Earlier, I wrote about the protests at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. This article will be Part II, regarding the Republican National Convention in New York City, or more accurately, the massive response from New Yorkers and activists coming from across the nation. By analogy, the hubbub of the RNC was a massive elephant compared to the DNCs tiny toy pony.
Diehard Republicans would call the weeks climax the speech by President Bush on Thursday, September 2, an event that itself was interrupted by protestors. Anyone else, however, would have to agree that the largest and most significant event in New York occurred the previous Sunday, August 29.
Estimates range from 250,000 to over 500,000 for an anti-Bush march that weaved through Manhattan that afternoon. Make no mistake, these were not Democrats. They were Americans.
Among them were average New Yorkers themselves, upset that the Republicans would choose their city to convene despite the fact that it is solidly democratic. It is obvious that Bush, who has made homeland security a central component of his campaign, chose New York City because of the role of September 11 Madison Square Garden is only a few blocks from Ground Zero.
The security Bush has promised was delivered over the week. Unfortunately, not only has Osama bin Laden escaped his grasp, civil liberties have as well. Activist John Aravosis told the story of a woman who, on Thursday morning, was locked in her home simply because Bush chose to pray at a church on the same block during his day-long stop:
From early morning until 1PM the police ordered her and her neighbors NOT TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES. At one point, she desperately needed to buy a cup of coffee and rushed out of her home at 10AM, then returned shortly thereafter to find that the cop wouldn't let her back into her apartment building. This is the same cop who minutes earlier saw her leave. She finally pulled out all of her IDs and begged, and the guy finally let her back in. But after that, nada. Even the doorman wasn't permitted to leave the building.
http://americablog.blogspot.com/archives/2004_08_29_americablog_archive.html
#109432242336223920
The half-million-strong rally sponsored by United for Peace and Justice was New Yorkers biggest chance to fight back, and they did. It was the largest rally to ever occur at a political convention, as even children and the elderly some in wheelchairs were undeterred by the scorching temperatures.
Activists united with the single goal of showing the world the gigantic segment of Americans who wish to rid our home of George W. Bush, and the gigantic list of reasons for doing so including his erosion of civil liberties, his lack of a plan to fight a war on terrorism, and the inability of our current government to provide basic services such as health care to the American people.
A giant inflatable globe was bounced like a beach ball. Protestors held banners dozens of feet wide, easily visible to the helicopters (both news and government) circling above. In the most stirring and disturbing display, almost 1,000 cardboard caskets draped with hand-made American flags were carried from beginning to end, each representing an American killed in Iraq. Also seen by the helicopters: A vast ocean of upset citizens, stretching to the horizon and seemingly beyond.
The signs and chants also conveyed the image of a public filled up to the Empire State Building with deceit and distrust:
Billionaires for Bush: Corporations are People Too. Quagmire accomplished. Bush Youre Fired. Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like! Bush lied, thousands died. We decided: You suck (In reference to the right-wing Fox News Channel slogan, We report, you decide). The people united will never be defeated. Republican Greed is So 1980s. No more lies from Dick and Georgie, we deplore their wartime orgy." Stop raping brains. And in tribute to the Vietnam/LBJ era, Hey Bush, whaddya say, how many kids you kill today?
Continuing Demonstrations and Apprehensions
From the Thursday before to the end of the UFPJ march, arrests numbered approximately 500 as violence was kept to essentially zero. The first arrests involved a naked Stop AIDS protest, and over 200 were arrested during a Friday bicycle ride which the city claimed interrupted the flow of normal business. Those who were arrested during the rally accounted for less than 0.01% of all marchers.
One instance of violence directed at police resulted when a plainclothed cop zoomed through a crowd, knocking people down. He was pushed off his motorbike and received kicks to the body and face, sparking a miniature chaos.
Before the Convention, Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented a strange and since-ridiculed offer to protestors who remained nonviolent: discounts at various restaurants, a Pokemon store, the Museum of Sex and other businesses.
Tuesday, however, arrests numbered close to 1,000, yet perplexingly, reports of violence were few. Two hundred were arrested when a rally at Ground Zero flowed into the street and disrupted traffic. In sharp contrast to the previous days, when police tended to treat demonstrators with respect and several even smiled or nodded their heads in agreement, officers were accused of baiting protestors and maliciously overreacting to simple freedom of speech exercises.
