beautymark75 member for 32 weeks 1 day

It is common for the RNC (Republican National Convention) and the (Democratic National Convention) to be breeding grounds for activist protests. Activists who oppose either Republicans or Democrats show up at the conventions with placards and bullhorns in hand and they exercise their right to free speech and peaceful protest. People who are well versed in political activism have had to get really savvy in recent years to make sure they are not breaking the law unless of course they're intentionally staging acts of civil disobedience like handcuffing themselves to a monument to make a point or something.

Most of the time however, activists do not set out to break the law. They must get the right permits, they must follow police orders to stay in certain areas, they must agree to not block traffic, etc.

In 2004 a really good friend of mine set off to NYC by himself as an anti-war protester to join in with the throngs of other anti-war protesters heading for the RNC which was held at Madison Square Garden. Security was very high and from what me friend said, you couldn't get near the place, so protesters were forced to protest behind barricades blocks away from the actual venue. The organizers of the protests were in communication with NYPD (as they normally are) to make sure they were within their rights, and following whatever rules they were supposed to. They were given strict rules to adhere by or they were told they'd be arrested. Those rules: they had to walk two by two on the sidewalk. They could not flow out into the street. They could not use bullhorns, and they could not chant anything in unison (there were hundreds if not thousands of people so chanting in unison would violate NYC noise ordinances). I am sure there were more rules, but I just remember these ones.

My friend said that the organizers were adamant about the protesters following the rules because they did not want anything to get in the way of having their message heard. Everyone knew what to do, and they were making sure they followed the rules.

Since the protesters were on the streets of New York, there were many people walking by, on the sidewalks who had nothing to do with the protests. Families, tourists, business people etc. That was probably part of the reason police enforced the two by two rule.

As the protesters were doing there thing, something strange and unexpected occurred. NYPD began accusing the protesters of "stepping out of line" and started threatening to arrest people. Protesters were getting frustrated, and so were police. Organizers were trying to reason with the officers who in turn began netting people like cattle and arresting them. When I say netting, I literally mean police officers were throwing huge bright orange nets over people that they can't get out of. It is a way to arrest large groups of people.

So the police started arresting EVERYONE. My friend was arrested with an elderly couple and a family of Asian tourists who both had no idea what the hell was going on. It was the largest arrest at an RNC in the history of the U.S. It turns out that not only did the protesters find this to be deplorable, so did the judges. 90% of the arrested protesters were released, my friend was one of them. They were released because there were no charges that police could make against them, and you can't hold people if they don't have any charges.

The Republican National Convention went off without a hitch and many of the people who lined outside hours prior were arrested before the convention even ended. Their voices were silenced.

This whole debacle has resulted in a class action suit against the NYPD that is still in process.

You'd think this would be all over the news and that people would be outraged over it. It hasn't been. In fact when I tell people about it they usually dismiss it as if the full story is being withheld, or they assume my friends and his fellow activists must have been up to something if they got arrested. All I can say to that is you can't know how little freedom we actually do have until you walk a mile in a political activists shoes.

This isn't an isolated situation, and on the heels of a new election we are seeing a repeat of what occurred in 2004, and now it is more brazen than before. It comes under the guise of "preemptive" policing. It is scary, and it is the very thing that threatens our civil liberties, and our freedom.

http://www.democracynow.org/2004/8/30/crackdown_40...

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/1/st_paul_polic...

After my friend was arrested for doing what he is supposed to be allowed to do as an American, he became really depressed and withdrawn because his friends and family would not believe that this was as serious as he made it out to be. They wanted to believe so desperately that Police officers would never arrest Americans without cause. And because his story was never on "the news" that gave credence to their beliefs. So where does that leave my friend? It certainly doesn't leave him singing, "God Bless America!" It certainly doesn't lead him to think that his voice or so called freedom is worth a damn.

I did try to convince him of a bright side by pointing out that the judge actually did throw the cases out. In other countries its the word of the authorities over yours, so you're screwed. But my friend had (and still has) a hard time looking at it like that. I suppose the people in Minnesota will have an equally hard time looking at the bright side too.

There's a line from one of my favorite movies, Usual Suspects that says; "The greatest trick the devil ever played is convincing the world he didn't exist."

If we don't acknowledge that our civil liberties are in jeopardy as of late, at the hands of our own government (from local to national), we are letting ourselves be tricked.