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Unconventional Protests: With the cops cracking down on dissent, will the protests get out of hand?
Rolling Stone ^ | 8/11/04 | MICHELLE GOLDBERG

Posted on 08/23/2004 8:19:54 PM PDT by Libloather

Unconventional Protests
With the cops cracking down on dissent, will the protests get out of hand?
By MICHELLE GOLDBERG

If you're a delegate attending the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden later this month, Jamie Moran knows where you're staying. He knows where you're eating and what Broadway musical you plan on seeing. For the past nine months, Moran has been living off savings earned as an office manager at a nonprofit and working full-time to disrupt the RNC. His small anarchist collective, RNCNotWelcome.org, runs a snitch line and an e-mail account where disgruntled employees of New York hotels, the Garden and the Republican Party itself can pass on information about conventioneers. So far, the collective has received dozens of phone calls and hundreds of e-mails with inside dirt on GOP activities. It's all fed to a cadre of activists desperate to unleash four years' worth of anger at the Bush administration. By dogging the delegates wherever they go, RNC Not Welcome hopes to make the Republicans' lives hell for as long as they're in New York.

"We want to make their stay here as miserable as possible," says Moran, the son of a retired Queens cop. "I'd like to see all the Republican events -- teas, backslapping lunches -- disrupted. I'd like to see people from other states following their delegates, letting them know what they think about Republican policies. I'd like to see impromptu street parties and marches. I'd like to see corporations involved in the Iraq reconstruction get targeted - anything from occupation to property destruction."

(Excerpt) Read more at rollingstone.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: 1stamendment; cops; cracking; democratsarescum; dissent; election; freespeech; gop; jamiemoran; mace; moran; new; protests; rncconvention; unconventional; watercannons; york
From http://rncnotwelcome.org/ -

The Republican National Committee has, for the first time in its 150 year history, selected New York for their Convention from August 29-September 2, 2004. In a shallow attempt at exploiting the lives lost at the World Trade Center, the RNC has pushed the Convention date to September. We have witnessed two unjust wars, at least one American life lost each day overseas, a depressed economy, the collapse of the dollar, $87 billion to boost war profiteering, the closing of our firehouses, a health-care crisis, millions of children being left behind, and now this. We say, Enough!

When the vote does not place in power those who represent the will of the people, democracy must be taken to the streets. This administration's choice of New York City, historically known for its diverse population, its welcoming of immigrants from far off lands, and its radical politics will prove to be their biggest mistake yet.

1 posted on 08/23/2004 8:19:55 PM PDT by Libloather
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To: Libloather
With the cops cracking down on dissent

The cops will be cracking down on criminal activity, let's be clear on this. They've learned from Seattle that if you ignore minor vandalism and robbery, Leftist "protestors" will keep ramping up the violence until someone stops them.
2 posted on 08/23/2004 8:21:34 PM PDT by swilhelm73 (I WILL VOTE FOR GEORGE W. BUSH INSTEAD OF JOHN KERRY because I still believe in the rule of law)
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To: swilhelm73

I don't know any NYC cops, but I doubt that they will stand by passively while smelly anarchists trash NYC like they did in Seattle.


3 posted on 08/23/2004 8:24:40 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Even if the government took all your earnings, you wouldn't be, in its eyes, a slave.)
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To: Libloather

I visited the site about a week ago, and they sure are whacked out. They were calling for "service workers", the people who "run the city" to call in sick, so those dastardly RNC eeevildoers couldn't get service, and calling for volunteers to sign up for working at the convention, and then to not show up, etc. Their slogan was that they didn't want the RNC to bring hate to their doorstep, or some such.

I guess Skedwards were right, there are two Americas, the sane and the INSANE!


4 posted on 08/23/2004 8:25:02 PM PDT by Theresawithanh ( Flush the Johns in 2004!!!!!)
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To: swilhelm73
I agree, what starts out small, will soon escalate. But, I think that the NYPD will have everything under control. I am also pretty sure that the protesters are exaggerating about their numbers, and the protesters in New york will be the sad losers at every protest. But, I don't think that it will get out of control.
5 posted on 08/23/2004 8:25:43 PM PDT by Mike1973
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To: Libloather

Oh, I am sure the protestors against us will make sure they get injured in some way, even if its by tripping over their own tails....


6 posted on 08/23/2004 8:28:04 PM PDT by onyx eyes
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To: Mike1973

The worse they act, the better for Bush.


7 posted on 08/23/2004 8:28:34 PM PDT by Owl558 (Pardon my spelling)
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To: Libloather

Oh my, I made the mistake of clicking on the excerpt to read the rest of the article. Ms. Goldberg is also insane.

"Since 9-1-1 the Bush administration has tried to stifle protest, blah-blah..."

There is reasonable protest, and then there is intent to cause havoc. They just don't get it, do they?


8 posted on 08/23/2004 8:30:33 PM PDT by Theresawithanh ( Flush the Johns in 2004!!!!!)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I was in downtown Seattle working in my office when we were told to evacuate by a police officer during the WTO riot.

As I was looking out one door, preparing to go, I saw an anarchist "protester" sneak up behind some riot cops milling around, I guess trying to figure out what to do. The anarchist started chucking rocks at them.