Said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, "I think police were psyched up yesterday to make a lot of arrests, and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Police fenced in several groups of demonstrators. While pens such as the filthy, barbed-wire-enclosed area in Boston were not used, the tactic of using metal barricades essentially produced mini-pens wherever one was needed. Another tactic was the use of orange netting to entangle protestors; several onlookers relayed accounts of innocent bystanders often elderly or disabled trapped or injured.
People were arrested on the steps of the New York City Public Library for displaying a banner. Hundreds were arrested, accused of blocking traffic, after walking a sidewalk 2-by-2 in remembrance of terrorism victims.
Also on Tuesday, a Yale student posed as a volunteer to get within 10 feet of Dick Cheney. He then shouted antiwar slogans and was apprehended. According to the AP, a Secret Service Agent said the Vice President "was never in any harm or danger.
The most popular protest among liberals, however, was a gathering outside Fox News NYC headquarters. Two hundred people were expected to attend, but that number quickly rose and the final count was greater than 1,000, creating a media swarm and several of those pesky disrupting traffic arrests yet again.
Civil Liberties Watch
Because of the large scope of the arrests, hundreds of protestors were held at a shabby makeshift jail on the shores of the Hudson River. The conditions were so deplorable it was quickly dubbed Guantanamo on the Hudson. The New York Daily News called it a grimy converted garage where the inmates were served stale cheese sandwiches.
Detainees called the experience degrading and disgusting and one quipped, Ive never been so scared in my life.
(More info at: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/228122p-195905c.html)
One of the detained smuggled in a phone and passed it around as inmates told their own horror stories to Democracy Now! Radio:
EMILY: My name is Emily. I was arrested yesterday off of Union Square East, on East 15th Street in between Union Square East and Irvine. [sic] I was on the sidewalk, and I was never told that I would be arrested. I was just on the sidewalk. And no one ever read me my rights. They just took us all away. They trapped us and put us all into buses. Weve been in jail for over 13 hours right now. In our first nine hours, the only food we received was an apple. In our first four hours here we weren't allowed to go to the bathroom or get water. So none of us were read our rights; we haven't been able to talk to any lawyers. A lot of people here that were arrested without even protesting, they were -- just happened to be on the sidewalk where everyone was on that block -- was arrested. And there are chemical warning signs all over this place that were being held. A lot of people are forming rashes on their skin from the floor -- from whatever it is that is on it. And Im going to pass this on to someone else who has another story.
VOICE SHOUTING IN THE BACKGROUND: I need medical attention!
For more: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/02/1454254
On Thursday, a judge ordered the city to release 470 prisoners and issued a $1,000 fine for each inmate kept beyond 5pm that day. Approximately 50 protestors commenced a hunger strike, upset with their lengthy detention. Allegations were leveled that they were being held so as not to be on the streets during Bushs acceptance speech.
The National Lawyers Guild spearheaded an effort to ensure fair representation and humane treatment of those arrested. They have urged anyone released from jail to bag and label their clothing - possibly to determine the chemical substance on the ground at "Guantanamo" - and are vowing lawsuits against the city.
Total arrests for the week numbered less than 2,000 in reality, a very small portion of the total demonstrators. But you don't have to be arrested to be scared out of your socks.
Meryl Johnson of the American Street Blog related a frightening and disturbing story from the Friday before the convention. A small female art student was in New York photographing the Brooklyn Bridge and the Potomac River.
She was grabbed by two policemen who called for backup, and six more arrived. Dressed in her tight little shirt and shorts, she couldn't possibly have looked like a mad terrorist suicide bomber concealing a bomb in her clothing. It takes eight armed men to subdue a tiny blond woman? They held my friend's daughter for several hours, demanding that she tell them why she was photographing the bridge. She tried to reason with them. She explained about art, the effects of light and atmosphere; that didn't work. They wanted to know WHY she was photographing the bridge. She tried another approach. "Don't you have photographs of your mother? Don't you want to be able to remember how she looks right now? She'll grow old, and she'll change. The neighborhood around the Bridge will change, and I want to be able to remember how it looks right now." They didn't buy that, either. They wanted to know WHY she was photographing the bridge, with strong hints about WHO she was photographing it for. She finally said, "Are you arresting me?" They said they could keep her until at least 3 AM without arresting her.
