Police, Trade Protesters Clash in Miami (Typical Punks getting 'proper' Police treatment)

Yahoo ^ | 11/20/03 | MIKE SCHNEIDER

[freeeee]

I doubt they have permits

If you have to ask to excercise a right, it isn't a right, it's a privilidge.

"Time, place and manner" restrictions have been abused to the point where they should be ignored as an act of civil disobedience. Protesters are routinely confined to a parking lot sometimes miles from the event they want to protest, behind a chain link fence and surrounded by an army of cops just itching to use violence. The idea is "if a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, did it really happen?". The 'forest' in this case is a parking lot in a remote location.

[george wythe]

What about my own eye-witness account?

As I type right now, the local Fox affiliate, Channel 7, is broadcasting live shots from downtown Miami, both from TV trucks and helicopters.

The "peaceful" demonstrators are throwing gas canisters to the cops, and the cops have not reacted at all. The cops have stayed put.

The punks keep throwing objects, such as bottles and rocks, to the cops and the cops are doing nothing.

The punks are burning trash in the streets, and the cops are doing nothing.

[freeeee]

Thanks for your report.

The "peaceful" demonstrators are throwing gas canisters to the cops

They're throwing them back.

[george wythe]

4:10 PM:

Cops moving past the burning trash toward the punks. Punks retreat and burning trash is put out.

Punks keep throwing objects to the cops.

[george wythe]

They're throwing them back

Incorrect.

The punks brought their own gas canisters to attack the cops

[george wythe]

Protestors fighting with each other as peaceful protestors try to prevent "peaceful" protestors from burning another pile of trash.

[freeeee]

Riiiiight.

[Little Ray]

Others have the right to use these public areas every bit as much as protestors do - more so since they are making proper use of it (and since folks with lives and jobs outnumber the protestors by a huge amount...). If the protesters want to take to the streets without permits, then I ain't gonna complain if they end up decoratin' the bumpers of SUVs.

Or police APCs.

[george wythe]

Cops keep moving forward, protestors set a second pile of trash on fire, cops moved past the burning fire and called someone to extinguish fire.

Protestors ahead of cops setting up a third pile of trash, presumably to create another fire.

One cop has been taken to the hospital, no punk has been taken to the hospital.

[george wythe]

Street protestors have given interviews to the local news shows showing their own gas canisters and vowing they will use gas cans against cops.

It's an undisputed fact that some protestors brought their own gas canisters to attack the cops, and I saw them throwing gas cans to the cops; the cops have not used gas at this hour.

[freeeee]

Thanks for the report, I stand corrected.

For the record, I don't support the behavior of some of these protesters. I am merely adamant about the rights of free assembly and free speech.

[Snardius]

Look, I don't personally care for these protesters either, but the right to protest must be preserved. We're going to need it!

Look, stick...there is no right to violent protest. If these spoiled little children had not trashed other cities while throwing their tantrums, there wouldn't be any problem with the police. The problem is, peaceful protest doesn't get anywhere near the media attention that violent protest does. And that's the goal of these anarchist p**ks. So don't blame the police for knocking a few heads.

[george wythe]

Cops bring out a humvee and a paddy wagon.

Punks moving pallets and parking logs to create barricades in the middle of the streets.

[debg]

Because of the history of the protestors in other cities, a number of schools in the area were shut down (not due to possible violence per se but due to transportation disruptions.) Staff and students were relocated to other sites to continue schooling. Unfortunately, this translated at the school level to well over three full weeks disruption, both in preparation and in actual relocation. (Personally, I have been relocated with a group of students to an inner city school but that's a story in of itself.)

The fact that many of the disruptors are paid anarchists who travel from one spot to another to wreak havoc is akin to how terrorists work. The right to free speech is one thing granted here but the right to violence is not.

[george wythe]

Punks bring huge trash bins into the middle of the street, throw in some of their signs, start fire.

Punks attack some "commercial" journalists.

[freeeee]

Please... they aren't terrorists. If they break the law, or some windows or burn some things in the street they're still garden variety criminals.

The 'domestic terrorist' label is an extremely dangerous thing. And whoever is in power is going to sling it at their political opponents whenever convenient. One day they might sling it at you.

[lodwick]

I believe this is what is being protested - at least, I hope so:

American Union

The plan to create the American Union by 2005. This will include all of the nations of North, Central and South America and the Caribbean Islands, and will function just like the present European Union. There will be only one monetary system, one central bank, one (unelected) governing body, one military force, one judicial system, no borders, and no Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Elite have invented a new term for expanded NAFTA, which they now call the FTAA, or Free Trade Area of the Americas. The Council of the Americas, at the Quebec City conference in March, 2001, stated very clearly that they plan to complete the FTAA by the year 2005.

Vice President Dick Cheney was thanked for his remarks at the Council of the Americas conference on May 6, 2002, by founder and Honorary Chairman, David Rockefeller. Cheney said that the FTAA would be completed by January, 2005.

(Reference paragraph 18 of Cheney's speech at http://207.21.242.176/coa/events/2002-CheneySpeech.html and

Paragraph 12 of Otto Reich's speech at http://207.21.242.176/coa/events/2002-ReichSpeech.html)

[debg]

nah, they're just well-intentioned people using violent tactics to get their point heard. gotcha

[vladog]

These are the usual suspects who show up for all manner of useless protests. Some of them are hired (paid) by these lunatic fringe groups. Others just have way to much time on their hands or have been brain washed by their Leftist professors.

[freeeee]

Like I said, they're garden variety criminals.

Remember, we're supposedly at war with terrorists. If these protesters are considered terrorists, they could be killed indiscriminately or held as enemy combatants without due process.

Words mean things.