Posted on 10/27/2004 12:39:07 PM PDT by real saxophonist
Student disrupts protest
Julie Piotraschke, juliep@windsortribune.com
October 26, 2004
The detaining of a college student shattered hours of passionate but peaceful protesting by hundreds who lined up Monday morning outside of Island Grove Regional Park.
Michael McCarthy, a journalism student at the University of Northern Colorado, was wrestled to the ground by police after he continued to smack an officer on the top of his head with a red and blue "Veterans for Kerry" sign.
According to witness Monica McRae, who had come up from Denver in support of the president, McCarthy had ignored the officer when he was asked to stop hitting him and get the cardboard sign out of his face.
McCarthy refused and was quickly swarmed by half a dozen officers. As he was taken away, the crowd erupted into a chorus of boos.
McCarthy was cited for disorderly conduct and later released.
The altercation came midmorning when the protesters were allowed to cross 11th Avenue and stand near the park entrance once the political rally had started.
Doing so put supporters who had come for a long-range peek of the president face to face with sign-carrying protesters chanting "One more week" and "George Bush go away -- you are sexist, racist and anti-gay."
The differences in opinion proved to be too much.
"People were no longer respecting physical and verbal boundaries," said protester Matthew Parker, a 22-year-old Greeley resident. "I was worried about things getting out of hand once we crossed the street."
For UNC student Brian Sleevi, 21, the altercation just made an eventful day even more so.
"It completely added to the experience and will be something I can tell my kids about," he said. "I think it adds to our collective message that we need to get Bush out of office."
That message was what propelled many who never thought they would join the ranks of protesters to stand on the sidewalks in the dawn's chilly weather. They lined up along D Street with brightly painted handmade signs and banners. As they chanted, drivers either honked their horns or returned hand gestures.
Even first-time protesters weren't deterred.
Fort Collins resident Joan Dooley joined other protesters for the first time with her red sign, "Women for Kerry."
"I am so full of sorrow and outrage at what Bush has done to our country in four years," she said. "I need a way to express myself that isn't violent."
Greeley resident Donna Saxe has seen quite a few presidents come and go in her 58 years.
No other leader has made her feel like Bush has.
"I've never felt so strongly against a candidate who made me want to come out here and do this," she said. "But he's not sincere in his personality or his attitude. We need different policies."
And Larry Bethards, 59, came out of retirement to finally join the protest line.
The last time the Greeley resident protested was after he served nearly three years in Vietnam. He went to an anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C., in the 1960s. Tear gas was used to scatter the crowds then, and he was arrested.
Until Monday, Bethards said, he hadn't found anything worthy of bringing him out again.
But with Bush's rush to war and a skyrocketing deficit, Bethards now feels there's a need.
"I haven't felt this strong dislike for a president before, but I have to do something," he said. "And it feels good to participate and show democracy like this."
"I am so full of sorrow and outrage at what Bush has done to our country in four years," she said. "I need a way to express myself that isn't violent."
Twisted sister Joan Dooley---I pity anyone who marries this broad. Dumb and dumber.
Yup...the reporterette has written such a sickening state of affairs in the media today.
Had to email her...you should too.
juliep@windsortribune.com
There just aren't words to describe the left. They must be destroyed.
Well, Mister Sleevi needs to learn the hard truth. Liberals are not content to live and let live. Liberals are not content to live in peace. Liberals would rather not let the rest of us live at all. Let us pray that the children of such liberals dare to educate themselves and dare to QUESTION AUTHORITY, the false authority of their ignorant parents.
The only regime change that makes consummate sense is the abolition of the Democratic Party and its thorough reformation once again into a party of the working person. Extremists with hate-filled agendas, among them the abortionists and gay rights activists posing as victims when they themselves have become aggressive and obnoxious in the IMPOSITION of their views, need to develop their own political party. Maybe many of the present Democratic politicians can follow them there. The present Democratic leadership would rather keep these leftwing extremists under the guise of tolerance for all. Rather, it seems to me that they don't have the 'cojones' to restore rationality and common sense to the Democratic Party.
In the culture wars that are yet to be fought, even more intensely than they are now, maybe we can finally come to understand the real meaning of what Barry Goldwater said during the 1964 presidential campaign, the quote below credited to Karl Hess... And the words of Benjamin Franklin.
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." ..."A Republic, IF you can keep it!"
We will be waiting for the likes of these liberals, who have no concept of personal space, personal dignity, and the most basic respect for the principle that true diversity is the diversity of intellect and opinion, the right sincerely to hold an opposing viewpoint.
News: Student arrested at rally
Andy Rosenthal
news@mirror.unco.edu
A UNC student was arrested during a protest of President George W. Bush.
Senior journalism and mass communications major Michael McCarthy was arrested, detained and charged with disorderly conduct after he was involved in a conflict with a police officer during the protest.
According to a Greeley Police Department report, McCarthy hit a police officer stationed on 11th Ave. and D St. on top of the head with a sign.
McCarthy denies that happened, and said he only waved the sign near the cop*s face.
"I basically stepped forward and raised my sign in front and raised my sign in front of the police officers* face to shield his verbal abuse to the (other) protester," McCarthy said. "At no time did I cross out of the protest zone. I never struck the police officer, I never spoke to the police officer, nor did I make any gesture at all to him other than raising my sign to shield his verbal attack. The police officer then stepped across the police line and grabbed my wrist, he was basically trying to force me down to the ground. The officer started yelling *He hit me, he hit me,* and at that point several officers started grabbing me and pulled me in all sorts of directions."
McCarthy said he does not know why he was he was singled out, but he said he thinks it was because of his support for John Kerry.
"I am a very vocal supporter of John Kerry and even more vocal critic of the administration and their policies," he said.
"I really don*t believe at any time that I posed a threat to the security of the president. If anything, my presence only posed a political threat. But the way they had a free speech set up it was just a mocker of this country*s rich history of vigorous political debate."
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