http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2004/08/29/not-your-mothers-convention/
Throughout the week, the police presence only increased, with an estimated 2.5 police officers for every demonstrator or delegate. Sirens blared, vehicles raced up and down the streets that remained open. Helicopters chopped overhead taking pictures of those below. A blimp snapped pictures as wide-eyed and open-mouthed spectators stared up and wondered, Are we in a police state? Where is my picture going to show up? What database have I just been entered in?
Police were literally stationed on every Manhattan street corner, and troops guarded the biggest of terrorist targets from lingerie stores to newspaper boxes. Snipers stationed themselves on skyscrapers, and if you dared shoot a quick glance at numerous federal agents on the ground, you could see weapons youve only seen in the movies.
Protests Move to Convention Floor
Despite massive security inside and outside Madison Square Garden, a few protestors managed to find their way in. The tactics of choice were to pose as a volunteer, perhaps even signing up months in advance and falsely rallying the Bush cause ahead of time, or sneaking on a delegate shuttle at one of the hotels.
On Wednesday, a half dozen protestors from the group ActUp infiltrated the Wisconsin section, mere feet from the stage where White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was speaking. One blew a whistle as a signal to the others to strip their suits and ties to reveal t-shirts containing anti-Bush slogans. They then began to chant, Bush lies, people die before both media members and security surrounded them.
Rumors of even larger disruptions circulated, but did not materialize.
Activists from the group Code Pink held up Bushs primetime speech in three separate instances. Again shouting Bush lies, people die, and in one case unfurling a banner with the same slogan, the protestors were quickly surrounded and subjected to the wrath of nearby delegates. Watching on television, it was immediately evident what was going on, as Bush was interrupted midsentence by a ruckus noise followed by chants of four more years intended to drown out the offending left-wing language. Those who, in this writer's opinion, displayed enormous guts and bravery were Jodie Evans, June Brashares, and Jorge Medina, who lost his son to violence in Iraq.
Whereas Bushs partner in the Iraq war, Tony Blair, is an expert at deflecting hecklers even in Parliamentary debates, Bush seemed fazed by the disruptions. Even though major newscasts left one wondering what was happening in the arena, it was easy to tell by the look on Bushs face as he stopped mid-sentence and offered no retort.
Other speeches disrupted included those by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dick Cheney, and Laura Bush.
(See http://laweekly.blogs.com/joshuah_bearman/2004/09/bush_lied_peopl.html for more information and footage.)
Seven Key Questions
I answered these questions for the DNC in Boston. Now, here is a quick overview of the nature of freedom of speech at the RNC:
1. Were the protests nonviolent?
DNC: Mostly yes
RNC: Overwhelmingly. Minor scuffles represented an almost insignificant percentage of the total protestors.
2. Did the protests use civil disobedience creatively or simply march?
DNC: Somewhat
RNC: Creativity flowed free as it should in a truly free and democratic society. From panty protests to die-ins to cardboard coffins and much more, those monitoring the situation were constantly amused, stimulated, and enlightened.
3. Did activists boycott the designated protest areas or pens?
DNC: Yes
RNC: When the United for Peace and Justice Rally on Sunday was denied the opportunity to utilize Central Park (Mayor Bloomberg claimed the colossal count of participants would damage the grass), they dutifully marched elsewhere. Later in the week, several groups had the audacity to exercise freedom of speech without a permit, and many were arrested as a result. Whenever protestors were held by barricades or other movable metal barriers, they had no choice in the matter.
4. Were the police responsible in their use of force?
DNC: Yes
RNC: Reports varied. The NYPD has been in a contract dispute with the city and most protestors are sympathetic with them, especially since Mayor Bloomberg is Republican. Despite what the extremely high police-to-citizen ratio would suggest, most officers were well behaved. Instances of police brutality did come to light, however, more than once involving a plain-clothed motorcycle cop driving recklessly into a crowd.
