Boston: Police accommodate protesters amidst signs of planned arrests

[G_j]

Even though police in Boston are working to accommodate protesters during the Democratic convention, there are signs that officers are planning for mass arrests.


http://alternet.org/election04/19253/

Hoping for the Best, Planning for the Worst

By Michael Blanding, AlterNet. Posted July 16, 2004.

The permits have been signed, the free-speech zone has been cleared, and the fences are starting to rise. Boston is bracing itself for thousands of protesters that will descend upon the city for the Democratic National Convention. The city has promised to welcome demonstrators with open arms, anxious to avoid the clashes that have marred previous large-scale political events such as the Republican National Convention four years ago in Philadelphia and the Free Trade Area of the Americas Summit last November in Miami.

But even as police have been upfront on their plans by working with groups such as the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), concerns persist about inadequate space to accommodate protesters at the convention hall, as well as other signs that police are planning for mass arrests and are preemptively harassing protesters coming to Boston.

In response to civil libertarians' concerns, police moved the "free-speech zone" to a location closer to the FleetCenter where the convention will be held, and have helped expedite permit requests. Even so, the current protest pen is still claustrophobic and cramped. It has only one small entrance and small two exits, one of them with only a five-foot clearance below elevated subway tracks. The area itself is only large enough to hold some 4,000 protesters, even though more than twice that many are expected to arrive. Protesters won’t have direct access to the FleetCenter either, but will have to address their concerns to delegates as they arrive at the bus terminal next to the zone. Two fences separated by 10 feet will prevent activists from handing out pamphlets or information.

Police spokesman Lt. Kevin Foley, while admitting that the space isn’t perfect, claims that the area is the closest that protesters have ever been allowed to a major event such as this. “Taking into account post-9/11 security concerns, and Boston’s narrow street configurations, we’ve gone out of our way to accommodate protesters,” he says.

..more..

[zanana]

1. Who will be protesting at the Dem convention?

This puzzles me. I keep hearing about all the protesters expected, but no one says who they are bound to be. Would it be the Greens? Freepers? (They haven't congregated in large numbers to protest for a number of years). Who exactly are we supposed to be worried about?

[BiggJawn]

3. Disgruntled Deaniacs? Dennis supporters?

C'mon, do some reading in GD '04. Kerry's not universally loved among the left, you know that.

[zanana]

4. The "Black Tea Society"?

I'm shaking in my boots. I really doubt that alot of Naderites and Kucinich supporters will protest the Dem convention rather than, say, the Republican convention.

[BiggJawn]

6. Who knows?

If it's denizens of FR they're expecting, they'll be really disappointed...20,000 nylon cuffs and only 20 old toothless crackers to put 'em on...

Maybe it's that "9-11" mindset, the same thought process that leads a rural volunteer fire department with a 50-y-o truck with 250 hours on the engine to get a DHS grant to buy everyone a new solid-state radio and a "FIRST RESPONDER!!" window sticker for their pick-up trucks...

[realisticphish]

5. anarchists...

communists, socialists, anti-corporate types in general; as much as I like the Democratic Party, we have way too many ties to corporations for my taste



:hippie:

[ThomWV]

7. Let Me Be Exact In Telling You Who

Let me choose my words with precision.

It will be the exact same fucking Republican thugs who disrupted the vote count in Florida in the Fall of 1999 who will disrupt the Democratic Convention. Many of them this time, as was the case last time, will be staffers from the offices of various Republican Congress persons.

There, does that pretty well sum it up?

[G_j]

8. that doesn't sum it up

there will be major peace contingents there, most notably "United for Peace and Justice", the same group organizing the large protest at the RNC.

www.unitedforpeace.org

[mike_c]

9. neither of the major parties represents the broad interests...

...of the American people any longer, so I think it's appropriate to expect a wide range of protesters. Sounds like Boston plans to jam them all into the same "Free Speech Zone," however. THAT could get interesting....

[BiggJawn]

2. Open arms and nylon tie-wraps...

They're getting "sensitivity training"..."Would you like a red, white, blue, or black cuff?"