[Onthebarricades] Democratic National Convention protests, August 2008

[global resistance roundup]

* Anti-war activists take to the streets to "defend Denver"
* Peace protesters deliver message to Obama aide
* Police repression at DNC protests
* Pepper-spray cannons among police attacks
* No protesters in "freedom cage"
* More repression newsclippings
* Protesters "aren't making big waves"
* Pelosi ridicules rightist protesters


http://www.democracynow.org/2008/8/25/anti_war_protests_begin_in_denver

August 25, 2008
Antiwar Activists Take to the Streets to “Defend Denver”

Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill heads to the streets of 
Denver to report on day one of protests outside of the Democratic 
National Convention. He speaks to antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, Green 
Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, Vietnam veteran Ron 
Kovic, M1 of Dead Prez, Leslie Cagan of United for Peace and Justice and 
others. [includes rush transcript]

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. Breaking with 
Convention, War, Peace and the Presidency. We’re broadcasting this week 
from Denver. We’ll be traveling from the streets to the suites to the 
convention floor. And while much of the attention will be focused on 
what’s happening inside the convention, we begin our coverage outside 
the heavily fortified gates of the Pepsi Center. Democracy Now! 
correspondent Jeremy Scahill filed this report.
JEREMY SCAHILL: The city of Denver has been converted to a massive 
monument celebrating Barack Obama. This weekend, some 4,000 delegates to 
the Democratic National Convention began flooding the city for the 
much-anticipated coronation of the man chosen by the Democrats to face 
John McCain in November. Some 15,000 journalists are here, as well.
The convention could be described as one big political NASCAR race, with 
corporate logos splashed on practically everything related to the big 
show. The total cost of the convention could well top $100 million. It 
is on track to be the most expensive political convention in US history.
Some $50 million has been allocated by the federal government to the 
city for security, and Denver is now home to a massive twenty-four-hour 
fusion center, where law enforcement agencies, from the US Secret 
Service and the FBI to the state and local police, monitor events inside 
the convention and on the streets.
And it is in the streets of Denver where the uninvited guests will find 
themselves this week. While the big party is underway in the Pepsi 
Center, the site of the DNC, the party crashers will be outside the 
fortified sports arena.
While convention delegates checked into their hotel rooms across the 
city, unpacked their free corporate-sponsored goodie bags and plotted 
out which parties to attend, a few thousand demonstrators marched and 
held rallies downtown. Crowds were smaller than past convention 
protests, but the dedicated demonstrators gathered in the streets to 
protest the continued funding of the Iraq war, threats to escalate the 
war in Afghanistan, and railed against the substantial corporate 
influence in politics.
Among the crowd, there were many national figures in the streets, like 
Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004. She denounced 
the multimillion-dollar convention extravaganza.
CINDY SHEEHAN: Well, of course, it’s just a show. And the most telling 
thing to me about it was when—AT&T is one of the major sponsors of the 
Democratic National Convention. Right before Congress recessed for the 
break, they gave telecoms immunity and the administration immunity from 
warrantless wiretapping and spying on Americans. That’s a direct breach 
of the Fourth Amendment, our right to be private in our papers and, you 
know, possessions.
So, yeah, I think that the Democrats, especially in the past eight years 
of the Bush administration, have grown closer and closer and closer to 
the Republicans. They have not been an effective opposition party. And 
since Obama has become the presumptive nominee, every time the 
Republicans, like, pressure him on anything, he moves closer to them. 
And now we see in the polls where he’s tied with McCain, which to me is 
amazing. McCain, you know, in my opinion, is a doddering old fool. And 
if Obama put as much daylight between himself and McCain, he would be at 
least twenty points ahead.
CYNTHIA McKINNEY: Our country has been hijacked.
JEREMY SCAHILL: At the Recreate 68 rally outside the Capitol building, 
one of those to address the gathering was herself a delegate in 
conventions past, former US Congress member Cynthia McKinney. She’s now 
running against Barack Obama and the Democrats as the Green Party 
presidential candidate.
You used to be inside of these conventions. You would walk around. You 
would see the parties, the corporate sponsorship. What’s it like now to 
be on the outside and not going inside?
CYNTHIA McKINNEY: I’m free, in every sense of the word. I have liberated 
myself from the shackles of the two-party paradigm, and now I’m free to 
advocate the policies that I know the American people really want and 
that reflect their values. And it’s wonderful to be free.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Also on hand at the protest was Ward Churchill, a 
