Wecome to Amerikkka!! This is NOT the country that I gave my blood. sweat and tears to defend. It'll get worse. To all you
black shirt, jack boot thugs, who do YOU serve? Get a REAL job.

Heavyrunner: "This was mild compared to Chicago in 1968."

I have been an avid reader of CD for several years and have observed that sometimes the comments on the articles are more instructive than the articles themselves. So much so that I am not sure which I prefer. The video presented here could be interpreted as an isolated event were it not for commenters such as Heavyrunner who place these events in an historical context. Sadly what this video presents is not new and has far too many historical precedents. Thank you Heavyrunner for sharing your personal experience of state repression back in 1968.

It's just disgusting! This is why the cops are called PIGS! They protect private property and fuck you and your rights! Maybe some day the protesters will bring thier oun clubs and guns. I good riot would look great on TV. Sorry, they don't report on that stuff any more now, do they? None the less, a good riot would be nice.

What is important is that we export our brand of red, white, and blue fascism throughout the world at the point of a gun, or maybe even at the tip of a nuclear-armed missile. Doesn't it make you proud to be a Murrikan?

My reaction to this - tears. What has America come to? really? This confirms my reasons for leaving the U.S. It is much too painful to witness our rights being stripped asunder without any outcry. Here, maybe, but by the general population and our media...silence. What will it take?

I apologize for all the questions but I am just at a loss.

Btelfare

This was not the convention of the Bratz doll lovers. The guy that discovered the Watergate breakin died a homeless alcoholic so excuse me if I step on your constitutional right. A mass protest can be the disguise for a mass assassination of participants of the convention. The last 8 years have been the worst dictatorship I have experienced. I may sound parnoid. When I give my opinion about things? I believe I would have been killed if the hit man wasn't sure I would be worst in death.

This election is for all the marbles. The organized peaceful congregation of protesters is too risky in the present political climate.

I think it was reported on Democracy Now that the police were not wearing any badges or nameplates. That means if they are abusive in any way that you have no way to identify them by badge numbers or names.

I believe that this is against the law. This is something that WE can fight back with. This is something that can have serious consequencefor the city of Denver.

Where is the ACLU? Where is the Lawyer’s Guild? I want to hear from these organizations on this matter. People need to know their rights. These are our streets and the streets do not belong to the Democrats or the Republicans. They are supposed to be working for the people.

At the link which follows, please read the post and look at this 35 second video of Denver police batoning and then "disappearing" Alicia Forrest. Please distribute this link as far and wide and frequently as you can. This is a fascist state where police thugs act with impunity.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/35717#comment-206914

David Brookbank -- "Hasta donde debemos practicar las verdades?"

"It may well be that the greatest tragedy of this period of social change is not the glaring noisiness of the so-called bad people, but the silence of the so-called good people."--Martin Luther King

This sort of disruption would not occur if the demonstrators had just stayed within their properly marked "free speech" cages, you know, those specially ordered dog kennels. We can't have noisy disruptions in our streets while a perfectly civil convention is underway. It's very clear that our politicians follow the rules of law so it's only fair that citizens do likewise. Please try and behave, a corporate coronation in in progress.

Tell me what a police state looks like? This is what a police state looks like: Denver, Seattle, Spokane, NYC, San Francisco, Washington DC. You organize it, they'll try to crush it. Meanwhile, the press can't get over not having had a major protest in Beijing during the Olympics to throw up as a sign of Chinese repression. But where are they on these stories of U.S. police repression of free speech, free assembly, and protest? They certainly aren't in the middle of the crowd like the indy journalists.

On July 4, 2007, Spokane Police officers and other police under the direction of an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force provoked, attacked and arrested 17 youth. In May 20008, one young man, Michael Lyons, was brave enough to take his arrest to a trial. 10 minutes before the case began, the police came running into the court room saying they had found some lost video footage. The judge threw the case out.

Certainly these are fascists "law enforcers", but they are equally liars and law-breakers, whether they are in Spokane, Denver, Seattle, you name it.

If you haven't seen it, please see "This is What Democracy Looks Like".

David Brookbank -- "Hasta donde debemos practicar las verdades?"

.

