. Several people were trying to start a chant — options offered included “we are not in a military state” and “who do you protect, who do you serve?”, which I rather liked. I tried to start “And who does the Grail serve?” but got no traction. The thing was that none of the chants lasted any length of time, as every anarchist had their own opinion about why they were demonstrating. (In fact, I took a little survey and in no case could I find any two demonstrators in a row who thought they were demonstrating about the same thing. This included obvious couples; one of the couple, in fact, got into an argument over why they were demonstrating, at which point I felt it was time to move on.)
The one exception was a mixed gropup of a half dozen or so shouting “Free Remi”. I thought at first they were shouting “Free Rumi”, which struck me as a nice surrealist touch, but it turned out that Remi was their friend who’d been arrested about a half hour earlier.
So, back to PJM Central and pizza.
8/26 11:10 AM
Okay, so I’m finally up and going. My back and my feet are killing me, not because of girly-man Alex Jones’ cheap shot, but because I was on my feet for most of the day, ending up with a four-mile walk home after midnight because the “public transportation system” is overwhelmed with transporting conventioners. But let’s tell this story in order.
After posting my q&a’s yesterday, I did a couple of essential errands (like buying cat food) and headed back down into Denver. Because the traffic was impossible when I was in town earlier, I took the bus.
Hah!! I was at the Pentagon… the levitation thing was part of the whole march from that large pond in front of Lincoln (OK, I’m a Canadian); the crowd was huge. I remember that there was speeches about ‘peace’, but a fella (in the then trendy military fatigues) close by yelled, that NO, we want VIOLENCE. He had a patient, pregnant girlfriend sitting by him.
Then over the bridge, to the Pentagon. More and more people, a very crowded scene, the crowd started to sway back and forth, and then some love and peace hippies started to “ommmm”, and calmed things down (where I was) (maybe that was there they were trying to levitate the pentagon)… then over the balustrade came a man, with a split and bleading shin (he was holding a kitten, and was very shakey)…. then onward, to the front of the Pentagon, and people putting flowers into the guns of the soldiers lined up, and the soldiers looked as frightened as I was…
No one thought to put on masks. I guess this is a new fashion detail…
what we need is a cracker barrel, around which the veterans from the 60s and 70s can carry on about the good ol’ days when …
The cop smirked?!?!?!?
Smirked. I’m actually pretty livid about it, after the fact.
TO: Charlie (Colorado)
RE: Smirkies
“He [the cop] smirked at me and asked if we needed an ambulance.” — Charlie (Colorado)
There’s more than one reason to wear the apparel I suggested.
You cannot necessarily trust the police to be able to differentiate between one un-uniformed civilian and another in the midst of an affray.
On the other hand, I’ve known some cops in riot situations that I wouldn’t trust to cover anyone but themselves. Some of them, indeed, tend to look down on all non-cops as lower-life-forms and they have no compunction against wading in and whaling about with a nightstick, given the opportunity; irregardless of whose side YOU might be on.
During DC ’71, I heard some of Team BLUE bragging about how many heads they bashed.
So, cuidado, compadre.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. If you want to file a complaint, I recommend you have the cell phone camcorder ready and be SURE to get the cop’s face and badge number, as well as the department he’s from; as it looks like you’ve got a LOT of other municipal departments participating in this romper-room-of-the-streets.
We had quite a number of different departments, but we have lots of video.
By the way, I wanted to note here that I got a call from the PD; they’re not pleased. Whether with the behavior or with the fact that it’s up on you tube is less clear. I’ll have more to come shortly.
I got a chuckle at the comment you made:
“…I learned something interesting: anarchists don’t organize well.”
I presume this was tongue-in-cheek. Glad you got out okay.
Cheers,
Frank
It was the dreamy eyed West Coasters who thought they could levitate the Pentagon in the Glory Days of Demos. The cynical East Coast Yuppies’ forte was getting their photos into the media. The Weather Underground was all about rage and provoking tear gas responses, a no fun crowd. My favorite slogan was “2 4 6 8 smash the state!” Seemed like a good anytime anywhere type chant and it rhymed. Without the draft I doubt if many of us would have showed up in DC, Chicago, etc. We were the Generation of Useful Idiots, and still are to a large degree.
TO: Charlie (Colorado)
RE: Getting ‘the Call’
“I got a call from the PD; they’re not pleased.” — Charlie (Colorado)
Make a Memorandum For Record (MFR) of the date, time, who you talked to and the gist of the discussion of that call.
It might come in handy later on….
…one way or another.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. In the future, try to make a recording of such phone calls. In Colorado, it’s not illegal to do such as long as someone involved in the conversation is aware it is being recorded.
P.P.S. And, whenever talking face-to-face with a government official ALWAYS have a witness you can trust present. I’ve found it ‘amazing’ how much government officials tend to forget what REALLY happened or was said.
And you call Alex Jones a girlyman? that is funny. yea it was a little intense but grow a pair fellow. This isn’t the 60′s.