longtime American Indian Movement activist who was controversially fired 
by the University of Colorado. Churchill is a prominent figure in 
Colorado justice struggles, particularly around indigenous rights.
WARD CHURCHILL: You have the abomination happening in Denver, and I’m 
not being cute. Rush Limbaugh put in an “O” rather than the “A”; it is a 
straight-up “A” abomination, a charade that’s undertaken to perpetuate 
business as usual.
And if you’re going to oppose the occupation and the process of war that 
is engendered by occupation, you need to deal with the fact that the 
fundamental equation is right here. Every square inch of North America 
that’s constituted as United States is indigenous territory that’s been 
expropriated by armed force and is maintained in that situs of 
expropriation. And as long as you have that foundation to this country, 
that fundamental equation in place, then the kind of results that are 
being protested here are going to inevitably result.
JEREMY SCAHILL: While almost all of the hype in Denver this week centers 
around Barack Obama, there was concern among the demonstrators over the 
selection of Senator Joseph Biden as his running mate. Biden is the 
latest addition to a foreign policy team that’s comprised of some of the 
most hawkish Clinton-era officials. Biden himself was a key figure in 
authorizing the invasion of Iraq. Here’s Leslie Cagan of United for 
Peace and Justice.
LESLIE CAGAN: His record has not been great. We focus mostly on issues 
of war and peace, and he’s not been great. He’s been awful, actually. On 
Iraq, he was the one who came up with the idea, at least in this 
country—the one who came up with the idea of partitioning Iraq into 
three separate republics. First of all, why anybody in this country 
should even have a position like that, you know, doesn’t make any sense. 
But so, we’re concerned that—you know, that this doesn’t send a signal 
of a strong antiwar candidacy. So we’re concerned about that.
What it does, though, is it reminds us—it should be a wake-up call to 
people all around the country who are committed to ending the war in 
Iraq and bringing all the troops home that our work is far from over and 
that during these next several months, this election season, we need to 
be visible, we need to be at every campaign stop, not only for the 
presidency and the vice presidency, but for every congressional office. 
We need to be out there and visible and vocal as an antiwar movement, 
saying the war needs to end, it needs to end now, and all the troops 
need to come home, and the contractors, too.
ANN WRIGHT: Well, Ann Wright, a retired US Army colonel and US diplomat 
who resigned in opposition to the war in Iraq.
JEREMY SCAHILL: What’s your reaction to Obama choosing Biden? What 
message does this send?
ANN WRIGHT: Well, it sends that it’s—he’s a part of the old Democratic 
establishment, and he is—while he’s had a long history with foreign 
affairs, I mean, it’s not all—it’s not the type of foreign affairs that 
I want.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Obama seems to be pulling in all of these old-guard 
Democrats, all of the famed people from the Clinton era, the Madeleine 
Albrights, the Warren Christophers, Anthony Lake, Susan Rice. I mean, 
what does that say? Or what’s your analysis of—once again, we see 
progressive rhetoric, then he beats Hillary and takes in all of these 
people who are the old guard?
ANN WRIGHT: Well, you’ve exactly identified what’s happening, and that 
concerns us, because there are plenty of other voices that are out there 
that have a very different way of approaching a US foreign policy, that 
it’s a policy of the United States, not as a dominating imperial place, 
but as a place that is a member of the international community and 
conducts itself as such.
And we certainly know that during the Clinton administration, where all 
of these folks that you’ve identified, they were a part of the invasion 
and occupation of many, many countries. They committed breaches of 
international law in military operations that they conducted. And it 
does not give me a good feeling at all that Barack Obama is pulling in 
that same group. There are plenty of other foreign policy experts that 
are out there that have a different vision of what America ought to be 
and how—what America’s stature in the world should be and how we get to 
it from this tremendous hole that the Bush administration and the 
Democratic Congress has dug for us.
LARRY EVEREST: I’m Larry Everest. I’m the author of Oil, Power and 
Empire: Iraq and the US Global Agenda. It shows that despite the fact 
many people—“Oh, the economy is the issue. It’s all about the economy.” 
No, it’s not all about the economy. Objectively, with events in the 
Middle East, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, now Georgia, with Iran 
looming all over this, no matter who is in office, the ruling class of 
this country confronts these huge challenges and these explosive 
contradictions in trying to maintain and extend their grip on the world. 
So, in my view, Obama’s selection of Biden points to that, that in order 
to contend, you have to show—you’re basically auditioning to be 
commander-in-chief of the US empire.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Again, Green Party presidential candidate, Cynthia 
