New York ready to unleash fury on Republicans

The Guardian ^ | 8/15/04 | Paul Harris

[LibWhacker]

Sit-down protests and traditional dances as Democrats use every weapon to beat Bush

The smiling face of former New York mayor Ed Koch beams down from posters all over the city. 'The Republicans are coming,' it says underneath. 'Make nice.'

Fat chance. New York is bracing for one of the biggest showdowns in its political history as the Republican national convention comes to town at the end of the month. Meeting the army of delegates, politicians and lobbyists will be a vast array of protest groups that intend to make the Republicans' Big Apple stay as unpleasant as possible. Trying to keep order on the streets will be 20,000 police, secret servicemen and National Guard units. A quiet week seems out of the question.

Jamie Moran certainly hopes so. He is one of the main driving forces behind the protest movement which has sprung up since the Republicans announced they would gather in New York. He and others have been collecting information on all aspects of the convention.

They run a 'snitch line' where people involved in the convention can leak details of events and where delegates have been staying. The protesters are widely believed to have infiltrated several people into working at the convention who will smuggle information out. Moran's plan is to send out teams of activists to disrupt as many events as possible.

'It's all coming along well,' he told The Observer at a meeting of protest groups in a city church. Moran, 30, son of a local cop, has become a minor media star in New York, but he is far from alone in plotting to make the city a place the Republican party will be reluctant to return to. In all, more than 250,000 protesters from all over the US and the rest of the world are expected to converge on the city during the four-day event.

Maps of where Republican events are being held have been distributed. They contain details of where delegates are staying, lobbyists' parties are being held and major corporate headquarters are located. Streets will be shut down, impromptu marches held, meetings disrupted and parties invaded.

Sit-down demonstrations will block traffic, protesters will chain themselves together and delegates' hotels will be infiltrated. There will be organised protests and marches, with City Hall permits, that are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of demonstrators.

John Flanigan and Tim Doody are two other protest co-ordinators aiming to make 31 August a day of direct action. They said they would shun the idea of applying for any form of permit.

'We already have a permit. It is called the American constitution. The idea that I have to ask for permission to protest my own government is ridiculous,' Flanigan said.

Sitting on the steps of St Mark's church in the East Village, the pair typified the anger felt by protesters that the Republicans are holding their convention in a city that prides itself on its liberalism. 'This has really shaken everyone out of their complacency. People are outraged,' said Doody.

Polls support that reaction. A recent survey showed that 83 per cent of New Yorkers did not want the convention in their city. 'We all live here,' said Angela Coppola, an office worker who has joined the protest groups. 'We were the victims of 11 September and now they are coming to terrorise us with their asinine convention.'

New York was chosen by the Republicans with an eye on associating the party with the terror attacks of 2001. But now it runs the risk of having the media coverage turn into pictures of street battles and mass arrests. However, that may not necessarily upset Republican strategists. TV footage of besieged delegates inside Madison Square Garden may boost George Bush's poll ratings in key, socially conservative Midwest states.

New York police are preparing for the worst. Manhattan's District Attorney's office has said that it expects 1,000 arrests a day during the convention, three times the normal rate. Police will have 'non-lethal' weapons such as tasers (electric stun guns), plastic bullets and pepper spray. Any illegal protest is expected to be cracked down on immediately.

At a press briefing last week, mayor Mike Bloomberg was firm about the police attitude to protesters without permits: 'If you disrupt traffic, if you behave in a way that is against the law, the NYPD will enforce the law. Period.'

Huge preparations have been made to combat the threat of terrorism. New York, along with Washington and Newark, New Jersey, is likely to still be on a heightened state of terrorist alert. Checkpoints will be set up around the convention centre, helicopter flights over the city will be banned and New York-bound trains will be searched by anti-bomb units using sniffer dogs.

The convention itself, featuring speakers such as Senator John McCain and Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California, will culminate in the prime-time acceptance speech of Bush himself. But by then it is possible that events on the streets will be all anyone is talking about.

[reformedliberal]

Actually, IIRC, the riots were to protest the defeat of the *Peace Plank* to the DNC platform.

The ideological reason given to the warm bodies was to provoke a *police riot* which would *wake up America* to the fascist police state that supposedly existed.

