Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiDissent Debuts in Downtown Denver
Boulder anti-war protesters run into heavily armed police on eve of DNC
DENVER - If anything can be said about the members of CODEPINK, it’s that they are a restless lot.
Not satisfied with chanting anti-war slogans from a stationary
position in front of Denver’s Union Station Sunday afternoon, the 200
or so adherents of the women-led peace advocacy group moved their
message to the 16th Street Mall — and straight into a phalanx of
helmeted, masked, and truncheon-toting police officers.
The CODEPINK marchers, which included a lively contingent from Boulder County, immediately went into a mass freeze with finger-formed peace signs above their heads as they faced off with stoic officers between Lawrence and Larimer streets.
When they realized they could proceed no further down the busy thoroughfare, the protesters broke out into a pacifist sing-song.
“One, two, three, four, peace is what we’re marching for,” they intoned. “Hey, pay attention, this should be a peace convention.”
Anne Marie Pois, of Boulder, expressed disappointment at the “over-militarized” law enforcement response to CODEPINK’s peace parade, which was halted because participants were congregating in the road rather than the sidewalk.
“I guess it’s their first day doingthis,” she said of the black-garbed officers weighed down with weaponry, hanging off roving SUVs, and perched atop horses masked against potential airborne crowd control chemicals.
As her colleagues drifted back to Union Station, so concluded one of the first of many protests to come at the Democratic National Convention, which officially starts today and runs through Thursday night.
Anne Toepel, 41, helped form the Boulder/Denver CODEPINK chapter a few months ago and was one of the people orchestrating Sunday’s procession. She also said the police response was “overdone.”
“We are completely practitioners of non-violence,” she said of the group, whose name is a play on the Bush administration’s color-coded national security alert system.
Toepel, a single mother from Boulder who teaches at Whittier Elementary School, will be busy with other activist commitments the rest of the week - all of them outside the official venues of the Democratic Party.
She said she is feeling only “lukewarm to hopeful” about the impending nomination of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as the party’s presidential candidate.
“I’m not in the Obama bubble,” said Toepel, an early supporter of liberal presidential contender Dennis Kucinich. “We have to push him on the war. But our government is so corrupt, there is so much pressure for him to buckle.”
Deidre Johnston, a Boulderite since 1982, expressed the same lack of confidence in Obama’s ability to quickly end the war in Iraq. She, too, rooted for a Kucinich victory in the primary.
“Obama’s a much better choice than (Republican presidential candidate) John McCain, but I’m very concerned that he wants to go into places like Afghanistan and Pakistan in a war-like way,” she said, as her 10-year-old son stood nearby.
Johnston, 44, said the Democratic Party should work harder at including all the disparate elements within its constituency rather than moving the majority of the party toward the political center.
“I wish we had more of a seat at the table and were allowed inside the zone without being put in a cage,” Johnston said, referring to the fenced-off protest area located outside the Pepsi Center. “I would like to see the Democratic Party stand up for the policies it said it would stand up for.”
27 Comments so far
Show AllJorak McBama for Emperor!
"Now, let the protesters feel the power of this FULLY-OPERATIONAL Death Star!"
Ha! That was awesome!
"Obama is a bubble" and I am not in it.
VOTE ANYBODY BUT THE TWO PARTIES
ted kennedy's speech tells it all -- 'the hope still rises...' --
yes, of course, feed us enough lies to keep our hopes 'rising' --
i was in downtown denver yesterday -- when you look at the delegates,
you see what it all means -- money, power, not much else
“I think anybody who doesn’t think I’m smart enough to handle the job is underestimating.”
[George W. Bush]
And the US is different from China how? I am sure in China one can protest where one cannot be seen or heard. Actually, the US is different in that in China the political philosophy has nothing to do with the right to protest or free speech. One is expected to join the communist party and join in party discussions if one has concerns about the direction of the society. And though the role of the government has morphed from egalitarianism to utilitarianism, for the most part the members of the party and the government still take the role seriously, and the great majority of the citizens trust the government to do the right thing (mostly because their quality of life has improved in the last 10 years).