McKinney.
CYNTHIA McKINNEY: Well, you can’t get more inside the Beltway than 
Joseph Biden, so it looks like it’s going to be more of the same, and 
that’s truly unfortunate. But we understood that that’s where the 
Democratic Party was. It’s where it has been. It’s where it is today. 
And that’s why we have to have alternative parties and alternative 
voices. That’s why I’m here in Denver today.
JEREMY SCAHILL: On Monday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will 
officially open the Democratic National Convention. As she bangs the 
gavel, one of her fiercest critics will remain in the streets: Cindy 
Sheehan, who’s challenging Pelosi for her congressional seat in San 
Francisco in the fall.
CINDY SHEEHAN: In 2002, she was briefed on torture, and she sanctioned 
it. As a member of the leadership of the Democratic Party, she has been 
instrumental in funding the occupations, especially since she’s been 
Speaker. She could definitely withdraw funding from this. She has been 
instrumental in supporting the police-state fascism of the Bush regime. 
So she’s been very complicit in what’s going on. I believe that’s one of 
the reasons that impeachment’s off the table.
TOM HANKS: Hello, I’m Tom Hanks, and I want Barack Obama to be the next 
president of our country.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Perhaps more than any candidate in history, Barack Obama 
has seen an impressive array of celebrities line up to support him. Many 
of these figures are flying into Denver to cheer on Obama, as they have 
with high-profile advertisements.
The Brooklyn-based political hip-hop group dead prez was not among those 
artists invited inside to perform at the DNC, like Kanye West, Wyclef 
Jean and Black Eyed Peas. But the duo of M1 and stic.man is here in 
Denver performing at rallies and evening political gatherings. And they 
seemed right at home among the crowds in the Denver streets.
M1: Their political objectives are limited, and we know that they are 
surface, surface. We’re looking at a government who’s a paper tiger and 
someone who wants to participate in a paper democracy.
JEREMY SCAHILL: What do you make of this major embrace, as it seems, not 
just of hip-hop, but the whole entertainment industry, of the Obama camp?
STIC.MAN: It’s lack of understanding, the lack of political clarity, you 
know what I mean? And it’s marketing, you know what I mean? It’s like 
Barack is hot. He’s, you know—he’s the [blank] right now, so throw him 
on your jacket, you know what I mean? And, you know, it ain’t really 
deep. It’s just people riding the wave, you know what I mean? And that’s 
what hip-hop is being used for, is, you know, to sell products, to sell 
[blank] to us, stuff [blank] down our throat that might not necessarily 
be good for us. So some of the hip-hop people, you know, who do hip-hop, 
and this is our culture, we have to speak from the vantage point of 
people who want real power. And hip-hop is part of that. Barack wouldn’t 
even be in the position he’s in without the support of hip-hop. You 
know, and we—
JEREMY SCAHILL: So are you guys going to vote?
M1: Hell no.
STIC.MAN: Yeah, yeah, I’m going to vote.
M1: OK, cool.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Who are you going to vote for?
STIC.MAN: I mean, I’m voting with my art.
M1: Yeah.
STIC.MAN: I’m voting with my participation in rallies like this. I’m 
voting—you know what I mean?—in raising my son, you know what I mean, to 
recognize the truth about this system. I’m voting in so many ways, I 
don’t even got time to go to the booth in November.
M1: I’m voting for Mumia Abu-Jamal. Free ’em all. Feel me.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Dead prez joined with the protesters as they defied 
orders not to march directly on the Pepsi Center. The procession was led 
by Vietnam vet Ron Kovic, whose life story was made into the movie Born 
on the Fourth of July. Kovic, who led the march in his wheelchair, and 
the others refused to go into the so-called free speech zone, a caged-in 
area that has become a common feature of these political conventions.
RON KOVIC: We’re going to the Pepsi Center. We’re going to sit down at 
the Pepsi Center. We’re going to cover the streets. We are opposed to 
this war. They will not take away our liberty. They will not take away 
our freedom of speech or our freedom of assembly. We are struggling this 
week in Denver and battling in this week in Denver not only to stop the 
war in Iraq, but we are fighting—we are fighting for democracy. This is 
not only an antiwar movement; this is becoming a democracy movement, as 
well.
I did not give three-quarters of my body in Vietnam in 1968, forty years 
ago, to be put inside of a cage. I’m going to speak. I’m going to raise 
my voice against this war, and I refuse to be silenced. And we refuse to 
be silenced. We’re growing stronger every day. This is going to become 
one of the most powerful antiwar movements in the history of this country.
PROTESTERS: We won’t be silenced! We won’t be silenced! We won’t be 
silenced!
JEREMY SCAHILL: Kovic and his allies blocked the media entrance to the 
Pepsi Center for about two hours on Sunday, effectively shutting it 
down. More protests are planned for each day of the convention.
PROTESTERS: We won’t be silenced! We won’t be silenced!