This brought a hail of rubber bullets (I could hear them banging off the building I was in). Well brave "protester" boy starts running, but before he could get away he got a rubber bullet in the rear, and jumped about 3 feet in the air.

Ah, that moment made the tear gas fumes and the unpleasant trip home rather worth it.


9 posted on 08/23/2004 8:31:14 PM PDT by swilhelm73 (I WILL VOTE FOR GEORGE W. BUSH INSTEAD OF JOHN KERRY because I still believe in the rule of law)
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To: swilhelm73
This brought a hail of rubber bullets (I could hear them banging off the building I was in). Well brave "protester" boy starts running, but before he could get away he got a rubber bullet in the rear, and jumped about 3 feet in the air.

Too bad it wasn't 00 buckshot!

10 posted on 08/23/2004 8:33:09 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)
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To: Theresawithanh
Oh my, I made the mistake of clicking on the excerpt to read the rest of the article. Ms. Goldberg is also insane. "Since 9-1-1 the Bush administration has tried to stifle protest, blah-blah..."

Hmm seeing as Lumpy Refienstahl can make a slanderous film of the President, get it released nationwide, and then go on TV to talk about it, I guess Ms Goldberg just has a different definition for "stifle" then normal human beings.
11 posted on 08/23/2004 8:34:24 PM PDT by swilhelm73 (I WILL VOTE FOR GEORGE W. BUSH INSTEAD OF JOHN KERRY because I still believe in the rule of law)
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To: swilhelm73
You must have seen some of the King County Sheriff's Deputies who were assisting. For the most part the Seattle cops were non-responsive to most of the situations. I don't blame them, they were leaderless; some units were on the streets for over 12 hours before anyone remember and provided them some relief (during that time they receive no food or water either).

Of course that didn't stop the brave Mayor from delivering free pizza (at taxpayer) expense to the mob protesting outside the jail.

Now I wouldn't mind if the NYPD responded they way the Sheriff did...remember seeing him personally running down a punk a third is age. It was great.

12 posted on 08/23/2004 8:36:23 PM PDT by CWOJackson
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To: swilhelm73

I don't know what the plans are for New York, but the "free speech cage" in Boston was disgusting.


13 posted on 08/23/2004 8:37:06 PM PDT by eno_ (Freedom Lite, it's almost worth defending.)
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To: CWOJackson

It was a small group in riot gear standing at a crossroads. They generally didn't seem to have any kind of plan but standing there and watching the mob about a block away. The anarchist had come from the other direction (Belltown), so the cops had their backs to him to begin with.

You had to be blind to not see that the protesters were working up to violence and then more and more destruction, and it amazes me to this day that it took so long to do anything about it.

And then the vandals and thugs who were arrested got nothing more then a slap on the wrist.


14 posted on 08/23/2004 8:41:45 PM PDT by swilhelm73 (I WILL VOTE FOR GEORGE W. BUSH INSTEAD OF JOHN KERRY because I still believe in the rule of law)
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To: eno_
I don't know what the plans are for New York, but the "free speech cage" in Boston was disgusting.

Well, Boston is owned by the Dems. They weren't going to let a little thing like freedom of speech get in the way of their shindig.

What a competent mayor would do is allow the protestors to peacefully protest, but have a *large* police contingent ready, and have the protesters on notice that any violence or vandalism will be dealt with immediately, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
15 posted on 08/23/2004 8:44:16 PM PDT by swilhelm73 (I WILL VOTE FOR GEORGE W. BUSH INSTEAD OF JOHN KERRY because I still believe in the rule of law)
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To: Libloather

My worry isn't that they'll protest, its that they won't protest enough. I want them to say the same things in public that they say at the DU. I want the whole country to see just how radical the American bashing Dem's really are.


16 posted on 08/23/2004 8:57:33 PM PDT by Boxcar
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To: Blood of Tyrants

"I don't know any NYC cops, but I doubt that they will stand by passively while smelly anarchists trash NYC like they did in Seattle."

The NYPD is the finest police department in the world, and they are not going to take any sh*t from these losers. Oh yeah, especially the hot-headed Irish-American ones, they're wise to that kind.


17 posted on 08/23/2004 9:07:32 PM PDT by jocon307 (That's allowed, as long as we all vote for W.)
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To: Libloather

personally, i have zero sympathy for these protestors. NYC does not need this kind of stuff--these morons are tying up police officers who could be looking for terrorists.
the people of NYC probably just want to go to work and then go home, and the idiot protestors will tie up streets and make everybody's life difficult.


18 posted on 08/23/2004 9:17:49 PM PDT by drhogan
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To: jocon307

A Navy colleague of mine from one of the NYC burgs (Brooklyn, I think) tells me of when he was a young teen and sitting on the curb next to a "No Standing" sign when an Irish-American policeman came along and askes whst they were doing. My friend, being the smart alec teen he was said, "You see that sign? It says "No Standing", so we are sitting".

That earned them a less than gentle crack across the shins from the cop's billy club. He was still laughing about it 20 years later.


19 posted on 08/24/2004 5:42:24 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Even if the government took all your earnings, you wouldn't be, in its eyes, a slave.)
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