5. Did the protests generate ample media coverage?
DNC: Depends
RNC: Early headlines were highly inaccurate, often reporting a march of thousands on Sunday. (A similar headline might read that the national debt has just reached the hundreds of dollars.) On the internet, the Convention and related happenings were obviously the story of the week, and protests garnered plenty of mainstream media coverage. Still, it was not as much as most left-wing activists had hoped for.
6. Did the protestors unite against the threat to free speech, against Bush, both or neither?
DNC: Free Speech
RNC: Demonstrators showed their solidarity towards one goal: ousting Bush from office. Counterprotestors were kept to a minimum. While First Amendment rights were on the mind of most, the general feeling was that if Bush left, Freedom would return. Only time will tell.
7. Did the protests cause widespread disruption?
DNC: Yes
RNC: but the disruption during the RNC was multiplied. The Republican Party owes the city of New York, and more accurately, residents of Manhattan, a large apology for bringing this show into their neighborhood. Simply getting across town became next to impossible in the middle of the week, and several residents who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time were interrogated, arrested, or worse.
Final Thoughts
If you read my article on the DNC, it is obvious that this one has covered a lot more material. While it may seem to some like a liberal bias is present, it is a fact that several times as many people chose to exercise their freedom of speech in New York than in Boston. In fact, I could have mentioned many more activities than I did. It is true that the 2004 RNC will likely be remembered as much if not more than the infamous 1968 DNC in Chicago, with one key exception: 1968 was marred by violence, but 2004 was beautifully peaceful.
Also of note is the enormous role technology has played in the coverage of the convention, the coverage of the protests thereof, and the protests themselves. Demonstrators and average New Yorkers alike used multiple forms of technology, most notably blogs and text messages, to stay informed on the events, coordinate activities, steer clear of trouble zones, and alert the rest of the world to important happenings, all in the blink of an eye. During President Bushs speech on Thursday, I was able to write my thoughts on the speech live on my blog while listening on C-SPAN and surfing other sites for up-to-the-second information on talking points and the activist infiltrators.
Finally, this quote from the blogger fink at http://www.dailykos.com puts the weeks events in perspective:
[Bushs possible] inauguration, god forbid, would ignite a protest to make this look like the Elks Club.
Related: Free Speech at the Democratic National Convention
Brian Hokansons blog is at: http://theyetimn.blogspot.com
Diehard Republicans would call the weeks climax the speech by President Bush on Thursday, September 2, an event that itself was interrupted by protestors. Anyone else, however, would have to agree that the largest and most significant event in New York occurred the previous Sunday, August 29.
Estimates range from 250,000 to over 500,000 for an anti-Bush march that weaved through Manhattan that afternoon. Make no mistake, these were not Democrats. They were Americans.
Among them were average New Yorkers themselves, upset that the Republicans would choose their city to convene despite the fact that it is solidly democratic. It is obvious that Bush, who has made homeland security a central component of his campaign, chose New York City because of the role of September 11 Madison Square Garden is only a few blocks from Ground Zero.
The security Bush has promised was delivered over the week. Unfortunately, not only has Osama bin Laden escaped his grasp, civil liberties have as well. Activist John Aravosis told the story of a woman who, on Thursday morning, was locked in her home simply because Bush chose to pray at a church on the same block during his day-long stop:
From early morning until 1PM the police ordered her and her neighbors NOT TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES. At one point, she desperately needed to buy a cup of coffee and rushed out of her home at 10AM, then returned shortly thereafter to find that the cop wouldn't let her back into her apartment building. This is the same cop who minutes earlier saw her leave. She finally pulled out all of her IDs and begged, and the guy finally let her back in. But after that, nada. Even the doorman wasn't permitted to leave the building.
http://americablog.blogspot.com/archives/2004_08_29_americablog_archive.html
#109432242336223920
The half-million-strong rally sponsored by United for Peace and Justice was New Yorkers biggest chance to fight back, and they did. It was the largest rally to ever occur at a political convention, as even children and the elderly some in wheelchairs were undeterred by the scorching temperatures.
Activists united with the single goal of showing the world the gigantic segment of Americans who wish to rid our home of George W. Bush, and the gigantic list of reasons for doing so including his erosion of civil liberties, his lack of a plan to fight a war on terrorism, and the inability of our current government to provide basic services such as health care to the American people.