AMY GOODMAN: That report produced by Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy 
Scahill and Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films.








http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_14411.cfm

3,000 Vets, War Protesters Hand-Deliver Their Message to Obama Aide
• 3,000 march in largest demonstration of DNC
By Patti Thorn
Rocky Mountain News, August 28, 2008
Straight to the Source
DENVER - "Follow Us. Welcome to Denver," read the electronic sign on the 
police vehicle.

Members of Iraq Veterans Against The War (IVAW) march in downtown 
Denver, leading several thousands activists towards The Pepsi Center. 
While some feared police would attempt to stop the march, officers 
surprised the group by escorting the protesters through city streets, 
redirecting traffic and pedestrians along the way. (Photo: Rocky 
Mountain News)]Members of Iraq Veterans Against The War (IVAW) march in 
downtown Denver, leading several thousands activists towards The Pepsi 
Center. While some feared police would attempt to stop the march, 
officers surprised the group by escorting the protesters through city 
streets, redirecting traffic and pedestrians along the way. (Photo: 
Rocky Mountain News) And with that conciliatory gesture, an unpermitted 
march for peace was allowed to proceed Wednesday afternoon through 
downtown Denver streets - peacefully.

It was easily the largest demonstration in a week filled with them.

See video of the march here and here.

At least 3,000 Iraq war veterans and war protesters marched from the 
Denver Coliseum to the Pepsi Center perimeter. The veterans' ultimate 
goal was to deliver a statement to presidential candidate Barack Obama, 
urging him to promote the immediate withdrawal of "all occupying forces" 
from Iraq, among other points.

After about an hourlong standoff with police at the end of the march, 
contact was made with an Obama aide. Mission accomplished.

Co-sponsored by the anti-war group Tent State University and the Iraq 
Veterans Against the War, the march began around 3:15 p.m. outside the 
coliseum after 9,800 people attended a free concert featuring the heavy 
metal/rap band Rage Against the Machine and three other acts.

During the four-hour show, audience members were urged to join the 
demonstration. Band members and others stressed the need for the march 
to remain peaceful.

At one point, rapper Jonny 5 of Denver's Flobots referred to 
conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, who has been widely quoted 
as saying it would be his "dream" for riots to break out in Denver 
during the convention. The musician told the crowd the worst thing they 
could do was make that dream come true.

While some feared police would attempt to stop the march, officers 
surprised the group by escorting the protesters through city streets, 
redirecting traffic and pedestrians along the way.

"Under the totality of all the circumstances, it was handled in a manner 
that best addressed the public safety at the time," said Lynn Kimbrough, 
spokeswoman for the Joint Information Center, a clearinghouse for 
convention security information.

The group of mostly young people walked behind a banner that said: 
"Support GI Resistance."

Wearing T-shirts and stickers with slogans such as "Arrest Bush" and 
"Make Out Not War," they sang rolling chants, Marine- style. "Tell Me 
What We're Marching For," sang one group. "Stop the torture, stop the 
war," answered another.

People lined the streets to watch, most approvingly.

As the marchers wound their way through the neighborhoods west of the 
coliseum, they found solidarity with a group of Latinos holding up an 
anti-war sign and cheering them on. "Si, se puede!" shouted some young 
marchers. "Yes, we can!"

But not all were supportive. From the balcony of an apartment complex, a 
man yelled at the throngs to move on. "Don't come back here," he said.

As the march wore on under a hot sun, some dropped out. Others found 
ways to take shortcuts. Two teens on the 16th Street Mall shuttle 
wearing Rage Against the Machine T-shirts admitted they had skipped part 
of the march and planned to join it as it neared the end.

One foot clad in a black shoe, the other barefoot, James Koller, 17, 
explained: "Someone clocked me in the face and took my shoe in the mosh 
pit. This is a quicker route to the Pepsi Center."

Koller's friend, Joey Minicucci, 18, of Littleton, noted that his 
brother was in the military and would soon be sent to Iraq. That was one 
of the reasons he was going to the march.

Anne Hill, of Montrose, had other reasons. "I'm marching because it 
seems to be the last vestiges of our free speech and because people have 
demands and our government's not listening," she said.

The march came to a standstill at the perimeter of the Pepsi Center 
around 6:30 p.m., at which time the veterans attempted to have their 
statement delivered to Obama. Tension with police seemed to escalate, 
until several veterans stepped forward and saluted police.

"We are your brothers and sisters in arms," said one. "We don't want to 
hurt you. We don't want you to hurt us."

With that, the standoff melted away and soon an appropriate aide was 
contacted.

"I figured as long as we kept things peaceful, they would hear us, and 
they did," said Army veteran Jeffrey Wood.

Staff writers Allison Bruce, Daniel J. Chacon, Abigail Curtis, Jeff 
Kass, Dan Kelley, Sue Lindsay, Steve Myers and Judi Villa contributed to 
this report.













