Let's not talk about the "many folks here who think it is OK" - unless you can name a name who stated specifically that they thought it was OK.
You keep throwing darts at people who aren't even on this thread - "Back when this forum had real conservatives ..." Get real.
"I would argue that the conventions themselves are far more disruptive than a few protesters" - did you really write that? Do you want to talk with the folks in Seattle? Maybe you can start an organization to stop these disruptive conventions?
Bad stuff happens when you hang out with the wrong folks - he got to learn this lesson, cheaper than many.
Just for the record - I do not think it is Ok for the cops to just arrest anyone. But some responsibility for getting himself in that situation rests with our poor innocent protester here. He was young and didn't think he would get caught. This is a total non-story.
I've seen worse happen to better.
Diva's Husband
I'm glad you brought that up. Alex Jones did a documentary on that, and presented video evidence from local TV stations that showed most of the protestors were peaceful.
There were a few violent ones that were doing the damage. The peaceful protestors tried to get the police to stop them, but the cops just stood there doing nothing.
It was a classic case of using agent provaucotors (sp) as part of the Hegelian dialectic of problem-reaction-solution.
The desired "solution" in the Seattle case being 1) to use psyops against the American people to condition them to associate protestors against globalism/free trade with violence, and 2) to "lockdown" the city and make that SOP for future events that happen to draw a lot of protestors.
By and large, it worked. Fortunately, a few folks had video cameras and were able to get the truth out.