With any kinda luck, they'll carry one of the protesters off . . . that should scare the rest away.
Posted on 06/06/2004 4:40:20 AM PDT by snopercod
Tight security an eerie break from the ordinary in quiet coastal community
With military helicopters patrolling the skies this week over Sea Island and St. Simons Island, the beaches deserted and protesters and visitors arriving from lands afar, residents of the Georgia coast could tell things were about to get a little strange.
"You don't see any of the tourist traffic that you usually do," Chris Cutright, a Macon resident who has a second home on St. Simons, said Friday. "There's nobody out here."
The Georgia coast this week will host the leaders from the world's eight largest industrial democracies, as the annual G-8 will be held at Glynn County's posh The Cloister resort on Sea Island.
Tiny Sea Island, an exclusive residential development, is accessible only by one bridge from St. Simons Island.
Sea Island's isolation is one reason it was selected by President George W. Bush to host the G-8 summit. With some of the world's most important dignitaries in attendance, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the G-8 summit has been speculated by U.S. officials as potential terrorist target.
The swank accommodations also helped Sea Island beat out the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire for the right to host the summit.
"Coastal Georgia's natural beauty and gracious hospitality represent some of the best that America has to offer," President Bush said this week during his weekly radio address.
No protests will be allowed on Sea Island, as the barrier island will be closed to the public during the summit. Protests have been organized to be held in Brunswick, the nearest inland city to St. Simons Island, and in Savannah, about 80 miles northeast of Sea Island.
These protests, staged by Greenpeace, the Southeast Anarchist Network and other groups, likely will be violence-free. However, during the 2001 G-8 summit in Genoa, Italy, and the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, violent protests erupted, with millions of dollars in damages inflicted on Seattle, and one fatal shooting in Italy.
Those experiences have led G-8 organizers to look for more remote locations for the yearly event. Last year, the summit was held at Evian-les-Bains, a resort in the French Alps, and in 2002 the G-8 was hosted by a ski resort in the Canadian Rockies.
While the protesters in Brunswick and Savannah likely pose little danger to Bush and the world's dignitaries, federal and state authorities are preparing for a potential massive terrorist attack during the G-8 summit.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft earlier this month said "credible intelligence from multiple sources" indicated the strong likelihood al Qaeda planned a terrorist attack in the U.S. in coming months. Potential targets could be the G-8 summit, the Republican National Convention in New York this summer, or the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
Accordingly, about 20,000 law-enforcement officers and military troops have been assigned to the Sea Island area for the three days of economic and military talks.
Sea Island will be guarded by troops from the National Guard, security agents with the Secret Service and the U.S. Coast Guard. The airspace along Georgia's Golden Isles will be off-limits to air traffic. Waterways will be off-limits to private boats for up to three nautical miles off Sea Island, according to the Associated Press.
Macon's Cutright said the beach at the King and Prince Resort on St. Simons was being patrolled Friday by "solid, dark-gray" boats.
"It's hard to read a book with all the constant helicopter traffic," she said. "The kids think it's great."
Tourists
While traffic is expected to be much heavier than normal in Brunswick, Glynn County Police Department Chief Matt Doering said there's no reason for tourists to avoid the area.
"Other than that you can expect delays, you should be able to get around," Doering said. Anyone heading to St. Simons Island can expect traffic delays of up to one hour, Doering said.
Current plans are to stop and check all commercial vehicles going onto St. Simons, while monitoring other traffic. Those plans could change depending on whether U.S. authorities raise the level of a possible terrorist threat.
Motorists on Interstate 16 or Interstate 95 shouldn't see traffic delays during the week of the G-8 summit, said Georgia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Sherry Beal.
"If there is, it would be very minor," she said.
Locals have been told that traffic is likely to be backed up for a minimum of three hours at a time.
Cutright said some of her neighbors were stocking up on groceries as if readying for a hurricane. She also said some business owners near the pier on St. Simons Island were boarding up their buildings, while others plan to carry on as usual.
"Several restaurants have closed because they're worried about getting their employees here," Cutright said.
Jekyll Island, a state-owned island just south of St. Simons Island, will be easier to access than St. Simons Island, which has the only link to Sea Island, Doering said.
Jekyll Island has a few hotels, a state park and a large expanse of undeveloped beachfront.
It's uncertain how many demonstrators will show up in Brunswick, Doering said. A group called United For Peace and Justice, which intends to protest the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, plans to hold marches during the summit, with one demonstration slated for downtown Brunswick.
The city of Brunswick has approved permits for the group's marches on Tuesday and Wednesday, but not Thursday, said Lisa Fithian, a national co-chair for the United for Peace and Justice. Her group expects at least 200 people to participate each day.
About 5,000 protesters are expected at Forsyth Park in Savannah.
A coalition of advocacy groups will take part in an event called Fair World Fair, which has scheduled events for Savannah and the Coastal Georgia Community College campus in Brunswick. Located on Altama Avenue on the north side of Brunswick, the Fair World Fair is several miles from the F. J. Torras Causeway that connects Brunswick with St. Simons Island.
The Fair World Fair, billed as "an alternative to the Greedy Eight," opens Sunday and runs through Thursday, the last day of the summit.
Fithian believed many more protesters would have come to the Georgia coast had it not been what she called an "inhospitable" approach to demonstrators by city, state and federal officials.
"There's been a very cumbersome negotiation process for all of the permits," Fithian said. She called the G-8 a "non-accountable body."
Some protesters have criticized Gov. Sonny Perdue's decision to issue a state of emergency for the coast during the summit. But Perdue said the decision, which was also implemented during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, is designed only to help organize law-enforcement operations and streamline the decision-making process.
"This is simply a preliminary legal maneuver," Perdue said May 28.
