“We don’t need to emulate anyone.”
I’m glad we agree - dfwgator seemed to think otherwise (”do it like Singapore”).
More on Singapore:
“The visit of a government minister to the area last year provoked a cheeky protest, with cartoon cut-outs of a white elephant posted around the closed [light-rail commuter] station greeting his arrival.
“Singapore’s no-nonsense government took the matter seriously. The police launched an investigation to try to identify the culprits and issued a warning to local grassroots leaders.
“The police still had their eye on the troublesome area even after the government decided to open the station. A plan by a group of female high-school students to help raise money for charity by selling white elephant T-shirts at the station’s inauguration ceremony was seen as a potentially subversive act.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d7d6f9c2-87b8-11da-8762-0000779e2340.html#ixzz2MDqcfCso
ping to previous post
If a US cabinet secretary was supposed to be visiting a secure location and that location had actually been broken into and festooned with decorations, there would definitely be an investigation here as well.
And the police were apparently telling the students that if they marched or demonstrated in matching t-shirts it would be considered a protest without a permit.
That definitely sounds overly strict, but it also is a lie by the students that it was not a political protest - since the white elephant symbol is a well-known political protest symbol in Singapore and has been worn and used in plenty of permitted protest marches and demonstrations.