The US is a giant fraud. It is founded on the belief that everyone is competing with everyone else, including members of the government, and so it is critical that common citizens have the right to speak out and protest what the individuals in government are doing. So, the right to protest is fundamental, but protests are confined to areas where the protestors are neither seen nor heard. And free speech is fundamental, but political free speech is confined to a very narrow range in the corporate media, and anyone speaking outside the corporate media platform is drowned out by the flood speech of that media. And this is especially alarming since few members of the government appear to take their roles seriously anymore.
It would not be so worrisome if the US were not so powerful and its corporate oligarchs so committed to spread their malignant philosophy of selfishness to the rest of the planet to the point of threatening or even starting nuclear war.
Denver is a police state. The city should be ashamed of itself. As a 33 year resident of Denver it comes as no surprise that the police have chosen this course of action. The police in this city recently murdered a man in a "no-knock" raid when they battered down the wrong door and, as early as last week, 3 officers beat a mans teeth out in the middle of the street for crossing against the traffic signal near Coors Field. (both incidents are well documented)
When our sports teams win championships and we're at the bars celebrating, you can be sure that come 11pm the Denver police will be spraying tear gas and starting a riot to show their sense of civic pride.
Shame on Denver and its cowardly mayor Hickenlooper who have created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation instead of openness and POLITICAL FREEDOM that this convention is intended to foster.
Who is Obama...follow the money.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/8/25/rick_macarthur_you_cant_be_president
I thought you said "who's Obama"!
The problem with our government is that it recognizes a corporation as an individual. Where the constitution says the people have a right to lobby the government, it never intended to allow companies to be treated as individual citizens. Until this is changed, their will only be more of corp. control of Washington.
Lobbying in the modern fashion is probably not what was intended either. Lavish parties and large monetary contributions amounts to bribe. Even individuals do not have a right to interfere with political discourse to that extent. Lobbying was supposed to be people getting to sit down and talk with their representatives to make their viewpoint known and understood.
I agree that giving corporations the rights of individuals is sick and twisted and creates major problems. So is differential treatment of corporations and labor unions, who are essentially identical entities on different sides of the employer/employee relationship for that matter. However, that's far from the only problem with our government. I'm not even sure I'd say it's the biggest problem. I'm with you on your disgust for that policy, but let's keep it in perspective here.
I've always wondered why noone's argued that the corporation which is an individual cannot be owned. After all if you own a person, isn't that person a slave? Shouldn't one of your constitutional amendments prohibit the ownership of such a slave?
Alan, you have pinpointed the primary concern. The irony is that these 'corporate citizens' are global entities with loyalty only to themselves and their profits and care not a wit if you live or die.
miniwood.
Just checking to make sure the new system is working
I was doing the same thing...good morning
Police have been militarized and brain washed to jail anyone who dissents the corrupt leadership and policies of these United States. It used to be Protect and Serve, just like it used to be Protect the Constitution against all enemies, foriegn and domestic. Ha Ha Ha not any more. The elite secret powers have done took our government from us, and we let them. When the people finally realize that it is useless to think they can vote in real change, it will be too late.
America has a real problem. There are no real solutions lest we all unite and
stop playing thier game. The crooks get thier power from our co-operation. Stop
giving them anything. Stop listening to the lies. Try critical thinking for a change. How about using a little common sense and trusting your judgement?
8/22/2008 6:45:58 AM
Dear CD:
I find this very disturbing. When the BBC started with their commercial ads, I was shocked. If Common Dreams loses its uniqueness, I am afraid that any hope that I may have had for this country is now lost. The Media is not doing its job. When CD reported, the people responded as they should to issues that concern them. This is the civic duty and responsibility of a populace in a working democracy.
It is in our diversity that we stay strong and committed to truth and the freedom of thought. I have strong suspicions as one person here has already expressed that pressure from the Democratic Party has objected to our open criticisms of their candidate and that they have had a hand in this decision.
Profanity has never bothered me. It is the life’s blood and passion of discourse. The choice to read or NOT to read is available to everyone. This is a populist forum and represents the ordinary people. This tainted two party system, cannot take away and weaken our voices.