Back then, even most Donks were conservative and they applauded the LEO for taking on the protesters. This was Chicago and the then-mayor, Papa Daley wasn't going to have any such thing in his town unless he wanted it to happen. The hard hats were out there w/the cops thumping heads.

Afterward, as people came back home (I was in Milwaukee, then), word went out on the left that the consequences were a severe beating at the hands of the cops and the hard hats and most protesters just faded back into the woodwork, moved to the country as part of the *back to the land* movement or became very nonpolitical. The violent ones went into the Weather Underground.

There were some attempts in other cities to provoke *police riots*, too. Trashing became a Madison, WI group activity, Sterling Hall was bombed. It all turned off the majority of America.

Back then, this sort of riot was not something people had seen much of in America. Today, too many of us have seen too much of this sort of behavior. I expect the citizen response to be even more against the rioters now than it was then.

I also expect that there are many, many FBI and NYPD and SF infiltrators inside the protests. I fully expect the LEO to have good plans in force to deal with all of this. These jerks are way too full of themselves and their plans are all over the net.

[CarolTX]

Oh, I hope the MSM give the protesters lots of on-camera coverage.

I have a brother living overseas, (sarcasm on) and he is VERY sad that he won't get to see TV coverage of the wide range of weirdos who show up to protest in NYC.
I'm going to use the VCR to capture some of the thrills for him..plus clip any juicy newspaper/magazine photos. (He can find his own on-line stuff, LOL)

"Drag Queens for Kerry"...hmmm...too tame. Unless they bring the S&M chapter.

I know I can count on seeing a number of unwashed Earth First-Anarchy Now types...skipping their 1st week of college classes to help the Movement (mom and dad will be SO proud!)

I really hope to get something like a reunion of the old SDS/Weather Underground gang (those who don't still have outstanding felony warrants). That would be special...sort of a "where are they now" moment.

I hope they show some creativity in signs & slogans..."Death to Bush" has just been DONE, darlings!

(sarcasm off) Good Luck, NYC and NYPD!

[StACase]

I disagree. The battle in 1968 was between Humphrey and McGovern. Nixon won in part because the primary divided the Democrats so thoroughly. There's no parallel here. There was no "McGovern" challenge to Bush.

You're right about that, Johnson didn't run in '68, but they're still going to riot, and Kerry's going to win.

[Dan from Michigan]

Block me, and I'm going through you. That simple.

[Dan from Michigan]

Fearless prediction..this mob of goons will invade the Fox News Channel studios.....NY Freepers will mobilize to rescue Laurie Dhue

Since I'll be over that way for convention week, I'll be willing to take care of the situation if need be. :)

[stands2reason]

I'm curious, and you're the only one I know to ask -- is Neil Gaiman considered Gothic? What about Anne Rice?

[Plain Old American]

Kind of sounds like this guy is setting some kind of large, secret plan into motion. How is the rest of his cell organized? Who finances this group? Hopefuly the FBI, Secret Service and Homeland Defense are looking into this.

[Rebelbase]

[Foxfire4]

I'm curious, and you're the only one I know to ask -- is Neil Gaiman considered Gothic? What about Anne Rice?

Neil Gaiman isn't particularly Gothic; Death is Gothic. Anne Rice is just considered crazy. :-)

Foxfire, bookworm

[MikefromOhio]

Nah the Communists were an off shoot in the Democratic Party by that time. As has been said, Nixon won because the Democrats split in 3 different directions....


I think that if the election were held today, Kerry would win, but give Bush a chance. I see him winning in November.

[PROUDAMREP]

The problems with New Yorkers is they think they are better than us little peons out in netherland. We are too naive and ignorant to know who we should elect as our president. The whole country grieved with them on 9/ll, and hardly before the dust settled they tried to turn it into a political opportunity against George Bush, or a way to line their pockets at the expense of the taxpayers. I hope all the socialists end up locked up until the convention is over.

Of course, the MSM will not cover the convention. They will cover the nutty protesters.

[MadIvan]

Neil Gaiman's Sandman series is definitely considered Gothic. Some of Anne Rice's stuff is too...but a lot of Goths call her a hack. ;)

Regards, Ivan

[Braak]

As one of the transplanted peons, who wishes to return, I sadly have to agree. NYers, for all their supposed worldliness, are some of the most provincial people I have ever met.

[beaversmom]

New York ready to unleash fury on Republicans
Al Qaeda welcomed with open arms