When antiwar speech turns seditious (Michelle Malkin)

townhall ^ | April 9, 2003 | Michelle Malkin

[TLBSHOW]

When antiwar speech turns seditious

They've trashed 9-11 memorials. Blocked streets. Burned flags. Shut down bridges. Marched on Broadway. And trampled across the National Mall.

They've thrown stones at a uniformed female member of the Vermont National Guard, and hurled pie at a Bay Area television reporter deemed too pro-war.

They've carried signs that read "We support our troops when they shoot their own officers" and "Don't impeach Bush . . . execute him."

They've publicly wished for "a million Mogadishus" and privately hoped for 100 new bin Ladens.

They've issued manifestos calling for sabotage of military establishments in the name of peace. They've organized "die-ins" in the name of justice. And they've conducted "vomit-fests" to uphold their warped view of the American way.

The antiwar mobsters have gotten away with all this and more. But on Monday, one city finally drew the line.

In Oakland, Calif., local police arrested dozens of antiwar activists who flouted their free-speech rights in a treacherous attempt to shut down a port involved in shipping military supplies to soldiers during wartime. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, several others were cited for crossing a police line outside the Concord Naval Weapons Station; seven more face felony charges for stopping traffic nearby on Interstate 280.

Oakland officials say that the self-proclaimed pacifists, who still fancy themselves the righteous heirs of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., hurled concrete, wood, and iron bolts at cops. In self-defense, the outnumbered police fired appropriately named "dummy" bullets, sting balls, and bean bags at the unruly crowds.

Sporting grapefruit-sized welts and bruises -- their very own red badges of incorrigibility! -- the Oakland rabble-rousers wheedled that the cops were too "aggressive."

"I've never seen this level of violence in response to a community picket," complained David Solnit, a "veteran of two decades of civil disobedience" who helped coordinate Monday's blockade through an outfit called Direct Action to Stop the War.

But this was not your organic garden-variety "community picket."

The antiwar obstructionists did not set out simply to exercise their own free speech. They set out deliberately and specifically to prevent private businesses from fulfilling their federal contracts with the Department of Defense and U.S. Agency for International Development related to the war and post-war reconstruction in Iraq.

Cyprus Gonzalez, 19, of Oakland, who was struck during the port melee, made his and his antiwar collaborators' intentions clear: "It's direct. Here, we're actually trying to shut the place down for a day, to take a strike straight at the actual machine of the war."

The antiwar mob's primary target at the Port of Oakland was American President Lines, a longtime carrier of military cargo. According to the firm, all but two of the company's ships went into military service during World War I. In World War II, the company controlled hundreds of Liberty and Victory ships that carried troops and ammunition through enemy waters. APL provided converted commercial ships for the first Gulf War. And for Operation Iraqi Freedom, the carrier has made nine of its vessels available to the DOD in order to move ammunition and sustainment cargo to support U.S. military forces.

The Oakland punks weren't simply standing on the sidewalks outside APL chanting their mindless antiwar slogans. They were blocking its trucks, employees, entryways, and streets in order to stop the shipment of things like bullets, rations, lubricants, medical supplies, repair parts and chemical defense equipment to our troops.

These bolt-throwing peaceniks also targeted Stevedoring Services of America, which recently won a contract for assessment and a year's operation of the Port of Umm Qasr in Iraq. The firm will also handle 3 million tons of humanitarian aid.

So in addition to trying to block ammo and gas masks for our soldiers, the antiwar extremists also took a bold stand against sending food and medicine to Iraqi civilians.

Nice going, do-gooders.

Make no mistake: This continued campaign of "direct action" against private businesses and military establishments is not antiwar speech. It's anti-soldier, anti-cop, anti-American sedition. The Oakland police deserve medals of honor for appreciating the difference.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

...T'was US vs THEM...

...at the OSCARS =

http://www.tripflicks.com/pro/
(Photos)


Signed:..ALOHA RONNIE Guyer / Yellow Jacket Vet-U.S. 7th Cavalry's Opening Days of the Vietnam War 1965-66

http://www.LZXRAY.com/guyer_collection.htm
(Photos)

[Humidston]

Dang! Too bad it didn't take out a few of her teeth!

[kms61]

FR is a bit of a schizophrenic site. You'll see "line 'em up and shoot 'em" posts about leftists of various stripes, and you'll see posters going absolutely ballistic over such government misdeeds as Waco and Ruby Ridge.