http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/dnc-a27.shtml

Police repress protesters at Democratic National Convention
By Tom Eley
27 August 2008
On Monday, police in riot gear used pepper spray, truncheons and rubber 
bullets on a peaceful demonstration of about 300 protesters about one 
mile from the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Around 100 
demonstrators were arrested, charged with resisting a lawful order to 
disperse and obstruction of streets or public passageways.
At about 7 p.m. Monday, riot police fired pepper spray and pepper balls, 
which are delivered by guns, against the protesters, who had attempted 
to carry out a protest outside of the police-designated “free speech 
zone.” The free speech zone is a small area in a parking lot near the 
Pepsi Center, surrounded by two layers of steel fence and concrete 
barriers and topped by razor wire.
The confrontation began on a sidewalk near Denver’s Civic Center. SWAT 
police forced protesters backward, where a second phalanx of police was 
waiting, blocking their retreat. The police then completely surrounded 
the protesters, while reinforcements, including two armored vehicles, 
arrived. The protesters were held in this position for 90 minutes.
Twenty-one year old Joey Kenzie, a recent community college graduate, 
was among those surrounded by the riot police. “I’m a little in shock,” 
she told the Denver Post. “At one point we didn’t know what we were 
going to do, we were going to get arrested or maced. I haven’t been able 
to vote for a president yet, but this was an epiphany. My freedom of 
speech was suppressed.”
 From among those pinned by the police, a protester was heard shouting, 
“This is not America. This is what a police state looks like. You’re 
worried about Beijing? This is repression.”
The Denver Police Department claims that the “crowd that had gathered 
near Civic Center Park refused requests to disperse and suddenly rushed 
a police safety line about 7:15 p.m.,” and that protesters were 
“carrying rocks and other items that could be used to threaten public 
safety.”
A legal observer for the People’s Law Project and the National Lawyers 
Guild disputed the police account. He observed no rocks or other 
projectiles in the hands of the protesters, and noted that they were 
complying with police orders to “move back” when the police fired pepper 
spray into the crowd. No order to disperse was given, and when 
protesters attempted to leave of their own accord, the police blocked 
their route.
Footage of the protest and the police intervention can be viewed on YouTube.
Police interned the arrested protesters at a makeshift prison composed 
of wire cages reminiscent of the US detention facility at Guantánamo 
Bay, Cuba.
Denver has set up special “DNC” kangaroo courts to process the arrested 
protesters. However, it was not until nearly midnight on Monday that the 
first five protesters were arraigned—without attorneys—at the court 
dubbed “DNC 2.” Four of the five protesters were brought into the court 
tied together in twos, and they were compelled to enter pleas before the 
judge, Doris Burd, still linked together. The judge offered the 
prisoners the choice of entering a plea agreement with the city 
attorney, or pleading either guilty or innocent on the spot. Burd levied 
a $500 bond on the two protesters who pleaded not guilty.
Two men who had been arraigned and pleaded guilty—one of whom claimed to 
have been only a bystander—were interviewed in the courtroom by a 
reporter for the Rocky Mountain News. However, when the reporter tried 
to write their names down, a sheriff’s deputy ripped the reporter’s 
notebook out of his hands, removing the page with his notes, and 
threatened to remove him from the court. “You are never to speak to 
prisoners,” the deputy said.
The arrested protesters have been effectively denied legal 
representation. On Monday, attorneys for the People’s Law Project 
received requests for legal representation, but they did not know where 
the prisoners were located or when they would appear in court.
The police and security build-up in the lead-up to the DNC vividly 
demonstrates the precarious state of basic democratic rights in the US. 
Because the Department of Homeland Security has declared the nominating 
conventions “national security events”—a hazy legal status created by 
executive order under President Bill Clinton—the police of Denver have 
been transformed into a de facto military force and placed under the 
direction of the executive branch of the federal government.
The size of this police force has been doubled by the infusion of cops 
from surrounding areas, while numerous federal and state agencies have 
been mobilized to assist with security, including the Secret Service, 
which directs security operations, the National Guard, the Coast Guard, 
the US Customs and Border Protection agency, the Transportation Security 
Administration, the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the 
Pentagon’s Northern Command.
The level of security would suggest that DNC was a colonial 
administration meeting in hostile territory, rather then the nominating 
convention of a mass political party in a functioning democracy.
Moreover, the magnitude and ferocity of the security operation is 
completely out of proportion to the size and nature of the protests, 
which have been rather small and self-consciously peaceful. Sunday’s 
protest included about 3,000 people, while the protest attacked by 
police on Monday included no more than 300.
The militarization of Denver and the police repression of basic civil 
rights, which no leading Democratic Party politician has denounced, is 
the hysterical response of a political system that can allow no 
political expression outside of the narrowest official channels. It is 
meant to serve as a warning to those who would attempt to challenge the 
status quo, and also as a trial run for the sort of repression the 
ruling elite intends to mete out to the working class in the coming period.









http://rawstory.com/news/2008/100_protesters_arrested_in_Denver_hit_0826.html

Denver police hit protesters with pepper spray from cannons, arrest 100
John Byrne
Published: Tuesday August 26, 2008

Denver police have taken 100 protesters into custody after ordering them 
to disperse and spraying them with pepper spray from cannons.

The action happened last night but more details have emerged this morning.

Riot police forced several hundred protesters out of the civic center 
and blocked them before they could reach the 16th St. Mall. They used at 
least two armored vehicles, according to the Denver Post.

A spokeswoman for the convention's Joint Information Center, "said one 
officer fired pepper spray during the initial confrontation near the 
City and County Building and one officer fire pepper spray on 15th 
Street. She also said one officer fired pepper balls in once instance, 
but wasn't sure of the timing."

The spokeswoman said the office fired his spray after protesters 
"charged the police line." She did not cite any violence on the 
protesters' behalf.

Police processed detainees until nearly 1am ET last night. They were 
then loaded onto sheriff's detainees for transport to a temporary 
"processing center" set up just for the convention. Denver Police have 
been criticized by civil liberties groups such as the ACLU, which 
released a leaked memo showing that the police had classified all manner 
of people as a threat, including those on bicycles, wearing football 
helmets, or carrying city maps or protest signs.

