Newsday: obstinacy threatens to turn GOP convention demos into big mess

[G_j]

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpdun093885112jul09,0,7638932.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines

NY Newsday


Right to protest is being stomped on
Official obstinacy threatens to turn anti-GOP convention demonstrations into one big mess

BY CHRISTOPHER DUNN AND DONNA LIEBERMAN

Christopher Dunn is the associate legal director and Donna Lieberman is the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

July 9, 2004


In about seven weeks, hundreds of thousands of people may descend on midtown Manhattan for the Republican National Convention. Some will be delegates, most will be demonstrators, and one will be the president of the United States, there to accept his party's nomination.

While the convention at Madison Square Garden may be a political event for some, for many it will serve as a key gauge of the extent to which 9/11 security concerns have eroded America's commitment to civil liberties. And the right to protest is one of the most important of those civil liberties. After all, what separates our country from those our government so freely criticizes - indeed sometimes attacks - is our constitutionally protected right to take to the streets to protest our leaders and their actions without fear of persecution or worse.

Two events loom large over the protests likely to swirl around the convention. First and foremost is the attack of September 11, which not only prompted unprecedented security worries about the convention but also set the stage for the Iraq war, which has proved so unpopular and divisive that it alone will bring hordes of protesters to New York in late August. And as we learned from the police-protester clashes during the 1968 Chicago convention, the combination of an unpopular war and police efforts to stifle dissent can be disastrous.

Also casting a shadow over the upcoming convention is the debacle of the February 2003 anti-war demonstration here in New York City. Invoking 9/11-related security concerns, the NYPD banned a proposed peace march and limited organizers to a stationary rally on First Avenue, which was an unprecedented restriction that the federal courts supported. On the day of the rally, police barricades prevented tens of thousands of people from reaching First Avenue, police horses terrified crowds simply trying to get to the event, and those who made it to the demonstration found themselves penned in.
..more..

[SoCalDem]

1. If the police did not STIFLE dissent, there would be fewer problems

The repubes CREATED the reason for the dissent, so they should be willing to view it..

European leaders seem to be able to handle it like adults.. They have millions of people turn out and demonstrate.. the earth does not fall off its axis..

Deal with it, babies :)

[supernova]

2. Could this convention be the GOP's summer of '68?

Could this GOP convention be their equivalent to our Detroit '68?

I would love to see the GOP convention brought to a halt due to protests.

[Gman]

6. Only Bloomberg, as did Daily, can answer that question

Will Bloomberg do the bidding of his GOP masters of darkness and sic the police unrestrained on the demonstrators? Or does Bloomberg want to be reelected mayor of NYC?

I, for one, am expecting a complete replay of Chicago '68 in NYC '04.

[Mojambo]

16. Big

I suspect it will be as bad as 1968 and likely quite a bit worse.
It will be the defining political moment of our generation.

The GOP convention is going to make WTO/Seattle look like a flower festival.

[bookman]

3. All protesters should go to....

..the free speech zone.



Delaware.


(Being sarcastic, but not far from reality.)

[xchrom]

4. may the demonstrators make the republicans

miserable.

[prodigal_green]

5. May I help you?

Oh, you want to go see The Lion King? OK, take the #6 train to Hunts Point Avenue. Make sure you're wearing your Bush/Cheney t-shirt. Just ask somebody when you get out of the station where the theater is.

snicker snicker...

[displacedyankeedem]

9. From an ignorant non NY-er: What's Hunts Point Avenue?

[KittyWampus]

19. Hunts Point Ave. Is In The Bronx & NOWHERES Near Theater District

of Manhattan.

NYC as a whole hates Junior's guts.

[tom_paine]

10. There was a time that I would object to something like that

That was before I fully understood what Nazi Monsters we were up against.

I do believe such a tour of the kinds of places these Busheviks want to create more of would be EDUCATIONAL to them.

Don't forget the Mott Haven stop, too. That's where Bush-Cheney headquarters is!

[prodigal_green]

14. That's exactly what I meant

I wasn't suggesting that there was anything wrong with the people of that neighborhood in the Bronx, just that Bush's policies have made things so much worse for the poor in this city and the country as a whole that I imagine publicizing yourself as a chimp supporter would probably land you in some trouble.

Hell, I would challenge him to show his chimpy face at my gym in Queens--lots of buff, middle-class Latin-American and Irish who might want to have a word with him there too.

[randr]

7. Repugs will use the demonstrations

to paint the left as violent radicals.
There are sure to be antagonists planted to incite violence and destruction of property.
The anti-* crowd will be shown by the media to be fervently anti-American and the repugs will use the images all the way to the election.

[G_j]

8. so are you saying

people should not exercise their Constitutional rights because the Repugs and media will create lies about them?

[tom_paine]

11. The Busheviks will create lies about Free Americans no matter WHAT we do

Just like the nazis and the Jews.

No coincidence that...

[randr]

12. No, I am not saying that we should not exercise our

Constitutional Rights. I am saying the Repugs will infiltrate to disrupt and the media will use this to paint lies.
This took place constantly in the 60's, we have seen it occur at the NAFTA protests, and it will play a big part during the RNC.
I hope the organizers are prepared to document incidents and have the distribution of information worked out in advance with reliable news contacts.

[G_j]

15. I understand your point

but my approach is briefly stated here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1955524

** a street activist from time to time I have been a NV trainer myself

[randr]

18. Excellent!

[catmandu57]

13. The time to crash the barricades is drawing near

If anyone believes everything is going to be apple pie and sunshine in NYC they live in another world. I get the feeling that things are going to spin out of control there.

[Malva Zebrina]

17. Me too

the New Yorkers, of which at one time I was one for about ten years,and further was born and raised in a suberb of NYC, will not stand for it. They can organize all of their people into a concrete, very powerful, protestor zone due to their numbers.

And they will love doing it. It will be approached with gusto, believe me.

NYC people are amongst the greatest people, the most compassionate and down to earth people, willikng to help, that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing ever.

New York is a BIG CITY .

It can be powerful by it's sheer numbers of people who are not about to take shit from someone they perceive to be jerking them around, namely Bush.

And they WILL show up.

No doubt about that.