I suspect that there are posters out there whose worldview encompasses both positions, and who fail to see the paradox, if not outright hypocrisy, holding such views.

Like I said, a bit schizophrenic.

[kms61]

If the authorities started shooting down people in the streets, a LOT of people of all political persuasions would be revolted by it, and would have to seriously question what their government was doing.

I would be one of them.

There are a lot of really great folks on this forum, with some amazing insights. But there are a few people who really need to adjust their medications.

[SENTINEL]

Would you not agree that the minimum use of force used to coerce compliance as shown in above photo is nothing like what happened at Ruby Ridge or Waco ?

It seems to me paradoxical that burkeman1 thinks bruising a peacenik to force compliance to law is worse than shooting to death an unarmed or wounded combattant.

[kms61]

Of course. I don't think the police actions Oakland were out of line. I was speaking of (and I inferred Burkeman's post to be about) the people here who seem to want a Kent State redux.

[BlessedBeGod]

MM Bump!

[SENTINEL]

Good. Our 50 year national history of good men doing too little is coming to an end, and I for one am very happy about it. We as a nation should never miss a legally and morally justified opportunity to give these nation-wreckers a fat lip. Only a fat lip (or jaw), mind you, but a big swollen one.

[kitkat]

Nice kitty, nice kitty. I'd like to be on the Michelle Malkin list please. Good kitty! OUCH!!! Hey, watch it those claws!

[putupon]

looks like she's growing a boob on her jaw, maybe she can find work in a freak show somewhere.

[Illbay]

If they are "seditious" why not call out the National Guard?

[Illbay]

I think the Congress should initiate the draft for the Peace Corps.

These people should be forcibly conscripted into the Peace Corps, and then sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, to work with the people there in the clean-up. They should see the aftermath of the brutal regimes they support with their seditious acts, and be forced to help in the reconstruction of the societies whose destruction they have abetted.

[Illbay]

I agree, but "dispersing the crowd" is not enough.

There are organizers of these rallies, just as there were in the Vietnam era. These people need to be caught, jailed, and tried for sedition.

There were many here calling for the arrest of di Genova at Columbia U., who was simply voicing his (admittedly nauseating) opinion. That is wrong.

But these people are DELIBERATELY inciting riot, for the express purpose of impeding the legally constituted government of this nation. There ought to be a penalty for that. Perhaps you can't arrest five thousand people, but you can arrest five dozen, and make them an example.

[Illbay]

How do we know that she wasn't just engaging in a little "rough love-play"?

[William McKinley]

I think his original post was over the top, but I can't dismiss what they are doing as simple protests easily dispersed.

This country has been tolerating their lawlessness for way too long (remember Seattle).

I am not for shooting them outright, but I think it is long overdue that America does more to police the utter lawlessness that takes place at some of these peace 'protests'.

Protests are one thing. Destruction of property and the denial of the constitutional rights of others and the interference with people being able to do their jobs is quite another. And being overly permissive with these whackjobs in the name of free speech is merely letting them get more and more aggressive.

[Illbay]

FWIW, this is a declared war. The President went to Congress a priori the commencement of hostilities, and got their permission--and the check to pay for it--to use our military.

I don't know why some people want certain words to be used, especially since there was a condition given to the use of that force: Saddam had to disarm, and if he didn't we were going to war with him.

This is hardly the same as a "police action."

This is a declared war, no matter what anyone else thinks. But it was a war specifically against a regime, not a real "nation."

[Illbay]

I'm all for executing traitors--after they have had due process.

As I said, the thing that angers me about this is, they don't go after the organizers of this rally. I suspect that a couple dozen people could be rounded up and charged as seditionists, and that would calm things down considerably.

[Lady Eileen]

bump

[MadIvan]

It's not just trying to riot, it's also destruction of property and assault (flinging bolts and suchlike). For those reasons alone, throw them all into prison. Maybe they'll understand matters a bit better with a couple of years being locked up.

One need not even speak the word "sedition" to find reasons to lock these people up - the cause was already sufficient.

Regards, Ivan

[Illbay]

Since "sedition" is a Federal crime, I think the p.c. of the situation is irrelevant, "Mayor Moonbeam" is irrelevant.

The U.S. Attorney ought to be preparing charges right now.