"I'm a little in shock," said Joey-Kenzie, 21, of Denver, told the Post 
after spending about an hour and a half in the crowd of people pinned in 
by SWAT officers.

Officers group surrounded the protesters, leaving them no way out.

"At one point we didn't know what we were going to do, we were going to 
get arrested or maced," Kenzie added, saying. police never asked for her 
identification.


Larry Hales, speaking for the group Recreate 68 said his group did 
nothing wrong Monday and had a permit for the Civic Center gathering 
when police closed in and created havoc.

CNN reported on the protests Monday. A reporter from the scene said he'd 
seen no violence from the protesters, and complimented police on their 
handling of the scene earlier in the day.

One protester told the paper the police had used the spray "like a 
supersoaker."

The paper offered a chaotic blow by blow of the moments leading up to 
the police spray.

The detained grouped chanted in unison: "Who screams? We scream."

Some in the crowd outside the police lines, which included onlookers and 
media, chanted: "Cops here. Bombs there. U.S. out of everywhere."

"Speech is free. Let them be."

"Show me what the First Amendment looks like."

"Let them go."

"Watch out! They're gearing up," some in the crowd shouted, as officers 
donned gas masks and other protective equipment.

A girl warned anyone with contact lenses to get out of the area.

"The spray will fuse your contact lenses to your eyeballs," she said.









http://rawstory.com/news/2008/As_convention_begins_no_protesters_in_0825.html

As convention begins, no protesters in 'Freedom Cage'
Nick Juliano
Published: Monday August 25, 2008

Across town from convention, police clash with protesters

DENVER -- Fears of confrontation between police and protesters outside 
the Democratic National Convention seem to have been overblown. As 
Democrats gathered for their convention's first night at the Pepsi 
Center, there were no protesters to be seen in the fenced in free speech 
zone a few hundred yards away.

Dubbed the "freedom cage" by activists, the police-sanctioned protest 
area seems to have been largely abandoned. Across town though, hundreds 
of protesters clashed with police.

"I don't think anyone would come here because it's kind of ridiculous," 
said William Aanstoos, a 19-year-old from Asheville, NC, who came to 
Denver to participate in the protests. He said other events were 
happening elsewhere in the city.

Later Monday night, protesters were pepper sprayed and arrested in front 
of the Denver City and County Building, about 1.5 miles from the Pepsi 
Center. It's believed to be the first time police used any kind of force 
against protesters.

Authorities say police were trying to disperse a crowd of about 300 that 
had disrupted traffic. Police have led at least two people away as the 
crowd chanted "Let them go!"

Some of the protesters threw bags containing a colored liquid at police.

Police Lt. Ron Saunier says he did not immediately know whether there 
had been arrests.

He said, "The situation is still very fluid and active."

On Sunday, the day before the convention's start, an anti-war protest 
snaked past the Pepsi Center, but by Monday the security perimeter had 
been expanded so that no one without a credential could get within two 
city blocks of the convention site.

The "freedom cage" was just outside the security perimeter on the 
southwest corner of the Pepsi Center Complex, but there was no entrance 
to the perimeter anywhere near the protest zone. Even if protesters had 
bothered to show up, it's unlikely any Democratic delegates or reporters 
would have seen them.

A police officer stationed near the protest zone told RAW STORY that 
members of the anti-war group Code Pink had staged a demonstration there 
earlier Monday, but that it had been mostly empty the rest of the day. 
Around 5 p.m. local time, there were a few scattered reporters but no 
protests.

An empty microphone was set up in one corner of the fenced in parking 
lot with a sign up sheet for speakers. Some pranksters apparently filled 
out most of the sheet with mock entries. For example, "MLK 'I have a 
dream, that one day, all free speech will be done in cages.'"

The ACLU had expressed concern that police would be over-zealous in 
cracking down on protesters. Denver police had previously been told to 
be on high alert for "stockpiles" of such innocuous items as maps and 
bicycles. A spokesman for the organization said earlier Monday night, 
before the arrests across town, that things had been pretty "quiet."

The police had been certainly making their presence known throughout the 
weekend. Hundreds of officers were deployed throughout the city on foot, 
bike and horseback. Police SUVs also were driving through downtown 
Denver Sunday and Monday with up to a dozen officers each riding on 
platforms attached to the sides of the vehicles. There was a constant 
whir of helicopters overhead throughout the city during the convention.

Most of the officers assigned to the empty protest zone were milling 
around looking bored Monday evening. Aanstoos, who spoke to RAW STORY in 
the abandoned "freedom cage" said most of his encounters with police 
officers had been friendly.







http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=25772

DNC Protests: CodePink protester is slammed to the ground by police in 
Denver

A CodePink protester is knocked to the ground and later arrested when 
she did not move back fast enough after the Denver police made an arrest.









http://www.connietalk.com/police_arrest_denver_protestors_082708.html

Denver Protestors Arrested, Mased
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 by Connie T.