A giant inflatable globe was bounced like a beach ball. Protestors held banners dozens of feet wide, easily visible to the helicopters (both news and government) circling above. In the most stirring and disturbing display, almost 1,000 cardboard caskets draped with hand-made American flags were carried from beginning to end, each representing an American killed in Iraq. Also seen by the helicopters: A vast ocean of upset citizens, stretching to the horizon and seemingly beyond.
The signs and chants also conveyed the image of a public filled up to the Empire State Building with deceit and distrust:
Billionaires for Bush: Corporations are People Too. Quagmire accomplished. Bush Youre Fired. Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like! Bush lied, thousands died. We decided: You suck (In reference to the right-wing Fox News Channel slogan, We report, you decide). The people united will never be defeated. Republican Greed is So 1980s. No more lies from Dick and Georgie, we deplore their wartime orgy." Stop raping brains. And in tribute to the Vietnam/LBJ era, Hey Bush, whaddya say, how many kids you kill today?
Continuing Demonstrations and Apprehensions
From the Thursday before to the end of the UFPJ march, arrests numbered approximately 500 as violence was kept to essentially zero. The first arrests involved a naked Stop AIDS protest, and over 200 were arrested during a Friday bicycle ride which the city claimed interrupted the flow of normal business. Those who were arrested during the rally accounted for less than 0.01% of all marchers.
One instance of violence directed at police resulted when a plainclothed cop zoomed through a crowd, knocking people down. He was pushed off his motorbike and received kicks to the body and face, sparking a miniature chaos.
Before the Convention, Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented a strange and since-ridiculed offer to protestors who remained nonviolent: discounts at various restaurants, a Pokemon store, the Museum of Sex and other businesses.
Tuesday, however, arrests numbered close to 1,000, yet perplexingly, reports of violence were few. Two hundred were arrested when a rally at Ground Zero flowed into the street and disrupted traffic. In sharp contrast to the previous days, when police tended to treat demonstrators with respect and several even smiled or nodded their heads in agreement, officers were accused of baiting protestors and maliciously overreacting to simple freedom of speech exercises.
Said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, "I think police were psyched up yesterday to make a lot of arrests, and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Police fenced in several groups of demonstrators. While pens such as the filthy, barbed-wire-enclosed area in Boston were not used, the tactic of using metal barricades essentially produced mini-pens wherever one was needed. Another tactic was the use of orange netting to entangle protestors; several onlookers relayed accounts of innocent bystanders often elderly or disabled trapped or injured.
People were arrested on the steps of the New York City Public Library for displaying a banner. Hundreds were arrested, accused of blocking traffic, after walking a sidewalk 2-by-2 in remembrance of terrorism victims.
Also on Tuesday, a Yale student posed as a volunteer to get within 10 feet of Dick Cheney. He then shouted antiwar slogans and was apprehended. According to the AP, a Secret Service Agent said the Vice President "was never in any harm or danger.
The most popular protest among liberals, however, was a gathering outside Fox News NYC headquarters. Two hundred people were expected to attend, but that number quickly rose and the final count was greater than 1,000, creating a media swarm and several of those pesky disrupting traffic arrests yet again.
Civil Liberties Watch
Because of the large scope of the arrests, hundreds of protestors were held at a shabby makeshift jail on the shores of the Hudson River. The conditions were so deplorable it was quickly dubbed Guantanamo on the Hudson. The New York Daily News called it a grimy converted garage where the inmates were served stale cheese sandwiches.
Detainees called the experience degrading and disgusting and one quipped, Ive never been so scared in my life.
(More info at: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/228122p-195905c.html)
One of the detained smuggled in a phone and passed it around as inmates told their own horror stories to Democracy Now! Radio:
EMILY: My name is Emily. I was arrested yesterday off of Union Square East, on East 15th Street in between Union Square East and Irvine. [sic] I was on the sidewalk, and I was never told that I would be arrested. I was just on the sidewalk. And no one ever read me my rights. They just took us all away. They trapped us and put us all into buses. Weve been in jail for over 13 hours right now. In our first nine hours, the only food we received was an apple. In our first four hours here we weren't allowed to go to the bathroom or get water. So none of us were read our rights; we haven't been able to talk to any lawyers. A lot of people here that were arrested without even protesting, they were -- just happened to be on the sidewalk where everyone was on that block -- was arrested. And there are chemical warning signs all over this place that were being held. A lot of people are forming rashes on their skin from the floor -- from whatever it is that is on it. And Im going to pass this on to someone else who has another story.
