Posted on 08/15/2004 1:01:25 AM PDT by 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.
"If, God forbid, another attack took place in or around NY, they'd be screaming for GW's help."
Hardly, they would scream for Bush's head since he 'failed to protect them'.
I'm sort of hoping that the NYPD will borrow a page of "protestor relations" from the 1968 Chicago PD manual...
Seriesly, given what's going on here, I hope that there will be a boycott of convention business in NYC, and in fact, for the entire state of NY.
If anything occurs that could endanger the lives of both citizens and attendees, like those idiots who want to try to disrupt the explosive sniffing dogs, those people should be charged with terrorist crimes, and be charged as enemy combatants and sent to Cuba in chains.
Mark
I have faith in the New York Tactical Police Force. I used to work near the U.N. These guys are good.
Meeting the army of delegates, politicians and lobbyists will be a vast array of protest groups
Yeah, all queers, lesbians, wicthes, worlocks, satanist, etc. etc.
This is a Karl Rove trap people.. These Yahoos and Meth addicts are walking right into it like cattle about to be slaughtered.
Will conservatives do this, in any concerted fashion? I wouldn't count on it.
A conservative is a liberal who was mugged the night before.
The Guardian is Britain's premier left wing paper. The article is as much wishful thinking as fact. I suspect these clowns won't get any closer than 10 blocks from the convention and, if they get a lot of coverage, it will be because the MSM wants to whip them on.
In my case it was a liberal teenager who became a consevative adult. I think it had something to do with paying my own bills for the first time. Liberals just refuse to grow up.
Fearless prediction..this mob of goons will invade the Fox News Channel studios.....NY Freepers will mobilize to rescue Laurie Dhue
It's okay....let them protest.
Even the rats at DU are worried that the protests will push voters toward Bush!!!
I was channel surfing the other night before falling asleep,when I happened to notice the skanky tackle-faced slut that host Uranium on the Fuse music channel at the Dems convention.Anybody that don't know what I'm talking about,Uranium is that channels version of Headbanger's Ball,but features more of the godawful Nu metal that plagues today's youth.You wouldn't believe the tackyness going on at the convention.She was trying to ask an old fart some stupid question and he started flicking his tounge at her.She was dressed like some cheap hooker off the street.She started interveiwing the Hollyweirds then,and David Keith started rambling on how this country can't make it another 4 years with that "jerk"Bush.Excuse me dipshit,but you never hear about Bush grabassing and exposing himself to women like your boy Clinton.
BINGO!!! Like I just posted, protestors will drive folks to the GOP.
WHOA! that reminds me, got get more ammo.
This is so very true. Heaven help us if we forget it.
Regards,
I would drive from Texas to rescue Laurie.
Jamie Moron, has never heard about the NY cops shoving plungers into peoples asses, maybe this time it will be liquid drano. Jamie is a gay name.
Will they be distributing brown shirts also?!
I thought it was:
A liberal is a conservative who hasn't been mugged yet?
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