Chaos ensued in Denver, Colorado on Monday when anti-war protestors 
outside the Democratic National Convention were doused with pepper spray 
by police for marching in the streets. A video of the incident is above.

As you may have seen on the Video of the Day on our forum yesterday, an 
alliance of many different groups with over 1,000 protestors marched up 
and down the street with signs like "No War On Iran," "FISA = Fascism," 
"Out of Iraq Now," etc. A FOX News reporter tried to ask demonstrators 
what their message was, and one man yelled into the microphone (live), 
"F*** FOX!!" The crowd then all began chanting, "F*** FOX News, F*** FOX 
News!"

Police in riot gear arrested about 100 people from the streets, claiming 
they were disrupting traffic near the Denver City and County Building. 
The only warning they were given before police used force was "3, 2, 1." 
Rubber pellets and batons were also used by police.

Will the antiwar protestors be awarded a judgment in the millions by 
courts for wrongful arrests, as we just saw in New York City? If so, and 
if it's anything like that case, it could take years. But we'll keep up 
with the story for you! If you or someone you know was present and 
arrested at the rally, and have information that we might publish, 
please send tips to:







http://www.workers.org/2008/us/dnc_0904/

No democracy in Denver
Cops attack protesters at DNC
Emergency news conference exposes gov’t terror

By LeiLani Dowell
Denver
Published Aug 27, 2008 9:19 PM
Denver police have used violence and mass arrests in an attempt to 
silence dissent during the Democratic National Convention. However, 
organizers and activists have put the city and police on notice that 
their intimidation tactics will not work.

Larry Hales from Recreate 68 Alliance and
FIST tells off Denver police. To his left is
John Parker from Los Angeles
Int’l Action Center.
Photos: Troops Out Now Coalition
Several hundred activists were gathered in Civic Center Park on Aug. 25, 
where the Recreate 68 Alliance (Recreate68.org) has a permit for a week 
of actions during the DNC. At about 6 p.m., Denver police began massing 
in groups, encircling the park. Squads then began to march through the 
park, pushing and kicking people as they passed. One group of 
heavily-armed police lined up directly across from the Troops Out Now 
Coalition table.
At about 7:00, a group of mostly young people responded by chanting “No 
justice, no peace!” The police charged the group, hitting several of 
them with pepper spray. Attempting to get away from the club-swinging 
police, the group moved onto Cleveland Street, joined by many others 
from the park.
Police then closed off both ends of the block, entrapping the group as 
well as many bystanders. They began hitting people with their 
nightsticks and using pepper spray and pepper balls.


Front banner at anti-war march in Denver,
Aug. 24.
One young protester, Martin, told the Denver Post, “We moved to the 
sidewalk—a few people stayed in the street—because we didn’t want a 
confrontation, but it didn’t matter. People started pleading: ‘Let me 
go. I want to go home.’ ...
“Some of the police on horses were whacking people with their batons. I 
was told later that the police were telling us to disperse, but I didn’t 
hear them say that. And where would we go? The police were all around 
us, not letting us leave.”
TONC organizer and Navy veteran Dustin Langley was among those trapped 
on the street between the police lines. He noted that spirits remained 
high, saying: “Street medics took care of those who had been pepper 
sprayed, and we shared water and made sure everyone was okay. We 
continued chanting and singing. At one point, we sang ‘Solidarity 
Forever’. One group of activists chanted at the cops: ‘Who do you 
protect? Who do you serve?’”
After more than an hour, the solidarity of those on the streets and 
negotiations by Recreate 68 organizers won the release of most of those 
trapped on the block.
At least 85, however, were placed in metal shackles and arrested. They 
were denied access to attorneys while at the detention center, and many 
were bullied into making a guilty plea in order to get released. Martin 
said, “Now, because of the plea bargain, I’m free but on probation. I 
can’t join any more marches, or do anything illegal in the next six 
months, or I’ll get five days in jail on top of the other charges.”
The next day the police continued their attempts to intimidate those 
protesting the DNC. Heavily-armed police continued to mass around the 
park, and squads of horse-mounted cops rode through the park several times.
At about 9 a.m., the right-wing bigot Fred Phelps entered the park, 
spewing a homophobic hate speech. A Recreate 68 organizer, Carlo Garcia, 
told him to leave. The Denver police responded by arresting Garcia, who 
has two brothers in Iraq.
When Code Pink organizer Alicia Forrest questioned Garcia’s arrest, she 
was knocked to the ground by police and arrested as well.
Organizers with the Recreate 68 Alliance and TONC called an emergency 
press conference in front of police headquarters to take a public stand 
against these tactics and respond to distortions in the corporate media, 
which portrayed the protesters as the initiators of violence.
Glenn Spagnuolo, one of the cofounders of the Recreate 68 Alliance, put 
the mayor, police chief and Denver Police Department on notice that he 
and other organizers are meeting with attorneys to move forward with 
legal action. He noted several major protest-related lawsuits, such as 
those in New York and Washington, which have cost local governments 
millions of dollars.
Larry Hales, a leader of the Recreate 68 Alliance and of the youth group 
FIST (Fight Imperialism Stand Together), noted that any violence that 
has occurred was initiated by the Denver police. Recreate 68 demands all 
police be removed from the park. Hales stated that since Recreate 68 has 
a permit to hold its activity in the Civic Center Park, the police have 
no business there.
Other speakers at the press conference included Brian Vicente of the 
Peoples Law Project; Ben Kaufman, who described the arrest of Carlo 
Garcia; Sally Newman of Code Pink; and Mark Cohen, a Recreate 68 
cofounder, who questioned the role of the Democratic Party in 
suppressing civil liberties and attempting to silence protest.
Following the press conference, organizers returned to Civic Center 
Park, where they joined hundreds of activists from around the country 
determined to continue in the spirit of resistance and protest.