Guess these idiots have never heard of karma or somehow think being "super Christians" [way too many of those in law enforcement] exempt them from the results of their actions - the usual reaction when they are made accountable is a mental break down. Over the long term brutality takes it's toll on the brutalizers - not a pretty sight.

Jim Herne
I don't know about y'all but I feel safer knowing that we are protected from prosters. Meanwhile, leaving to suburban police forces stopping skin head, racists intent on assainating Obama!

Ladies and Gentlemen
Welcome to the United Fascist Govorporation of Amerika. The click of the boot heels comes closer to our ears. The pigs are black w/ badges of power. We spiral down economically; we are spied upon; we have no recourse but to weep for our children. We've brought our children into this world, and this world grinds its heel into our backs as we protect our children. Barack Hussein McBush will occupy the white house, now and forever. Convince two people to stop buying things, to stop driving, to stop consuming, and ask those two people to ask two people. Ask two people to start changing. Start today. Start now.
Ask Two People.
Ask Two People.
Ask Two People.

Good reporting. Good video. If this had happened in China, the network news would be all over it.

Joe

Now THAT is change we can believe in!!

Mayor Hickenlooper said Denver was ready for the convention=. The city has given police officers extra training to better handle the crowds and expected protesters, and the event will generate ``a lot of excitement,'' he said.

``We've got a plan that now we've just got to execute,'' he said.

Hickenlooper, 56, said demonstrators would have access to the delegates. Earlier this month, a federal judge upheld a plan for a designated protest zone after groups sued to move the area closer to the site of the convention at Denver's Pepsi Center.

``The protesters are within sight and sound of the delegates as they walk in,'' Hickenlooper said. ``The delegates are free to walk over and talk to(or spit on) them.''

"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats

what happened to this site? I miss all the old posters. WTF. I hate the new look, the new set-up, and the horrible new LIMIT ON FREE SPEACH. 1000 words my white ass!!! Common dreams is now a common nightmare!!!!!

WHEN YOUNG AND NAIVE, READ FROM LIN YUTANG ( CHINESE ) WHO SAY THAT THE LAST FREE SPIRIT WILL BE HOLD BY A POET SITTIND UNDER A TREE IN UNION WITH NATURE.
IT IS TRUE, THE CONTROLLED MEDIA IS ONLY AFTER $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

All that is missing are the water cannons and police dogs. The First Amendment is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

Dedicated to the provocative stalkers of the Denver police

by Police

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
Ill be watching you

Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
Ill be watching you

Oh, cant you see
You belong to me
How my poor heart aches
With every step you take

Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
Ill be watching you

Since youve gone I been lost without a trace
I dream at night I can only see your face
I look around but its you I cant replace
I feel so cold and I long for your embrace
I keep crying baby, baby, please...

Oh, cant you see
You belong to me
How my poor heart aches
With every breath you take

Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
Ill be watching you

Every move you make
Every step you take
Ill be watching you

Ill be watching you
Ill be watching you
Ill be watching you
Ill be watching you...

Poet

Previously Retire Green.

Been there done that - too old now. Old Bones and Hard Batons don't mix. I see somewhere that Dennis gave a great speech, while the first ammendment was being trashed outside, does anyone have a link to his speech?

Do The World A Favor And Retire!
Green Retirement Planning

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's part of a demonstration and how it gets publicity. What it shows really, is how afraid some people in authority are about people expressing their views as a group. There is power in a group, that's how 'the powers that be' got there power, and they expect all groups to use their power the way they do, hence, might makes right.
It was upon the speech inside the 68 convention while the police were rioting outside that "the youth of America want beards, not brains; sideburns not solutions", that my facial hair began to sprout. It's just been our sad experience that when people are given authority, as they suppose, over other people, they immediately begin to depart from peruasion, patience and long-suffering and impose coercion.
Besides, I disagree with the protesters while I also think it is critically important for the people inside to be reminded of the things they say. Somebody should be doing it. How else?
Peace

"THEY HATE OUR FREEDOMS" George W. Bush

This was mild compared to Chicago in 1968. I was one of the 3000 demonstrators on Michigan Avenue in Chicago 40 years ago this month. That was the Democratic Convention which has received so much attention over the years for the police riot that occurred. I was a 17 year old kid, just out of high school civics class where we learned about all the great rights and privileges we have as Americans, like freedom of speech and expression and the right to assemble peaceably to petition our government for redress of grievances.