Some groups have also complained that summit organizers and state and federal officials are trying to cut off access to the media.
"I think they are creating an environment where there are very few avenues to communicate with the media," said Tom Clements, a senior advisor to the group's anti-nuclear campaign. "They are helping create a climate that may cause people to seek other ways to get their message out."
There is little doubt that plenty of media representatives from around the world will be in place on the Georgia coast during the summit week. Sea Island Summit organizers estimate about 5,000 members of the press and consulate corps will be staying in Savannah and Brunswick during the G-8.
Middle Georgia protester
At least one Middle Georgian will be participating in the G-8 demonstrations.
Sam Marshall, a retired resident of Milledgeville, said he will man a booth to educate people about issues related to the summit.
Marshall, 71, said he is not opposed to the G-8 in principle, but believes that many aspects of globalization harm poorer countries, and more should be done to help American workers who lose their jobs due to free trade.
"I think in the long run, G-8 is one of the best things we have going for us worldwide" Marshall said. "But the main problem is the general public doesn't have enough knowledge. People have a much better interest in domestic policy than foreign policy."
Because the lack of general voter interest in the G-8, policy decisions are overly influenced by corporations and banks, Marshall said.
Numerous environmental-protection advocacy groups plan to make themselves seen and heard in Savannah during the week of the summit.
Greenpeace will sponsor an exhibit to educate people about the issue of using weapons-grade plutonium as fuel for nuclear power plants, Clements said. Greenpeace opposes using plutonium as fuel, because it would be safer to treat the material as nuclear waste.
"We think handling plutonium creates avenues of theft and diversion," he said.
Former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., may agree with Clements' assessment. Nunn, a Perry native, has issued several warnings in recent days to the G-8 leaders to press forward with their previous agreement to reduce the world's stockpile of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. Nunn, who is associated with a consortium of think tanks called Strengthening the Global Partnership, has called the spread of weapons of mass destruction the world's most-pressing security threat.
They couldn't find an RV park or campground that would take "overnighters", due to security concerns. Apparently, the federal government decreed that they could not rent spaces to anyone who had not made a reservation months ago.
The campgrounds were mostly empty, and the owners were not happy about losing two weeks of business at the peak of the season.
You've probably already seen this, but just in case...
I just stumbled upon it... crosslinking:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1140331/posts
G8 and Its Protesters- Loyal Opposition, or Anarchy?
various FR links | 05-22-04 | The Heavy Equipment Guy
Just FYI, FWIW, these scruffy characters were originally claiming to muster 10,000 or more, but time, distance, heat, and money seem to have deterred most of them.
Thank God, the last thing my small town needs is a pile sixties leftovers scaring the horses and children...
Yeah, and then there's the smell.
Anybody want to comment on the situation where small business owners are being "asked" to give up their income for a period of time to serve the public interest and without compensation?
It reminds me of all the aviation-related business that were forced into bankruptcy when the TSA banned general aviation from urban areas after 9-11.
I'm not saying that closing down RV parks (or airports) is necessarily a bad idea under certain circumstances, but what ever happened to the 5th Amendment? Isn't this a taking of private property for public use?
I have often said that the Bush administration has violated every single one of the Bill of Rights except the Third.
Maybe this will make the list complete if soldiers are to be quartered at these RV parks.
(Lynerd Skynerd)
With any kinda luck, they'll carry one of the protesters off . . . that should scare the rest away.
Naturally, there more to the story about businesses being closed than is apparent from news stories. The curtailing of boat rentals, tours, and overflights can at least be excused over security concerns, and speaking as a former retailer I can tell you the loss of business, while unwelcome, should not be too harmful. But you do have a point about uncompensated loss- everyone else who stays open will probably make money hand over fist.
Naturally, the local authorities are claiming- at least unofficially- that this will be compensated by the surge in publicity. IMO, that's hogwash- a week from now, the site of the G-8 summit will be a distant memory to most people. Bear in mind we were all promised that the spillover from the 1996 Olympics would make us all rich & famous, and I am still waiting for my share of either...
As a matter of fact, I passed a group marching into town Thursday, just south of the Lanier bridge, and a hotter, tireder, more strung-out, sorry-looking bunch you have never seen.
They carried signs bearing nonsense like "Peace before Profits!" and I guesstimated there were 12 to 15 of them, a far cry from their claims of thousands.
I strongly suspect that they had no earthly idea of the distances and heat and isolation involved in their little march from Jacksonville.
It takes a couple of hours merely to walk from the county line south up to Brunswick, and longer walks and times are involved getting from Jacksonville to Kingsland to Woodbine. I don't think they knew what they were getting in to.
"I have often said that the Bush administration has violated every single one of the Bill of Rights except the Third."
yawn
"My neighbors were returning from Florida yesterday in their motor home and wanted to spend the night in the area. "
Wish there'd been a way to know about that- my wife's conference center has limited ( to about 6 ) RV hookups:
http://www.honeycreek.org/
The Georgia Episcopal Camp and Conference Center (Honey Creek)
Might it be because lawyers from Texas are more full of themselves than the basic history making up the foundations of our worthy American Heritage ... that is, they are Yale'ees in big hats? There may be some connection, also, with how "influential" Lyndon Baines Johnson & Co. were, too.
How nice! </ sarcasm> The globalist powers to be meet again to map out our future!
Did you join FR last month just so you could dismiss the U.S. Constitution before a group who still cares for it?
I hope there were as many deerflies along the march as there have been in my neighborhood.
Did you join Free Republic years ago just so that you could dis Republican Presidents?
I believe in the U.S. constitution and will "dis" any president or other member of our federal government who violates it, thank you very much.
I believe in the U.S. constitution and will "dis" anyone who thinks that often saying that the Bush administration has violated every single one of the Bill of Rights except the Third makes it true.
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