VOICE SHOUTING IN THE BACKGROUND: I need medical attention!
For more: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/02/1454254
On Thursday, a judge ordered the city to release 470 prisoners and issued a $1,000 fine for each inmate kept beyond 5pm that day. Approximately 50 protestors commenced a hunger strike, upset with their lengthy detention. Allegations were leveled that they were being held so as not to be on the streets during Bushs acceptance speech.
The National Lawyers Guild spearheaded an effort to ensure fair representation and humane treatment of those arrested. They have urged anyone released from jail to bag and label their clothing - possibly to determine the chemical substance on the ground at "Guantanamo" - and are vowing lawsuits against the city.
Total arrests for the week numbered less than 2,000 in reality, a very small portion of the total demonstrators. But you don't have to be arrested to be scared out of your socks.
Meryl Johnson of the American Street Blog related a frightening and disturbing story from the Friday before the convention. A small female art student was in New York photographing the Brooklyn Bridge and the Potomac River.
She was grabbed by two policemen who called for backup, and six more arrived. Dressed in her tight little shirt and shorts, she couldn't possibly have looked like a mad terrorist suicide bomber concealing a bomb in her clothing. It takes eight armed men to subdue a tiny blond woman? They held my friend's daughter for several hours, demanding that she tell them why she was photographing the bridge. She tried to reason with them. She explained about art, the effects of light and atmosphere; that didn't work. They wanted to know WHY she was photographing the bridge. She tried another approach. "Don't you have photographs of your mother? Don't you want to be able to remember how she looks right now? She'll grow old, and she'll change. The neighborhood around the Bridge will change, and I want to be able to remember how it looks right now." They didn't buy that, either. They wanted to know WHY she was photographing the bridge, with strong hints about WHO she was photographing it for. She finally said, "Are you arresting me?" They said they could keep her until at least 3 AM without arresting her.
http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2004/08/29/not-your-mothers-convention/
Throughout the week, the police presence only increased, with an estimated 2.5 police officers for every demonstrator or delegate. Sirens blared, vehicles raced up and down the streets that remained open. Helicopters chopped overhead taking pictures of those below. A blimp snapped pictures as wide-eyed and open-mouthed spectators stared up and wondered, Are we in a police state? Where is my picture going to show up? What database have I just been entered in?
Police were literally stationed on every Manhattan street corner, and troops guarded the biggest of terrorist targets from lingerie stores to newspaper boxes. Snipers stationed themselves on skyscrapers, and if you dared shoot a quick glance at numerous federal agents on the ground, you could see weapons youve only seen in the movies.
Protests Move to Convention Floor
Despite massive security inside and outside Madison Square Garden, a few protestors managed to find their way in. The tactics of choice were to pose as a volunteer, perhaps even signing up months in advance and falsely rallying the Bush cause ahead of time, or sneaking on a delegate shuttle at one of the hotels.
On Wednesday, a half dozen protestors from the group ActUp infiltrated the Wisconsin section, mere feet from the stage where White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was speaking. One blew a whistle as a signal to the others to strip their suits and ties to reveal t-shirts containing anti-Bush slogans. They then began to chant, Bush lies, people die before both media members and security surrounded them.
Rumors of even larger disruptions circulated, but did not materialize.
Activists from the group Code Pink held up Bushs primetime speech in three separate instances. Again shouting Bush lies, people die, and in one case unfurling a banner with the same slogan, the protestors were quickly surrounded and subjected to the wrath of nearby delegates. Watching on television, it was immediately evident what was going on, as Bush was interrupted midsentence by a ruckus noise followed by chants of four more years intended to drown out the offending left-wing language. Those who, in this writer's opinion, displayed enormous guts and bravery were Jodie Evans, June Brashares, and Jorge Medina, who lost his son to violence in Iraq.
