Ryan Lives Here
My friend Ryan lives in Denver and he shared this video on his blog.
Did they not think this would fly around the internet? This isn’t France. Those people were peaceably assembled. They were invoking their constitutional rights. And they were threatened and bullied and attacked by the people their tax dollars go to pay to protect and serve the public. It’s an atrocity.
Edit
Randall makes a few good points on his blog as well. As soon as the protestors got in the way of traffic or started blocking streets they went past peaceably assembled. But I’m also sure the police could have handled it a bit than enclosing the crowd between buildings on the left and right and two lines of cops in full
[...] posted on his blog the following video. It stirred me up all kinds of crazy, so be [...]
Yeah, Randall’s probably right, protests never got anyone anywhere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.
(too obvious? sorry.)
And so Randall, and everyone else, is informed — the streets were closed FOR protesting. The problem was, the police were trying to send a strong message at the beginning of the week so there were no incidents.
That caused… well, incidents. Remind you of a particular nation’s foreign policy? Sorry, I won’t go there…
@Ryan: Pretty sure a protest got MLK Jr assassinated.
And I’d like to remind you that a certain middle eastern nation’s foreign policy was to support a terrorist organization that murdered hundreds of civilians without warrant (not entirely true, but west vs east politics are terribly complicated and go back thousands of years). Let’s be rational and look at both sides of the issues, not idealistic notions of a fantasy political country. That’s what communist/socialist dreams are made of.
@Ryan: Way too obvious, but your point is valid. And unfortunately it’s probably the thing that keeps the idea that marches and holding signs equate to victory for your movement.
Those were different times, and the main difference is that nowadays people don’t do anything else. I was pretty harsh in my criticism of protesting. I am aware it works and it can do something, but I get so annoyed with the underlying motives of protestors and their lack of actual action.
Just the fact that they closed the downtown streets FOR protesting alone shows how ridiculous of a thing they are. We close streets so people can march down them? Really. Only in America.
Oh, I didn’t know anyone replied to this one.
@Joel:
there’s that bleak outlook again, eh Joel? I was talking about the civil rights movement, but hey… we have different outlooks on it, I guess
And you don’t have to tell me about the complications of the Middle East… I’m well aware. But really, socialist dreams?… geez.
@Randall Jenkins:
I disagree that people don’t do anything else— Denver-ites are typically very involved in the political process, and the largest protest crowd during the DNC was able to speak directly with Obama’s staff, which was their goal in protesting. Sure, some people are dumb and just want to fight the system— but I don’t think that should disqualify all protesters. After being in Egypt last year… I’m glad to live in a place where not only can I speak my mind, but the police will close a street to allow me to do it.
Still— the street probably would have been closed anyway, for security issues— so, it wasn’t too big of a deal.
@Joel:
p.s. Love the blue on this blog. I think it’s a similar hue to what we’re working with in our color pallette: http://www.the1010project.org
http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/469050/1010_Project_Palette