Aligned against 3000 protesters were 12,000 regular Chicago police (The Pigs), a like number of fully armed National Guard troops, and 27,000 combat troops armed with automatic weapons from the regular Army. The plan by the anti Viet Nam war protesters was to march from "The Loop" (downtown Chicago) to the International Amphitheater where the convention was taking place, about 22 blocks south, to express disagreement with the pro Viet Nam war policies of the Democratic Party. Lyndon Johnson was the Democratic President at the time, and the likely nominee, Hubert Humphrey, was afraid to break with his President. Humphrey was Vice President at the time.

The Chicago Mayor was know as an absolute dictator with Chicago Machine politics at the time, and he claimed that it would embarrass the city if the Peace March was allowed. So, despite our Constitutional guarantees he refused to grant the permit required for the March. Abbie Hoffman, Dave Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seal and others, who were the recognized leaders of the peace movement at the time, decided that they would defy local legal restrictions, believing that our Federal rights to free speech and expression trumped the Chicago rulings, and hold the march anyway. It was into this situation a buddy and I stumbled into after hitch-hiking 350 miles from our little town in northern Michigan to check out the "action."

Everybody was gathered in Grant Park (maybe you remember the famous pictures of Abbie Hoffman on top of the statue of General Grant). TV cameras in those days were huge behemoths that were put in place with cranes. There was a platform in front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel with the three cameras from the three networks. It was getting really crowded to the point where you wondered if you could breathe. There were huge formations of the "Pigs" on all the side streets, and the crowd was on Michigan Avenue, which parallels the lake. The Hilton faces on Michigan which runs north and south. The far side of the park is Lake Shore Drive. The march was set to begin. The atmosphere was very tense. Suddenly, out of one of the side streets, a big gang of a few hundred of the blue uniformed thugs came running out with a vengeance and rushed the TV platform and started smashing all the equipment and beating the hell out of any reporter they could get their hands on. People began screaming and shouting and as soon as the TV feeds were all destroyed the Pigs started grabbing anyone with a camera or notebook and beating them bloody.

Then Army jeeps with wooden rectangular frames on the front that were wrapped with barbed wire came screaming up Lake Shore Drive and running, full speed, into the crowd on the far side of the park, blocking off the route of escape to the east, toward Lake Michigan and the beaches and parks there. Then the full force of thousands of Pigs rushed into the crowd, grunting and hollering and spraying everyone with terrible, but, thankfully, non lethal chemical agents that burned your eyes like pouring battery acid into them and made it very difficult to breathe or see. This left the Peace demonstrators at a real disadvantage, because the Pigs had gas masks on. The Pigs were working in groups of three or four, all with 3 foot truncheons, and they proceeded to grab everyone they could get their hands on and administer sadistic, fascist life threatening beatings to all around. Their actions were murderous and criminal, and yet, they were the police, so to whom did you go to report this criminal activity?

I got away several times as I was just 17 and it appeared that they were a little reticent to grab somebody who looked that young when there was somebody a few years older next to me that they could grab. I can still today hear the screams and the sickening cracks and thuds as the pigs clubs came down on the helpless demonstrators. Blood was splashing around everywhere, including into my face at times. I have never been in a war, so this was and remains the most violent scene I have ever been a part of. My buddy and I got away. We were so scared we ran all the way to Indiana!

Those cops were not trying to arrest anyone or enforce any laws. There were there to beat people and teach them a lesson - Mayor Daily is the boss, and if you threaten his authority we will kill you if necessary. My friend Tim and I left there certain that many, many people must have been killed by the actions of those cops and army with the jeeps. We saw lots of people run over, but the reports later were of only a few people killed. I have always doubted those reports.

So the loss of our actual Constitutional rights goes back at least to the times of the Viet Nam war, and if you study labor history in the U.S., or the Civil Rights movement, I am afraid the hypocrisy goes even further back. Maybe to Washington and Jefferson owning slaves . . .

As it happens this has been coming for the last 8 years.

As we all know this is not America anymore.

As they speak from the podium great words of wisdom their actions betray them.