Keep a roll of quarters in your each pocket to load your fists. You can layout a girly man with one punch that way. When you get a second to back off, break open the rolls and all you have is a pocketful of quarters and no “weapons”.
I presume this was tongue-in-cheek.
See, the problem with my sense of humor is that no one quite knows when to laugh.
Yes, that was meant as humor, and thnk you for the kind words.
Make a Memorandum For Record (MFR) of the date, time, who you talked to and the gist of the discussion of that call.
Oh, I did. It’ll be up here in a bit; I’ve been run ragged this afternoon.
That looked pretty intense to me. I would say everyone was lucky to get out unhurt. Alex in particular looks like he believes his own raving.
What cracks me up is that when I saw you two weeks ago, you told me that you were going to cover the convention and you hoped you wouldn’t end up in any major 1968-style mob scenes. I’ll bet you never imagined that when it happened, it would be like this.
Take care, okay?
I’ve seen so many videos of that altercation…I can not believe they didn’t swoop in an haul that raving lunatic away. All those uniforms and NO ONE did a thing? I’m thinkin’ Michelle needs to start carrying pepper spray. She had every reason to let that buffoon have it. Oh, and calling him a ‘girlyman’ is an insult to real girlymen.
He was just grotesque.
Oh, yeah.
Alex Jones. To call him a girly man is to grant him more cojones than he actually owns.
In fact it’s an insult to girls.
Okay. Alex Jones. The lesser invertebrate.
“From this crowd I learned something interesting: anarchists don’t organize well.” Oh my… Smiling…
Okay. Alex Jones. The lesser invertebrate.
Heh. Alex Jones is a consummate ass.
How about just…Alex Jones, hypocrite? He’s worse than the God-fish-eating-the-Darwin-fish car decal people. I don’t particularly agree with Michelle Malkin, but that’s kind of the point of free speech, isn’t it? How short-sighted can you be? She comes out of the whole thing looking BETTER and with MORE CREDIBILITY, making her arguments that much stronger. He just marginalized anyone who might agree with him and turned them all into crazy spittle-spewing madmen in the public’s eye. Way to go, Alex.
I’m also very disappointed with Alex Jones, and more so than most! Because I have been supporting him and appreciated what he was doing. But the way he has been behaving of late with all this anger, and the way he behaved yesterday was too much and out of order! I don’t agree with anything Michelle Malkin says,but she responded civilly to him and he went ballistic like a mad man. I was hoping he would come clean today and say he was wrong and he lost his head. But the spin of lies arrived so that did not happen, and when I posted today on infowars.com stating this in a fashion that could be read without vulgarity threats or fowl language my posts were removed, and most of the positive posts that are still up are written by morons with an IQ of a pea brain!
I am not at the convention. Nor will I attend the Republican convention. Can’t afford to go to either.
Still, I watched the video & was appalled. How can anyone expect to garner public support for their position when they spew hateful comments like “kill ‘so & so’”? Whoever was with the Jones guy screaming this (since I assume Jones was not), was acting totally irrational. Then again, screaming out loud complaining about what Malkin supposedly wrote in a book isn’t exactly rational either. She may have written this. However, I doubt she did. I get the feeling her words were taken out of context.
There was no possibility of taking Mr. Jones out of context, nor the gut with him who was shoving a camera into peoples’ faces. What’s with camera people lately? Do they think a camera one inch from someones face is getting the story? Just plain rude & infringing on another personal space with an apparent malicious intention to provoke.
Either way, the Jones guy loses any credibility his positions may have ever had by his over the top actions.
Malkin’s articles tend to be thought out, reasoned, and reflect her love of this country. Apparently in some circles, that is a crime. Her positions sometimes are somewhat more militant than what others would take, but, at no time has she ever uttered an unreasonable word that I know of or have ever read!
All told, Green gets kudos for his humor segment. It was terrific. He also gets kudos for trying to present the facts as they unfolded. I have seen way too much from the biased media that is nothing more than propaganda for their favored candidate &/or political party, &/or position. Most of America tires of the partisanship the media now conveys with almost every story they report. We learn more when we examine the stories they ignore or downplay. (Think the Edward’s fiasco)
So, Malkin looks good, Green looks good, the anti crowd looks like a bunch of loons needing huge doses of Thorazine.
The video reveals all for who they really are & what they really represent!
And once more, actions speak louder than words
Charlie, in the PJM film I noted a woman in red appearing to spit at Michelle around 8:13, did you or Michelle notice that, she could have sneezed however.
If I was Malkin I would have kicked him square in the pills.
So, Charlie in Colorado, what happened to your reports today? I LOOKED for them, and couldna’ find anything.
Although Alex came off as aggressive and rude to some i commend him for calling out Malkin.
She is a disgusting subhuman that does nothing but spin/lie.
Her warmongering has directly resulted in dead Americans.
The guy yelling Kill Malkin was also calling Jones a corporate stooge.
When the war crime tribunals come around hopefully trash like Malkin and O’Lielly will be included.