http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stories/082808dnpolprotesters.41e40c2.html

Protesters aren't making big waves in Denver
11:41 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News
dlevinthal at dallasnews.com
DENVER – Reid Neureiter stepped atop the podium and held the microphone 
tight between his hands.
"Are there any delegates – anyone, anywhere – that can hear us?" the 
Dallas native and Denver attorney bellowed, alone but for his son and 
son's friend in a caged-in, empty parking lot some 47,000 square feet 
large. "Surely, someone can hear me behind these double iron fences? 
Tell your politicians that this is a travesty of the First Amendment."
Mr. Neureiter's one-man protest of the Democratic National Convention in 
the city-sponsored "free speech" zone is emblematic of what, through 
Wednesday, has proved to be an underwhelming display of demonstrations 
outside Denver's Pepsi Center.
To be sure, organizations representing a variety of interests have 
staged rallies, paraded through Denver streets and occasionally 
disrupted traffic or clashed with police. A Tuesday night rally at Civic 
Center Park proved incendiary, with police using pepper spray on some 
demonstrators and arresting nearly 100 of them.
On Wednesday evening, a largely peaceful war protest on a road leading 
to the Pepsi Center attracted about 1,000 people, some of whom demanded 
that police deliver a message to Democratic presidential nominee Barack 
Obama. Not that protesters could get close if they tried: The Pepsi 
Center is surrounded by tall fences and hundreds of armed guards. As of 
Wednesday evening, authorities had arrested 141 people in 
convention-related incidents, said Suzanne Silverthorn, a spokeswoman 
for the Denver Joint Information Center, which is representing local, 
state and federal authorities.
Most were hauled away for minor offenses such as "interference with 
police authority," trespassing and loitering. Police reports indicate 
that four Texans were among the arrested – two from Austin, two from 
Corpus Christi.
"The protest group sizes have been less than projections reported in the 
media," Ms. Silverthorn said.
Protest groups had promised that tens of thousands of people would rally 
in Denver on behalf of causes ranging from ending wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan to instituting a federal abortion ban. And there's still one 
more day of conventioneering.
But the groups, some with names like "Recreate '68" – an allusion to the 
riots outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago – fell 
far short of their self-styled monikers.
"I wish more people had come. There are important issues Democrats 
aren't dealing with, like the war," said Joe Jimenez, a protester who 
drove to Denver from Los Angeles.
Mr. Neureiter wasn't particularly impressed, either.
While taking a break from talking, his son, Austin, grabbed the 
microphone and began rapping.
"This is like a bad cartoon. A Monty Python sketch," Mr. Neureiter said, 
placing his hand over his head. "You have a bunch of 13-year-olds 
singing to a bunch of police officers in riot gear."















http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/35722

Pelosi Ridicules Protesters: "Can we drill your brains?"
Submitted by Chip on Wed, 2008-08-27 07:51.
• Activism
• Cindy Sheehan
• Evidence
• General Discussion
• Impeachment
Pelosi to protesters: "Can we drill your brains?"
By Ryan Grim | Politico.com
House Democratic leaders and protesters waving McCain signs had a war of 
words Tuesday at a press event outside an old train station. The 
demonstrators interrupted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with chants of 
“Drill here! Drill now!”
Pelosi paused and asked the group, “Right here?”
Seeming to enjoy the back and forth, she followed with another question: 
“Can we drill your brains?”
She went on to refer to the protesters, who continued to chant 
sporadically, as “handmaidens of Big Oil.” Arguing that increased 
offshore drilling would reduce gas prices by only a couple of pennies a 
decade from now, she referred to the demonstrators as the 
“2-cents-in-10-years-crowd.”
Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer swiped at the demonstrators, too, saying 
that “sophomoric chanting” won’t solve the energy crisis and that “all 
thinking Americans know” — stressing the word "thinking" and looking at 
the crowd — that America doesn’t have a quarter of the word’s fossil 
fuels yet uses a quarter of the world’s energy.