First Skirmish in the Battle of NYC - - Bush 1, Protestors 0

[donsu]

http://www.counterpunch.com/lindorff07232004.html

Bush may be on the defensive in the presidential election contest, but he won a big victory in New York Wednesday, when the main organization protesting the Republican convention set to begin August 29 agreed to Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s take-it-or-leave-it “offer” of a permit that pens in the demonstration on Manhattan’s West Side Highway.

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The decision to shunt protesters over to the West Side Highway represents the most large-scale example yet of the Bush/Cheney strategy of penning in demonstrators and protesters during presidential events.

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It is unfortunate that United for Peace and Justice agreed to this repressive plan—a plan that should shame the city of New York—instead of fighting on in the courts against what could well have been ruled a violation of civil liberties. On the other hand, the organizers needed to have a solid plan for a demonstration lest uncertainty cause out-of-town protesters to cancel plans to attend.

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Warns Dobbs, “Mayor Bloomberg, because of his hostility to free expression, is helping to invite chaos.”
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[russian33]

1. This still doesn't make sense to me...

They wanted to protest in Central Park...I figured City Hall would welcome that, being the protestors would be far away from Madison Square Garden, and in a confined area...but Bloomberg once again disappoints me (to put it mildly), hope he's not seeking a second term

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

2. It still doesn't make sense to me

Hummm...lets keep protests in a park OR lets close off the only major road that everyone from midtown is going to HAVE to use because the Re-pukes are closing down a 20 block radius....

OH wait, I GET IT!!! lets get new yorkers to hate the PROTESTERS for shutting down the the west-side and NOT the RNC