CD, with these changes you have diluted our voices. Like the levees in New Orleans, the walls have been weakened, and flooding is imminent. An underground will be formed, and the people will channel their strength for “change”. This government, this nation, this disregard for the people’s “weal” , the common weal, will transform this country for better or worse. No oppressive imperial power has ever escaped this fate.
Time to boot down the laptop, and lace up your marching boots! St.Paul, Mn. is where we all need to go next. And the week after that in front of your post office, recruiting station, whatever. Get out there and take back your country with the only tools that work: boots, voices, music, non-compliance...
Actually, I prefer taking my country back by voting. Less romantic, maybe, but far far more affective.
That might be the most naive thing I've ever read.
What do you think controls these elections, the media, the government, our domestic policy, our foreign policy (here's a hint...CORPORATIONS)
so how do you expect to rip the power away from the corporations by "voting" in the corporate elections, where any and all possible candidates who really care for the people, are eliminated from "electability"(corporate whore word) before the process begins.
We need revolution and you barf up tolerance for corporate control as your solution.
You're right, it IS more AFFECTIVE:
affective af·fec·tive (ə-fěk'tĭv)
adj.
1. Concerned with or arousing feelings or emotions; emotional.
2. Influenced by or resulting from the emotions, as of a psychological disorder.
(from American Heritage Dictionary)
Belief in voting in this country is a psychological disorder imposed by those with a stake in protecting the status quo.
Unfortunately, it's approximately as EFFECTIVE as protesting. Our "choices" are limited to two corporate parties through fear and easily manipulated voting systems and machines, and the politicians don't listen to protests any more, even in the rare cases when the police let you get close enough that they hear them. There is has been a greater turnout in terms of percentage of population for anti Iraq war protests than Vietnam. The politicians have learned we're all talk. It's time to make them scared of us again. It's time to remind them who really holds the power.
As long as the votes are actually counted...
But that's another issue, eh?
The world comes full circle, again.
Larimer Street, where Neal Cassady of Jack Kerouac and On The Road fame, hung out in Denver. It was the 'rough' part of Denver back them. Seems to be rough again.
Now they are telling people to get off the road, stop speaking for freedom and human rights, and stop dissent which is a basic right of any democratic country.
More power to Codepink. By the way, this is all at the urging of the Democratic Party Leadership.
Dear all, please allow me to kindly remind you that, indeed, nothing shall truly separate the bush's from the obama's, nor our embarrasing past from our possible future, until we, as a collective people, resolve, address, petition, demand,push, kick and scream for legislation to be passed that would prohibit corporate personhood, that would prohibit any person whom personally, directly or indirectly accepts, receives, or otherwise assumes, in whole or part, posession of any gift, gratuity, donation, annuity, or compensation of any kind whatever, from holding or being elected to any public office. Such were the wise observations of the thoughtful legislators who, way back when the states were
more territory, commonwealth, and district than they were united as states, they observed that the separation of powers between federal government and state makes the fed and the state exactly that; separate. Quite distinctly, separate.
And when the 13th ammendment was swept under, even though this extremly controversial ammendment was ratified by a 2/3 majority of the fledgling states, it was somehow swept right on under an old, and impossibly heavy congressional rug. And so, the 13th ammendment; conceived, drawn-up, submitted, debated over, then hammered out into the venerable framework our forfathers knew as "ratification" of legislative law prohibiting [those east-india trading company-coveted] titles of nobility, was, like a feif in the feudal night, gone.
Ooh!! Look at all the pretty-boy "heroes" (see article on another war resistor being court-martialed) in their shiny black, fascist riot gear!
I highly doubt most believe we have gotten to that point. They still believe everything the government does is still in their best interest.
Like keeping the dissenters who wear pink and are non violent and sing songs as far away as they possibly can from the feast for the elite.
No one wants to wrap their heads around the universal picture here. La la land is preferable.
Yes, isn't it interesting how the ladies in pink advocating peace are more of a threat than the weapon-wielding thugs in all-black military gear?
Here is the list of the bloggers selected from each state to attend and blog at the DNC. Included is another the Colorado Independent. The CO blogs will give a different view because they are local and are have been posting from a local perspective for some time.