Whereas Bushs partner in the Iraq war, Tony Blair, is an expert at deflecting hecklers even in Parliamentary debates, Bush seemed fazed by the disruptions. Even though major newscasts left one wondering what was happening in the arena, it was easy to tell by the look on Bushs face as he stopped mid-sentence and offered no retort.
Other speeches disrupted included those by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dick Cheney, and Laura Bush.
(See http://laweekly.blogs.com/joshuah_bearman/2004/09/bush_lied_peopl.html for more information and footage.)
Seven Key Questions
I answered these questions for the DNC in Boston. Now, here is a quick overview of the nature of freedom of speech at the RNC:
1. Were the protests nonviolent?
DNC: Mostly yes
RNC: Overwhelmingly. Minor scuffles represented an almost insignificant percentage of the total protestors.
2. Did the protests use civil disobedience creatively or simply march?
DNC: Somewhat
RNC: Creativity flowed free as it should in a truly free and democratic society. From panty protests to die-ins to cardboard coffins and much more, those monitoring the situation were constantly amused, stimulated, and enlightened.
3. Did activists boycott the designated protest areas or pens?
DNC: Yes
RNC: When the United for Peace and Justice Rally on Sunday was denied the opportunity to utilize Central Park (Mayor Bloomberg claimed the colossal count of participants would damage the grass), they dutifully marched elsewhere. Later in the week, several groups had the audacity to exercise freedom of speech without a permit, and many were arrested as a result. Whenever protestors were held by barricades or other movable metal barriers, they had no choice in the matter.
4. Were the police responsible in their use of force?
DNC: Yes
RNC: Reports varied. The NYPD has been in a contract dispute with the city and most protestors are sympathetic with them, especially since Mayor Bloomberg is Republican. Despite what the extremely high police-to-citizen ratio would suggest, most officers were well behaved. Instances of police brutality did come to light, however, more than once involving a plain-clothed motorcycle cop driving recklessly into a crowd.
5. Did the protests generate ample media coverage?
DNC: Depends
RNC: Early headlines were highly inaccurate, often reporting a march of thousands on Sunday. (A similar headline might read that the national debt has just reached the hundreds of dollars.) On the internet, the Convention and related happenings were obviously the story of the week, and protests garnered plenty of mainstream media coverage. Still, it was not as much as most left-wing activists had hoped for.
6. Did the protestors unite against the threat to free speech, against Bush, both or neither?
DNC: Free Speech
RNC: Demonstrators showed their solidarity towards one goal: ousting Bush from office. Counterprotestors were kept to a minimum. While First Amendment rights were on the mind of most, the general feeling was that if Bush left, Freedom would return. Only time will tell.
7. Did the protests cause widespread disruption?
DNC: Yes
RNC: but the disruption during the RNC was multiplied. The Republican Party owes the city of New York, and more accurately, residents of Manhattan, a large apology for bringing this show into their neighborhood. Simply getting across town became next to impossible in the middle of the week, and several residents who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time were interrogated, arrested, or worse.
Final Thoughts
If you read my article on the DNC, it is obvious that this one has covered a lot more material. While it may seem to some like a liberal bias is present, it is a fact that several times as many people chose to exercise their freedom of speech in New York than in Boston. In fact, I could have mentioned many more activities than I did. It is true that the 2004 RNC will likely be remembered as much if not more than the infamous 1968 DNC in Chicago, with one key exception: 1968 was marred by violence, but 2004 was beautifully peaceful.
Also of note is the enormous role technology has played in the coverage of the convention, the coverage of the protests thereof, and the protests themselves. Demonstrators and average New Yorkers alike used multiple forms of technology, most notably blogs and text messages, to stay informed on the events, coordinate activities, steer clear of trouble zones, and alert the rest of the world to important happenings, all in the blink of an eye. During President Bushs speech on Thursday, I was able to write my thoughts on the speech live on my blog while listening on C-SPAN and surfing other sites for up-to-the-second information on talking points and the activist infiltrators.
Finally, this quote from the blogger fink at http://www.dailykos.com puts the weeks events in perspective:
[Bushs possible] inauguration, god forbid, would ignite a protest to make this look like the Elks Club.
Related: Free Speech at the Democratic National Convention
Brian Hokansons blog is at: http://theyetimn.blogspot.com
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