Are we to believe times will be different with Obama? I cannot believe things will change that much even if Obama is elected unless the public really brings pressure to bear. There are still too many gaps between the rulers, their armies and the common wealth.

Stepping outside of the American Dream and recognizing for what it is, not hope but actions, not fancy for some and barely for others, but a place wher we all must live simply so others may simply live.

That's all those protests are about. Exposing the truth and bursting the bubble of how wonderful it is or so it seems. Looking at those black devils I think it's hard to believe our government respects an opposing opinion. I think they don't want the public to know how bad it really is out here.

Since when is documenting "law enforcement", "interfering with police"? Removal of witnesses by physical intimidation and verbal threat of arbitrary enforcement should be a crime that every "public safety" officer must be taught to avoid.

Laws exist to provide for public safety and officers must be upright enough to stand any scrutiny of public exposure. I believe in the dignity and honor of good police officers who will resist this kind of fear based aggressive mentality. I think those BAD apples who are commanding this kind of "clean-up" operation have got to be purged from leadership positions in the force.

The people of Denver must be moved by outrage at this kind of siege and pack mentality. Denver police commanders do not appear to have law enforcement and protection of people and property as primary goals. Squelching dissent and caging free speech should never be the aim of a coordinated police action or else we must prosecute and purge those mis-leaders who have forgotten that the foundation of the United States of America is the US Constitution, not arbitrary division and aggression expressed at those who would seek to express themselves non-violently.

----------

The World Trade Center Towers fell at free-fall speeds because they were a controlled demolition. Symmetrical collapse straight down through the path of most resistance would have been otherwise impossible. Seek the truth or deny your own eyes and physical evidence captured on video.

When the people demonstrating on the docks in Oakland at the start of Bush's war were shot point blank with wooden and rubber bullets, gassed and maced (even the Longshoremen who were just standing there watching got nailed), many of us sent letters of protest to the Mayor of Oakland about it. As far as I know, they were all ignored. I know I got no answer.

They just push the envelope a little farther at a time, to get us used to repression, spying, brutality. When martial law kicks in, few will be surprised, but many will stay home, hidden, fearful, waiting for the axe to fall and hope it is not on them. Be patient, your turn will come.

"Many convention visitors . . . were appalled at what they considered unnatural enthusiasm of police for the job of arresting demonstrators," the Tribune reported the next day. It would later be called a "police riot." That night in his speech nominating George McGovern, Connecticut Sen. Abraham Ribicoff criticized the "Gestapo tactics on the streets of Chicago." Television cameras zoomed in on an enraged Daley, shouting back at the rostrum.

-- The 1968 Democratic National Convention, August 26, 1968

[chicagotribune.com]
___________________________________________

Will an Abraham Ribicoff stand at the podium at the Obamarama/Clintonpalooza prom?

They are just getting in practice for martial law implementation when the MCA and NPSD51 are implemented!!!!!

But I could be wrong !

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.

Go Obama! Show those free-speech-loving terrorists who's the boss.

Can we expand the police state? VOTE YES WE CAN!

If even a peaceful protest is squashed, I think it's time we started protesting local. Look, there's no point in flying to Washington or for that matter to a Party Convention to protest. You have to take down your traitor pols at your local level districts. Relate the crimes of your pols to the economic downturns of your area or even relate the war in Iraq to your neighborhoods making it clear that "it could happen to you too". We have to fight for better pols that will resist the corporate, religious, and military special interests if we are to DEFEAT the Police State.

Is it Kent State yet?

These fascist, black-uniformed thugs make my blood boil! When is enough finally enough? Jefferson said it was our DUTY to overthrow the government when it ceased to work for We the People. If not now then when?! We must take back our country now or not be surprised when martial law is declared. We have lost control of our country to the fascist corporations that use police thugs and torture to stifle dissent. I weep for my children and grandchildren.

The Stasi lives!

That was a nice touch preventing the media from seeing what they were doing to the protesters at the end there...

Yup. 1968, meet 1984.

In a perfect world, it would matter what we the people think. In this one....

Police State. The end of constitutional rights...

You ain't seen nothin' yet. Just wait till Saint Paul.

Class warfare. The oligarchy against the people.

American hypocrisy - Complain about lack of democracy in Beijing and prevent it at home.

Looks like Business as Usual for Repression USA.