Denver Imposes Restrictions on Protesters Tactics

Field commanders and generals know that the best way to win a battle is to be prepared ahead of time for any tactics and tricks the opposing side will use in a pending conflict and confrontation. Denver is making plans now for the DNC convention.

There will be no urine tossing in Denver. Nor will there be any buckets filled with feces nor "cut-proof" devices that protesters can use to thwart local police officers as protesters gather outside the Pepsi Center in Denver when the DNC gathers there to meet next month for the party's convention. Denver law enforcement and lawmakers are working together to make sure that they have as many bases covered as possible to keep protesters from blocking traffic and creating undue disturbance in the Mile-High City.

"Protesters are getting pretty sophisticated," said Councilman Doug Linkhart, chairman of the council's safety committee.

"In other cities, they're not just handcuffing themselves to each other," he said. "They put their handcuffs inside PVC tubes, which are inside concrete. They've figured out ways that keep the police from just using bolt cutters to cut them apart. They also use buckets of urine and feces and various noxious substances to pour on themselves or the police."

Denver's proposed ordinance would make it illegal to carry any "tool, object, instrument or other article" that can be used to obstruct streets, sidewalks and entry or exits from buildings or for hindering emergency equipment.

"We're just trying to very narrowly define an area where, if they have these kinds of tools and we can prove intent, then we can arrest them," Linkhart said.

Among banned items will be chains, quick-setting cement, and locking devices resistant to bolt cutters, along with containers used to transport urine and feces, and any other items that might be seen as being used as a tool for disrupting order. Arapahoe County, where some delegates will be staying during the convention, has also placed bans on items that could be used as weapons, including gas masks that protesters might be carrying to use in case of tear gas being employed by law enforcement officials for crowd control.

Personally, I'm kind of amazed at the mindset of some protesters. I can understand picketing, I can understand the chants used by marchers, but there are some things my mind can not fathom. Urine and feces? Are we talking about people protesting, or chimpanzees here? Mind boggling.

In all honesty, while I can see why there would be a lot for Democrats to protest in regards to their party, especially those who belong to such groups as PUMA, I can't really say that I see many of the Hillary Clinton supporters that would be attending being the feces flinging type.

Of course I could be wrong.

What does sinking to this level of primate behavior accomplish, really? It smells, it potentially spreads disease, and we won't get into the whole concept of that one has to actually take the time to collect containers filled with feces or urine in order to take that one pride filled moment in which they can proclaim, "I tossed my shit on a cop!" I'm sure they have a mother somewhere who would be very proud of them for such adult behavior.

Protesting in such manner does little to accomplish actual real political change. It creates a breeding ground for violence, lawlessness, and potential injury to both the protesters and public safety officials who are there to maintain order. The rare exceptions were the non-violent protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King in which he urged passive resistance. But the days of King are over, and I'm certain that he would have highly disapproved of the use of human/animal waste as a means of attempting to make a point.

I wonder if they've also banned jamming devices for the undercover officers who will be communicating by shoe phone? Just a thought.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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Politicizing the Olympics

I thought, from my understanding, that the Olympics were supposed to be set up and established as an apolitical event? Was I incorrect in that assessment? I was under the impression that they had been revived in the spirit of allowing the athletes of the world to come together and compete without the constraints of political wrangling and haggling.

Yet since the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, politics has wormed it's way into even the Olympics, as it has managed to do yet again with the upcoming Beijing Olympics of this year.

It's an interesting thing that for the one U.S. stop of the Olympic Torch, an event meant to usher in a season where our world class athletes are gathering in hopes of competing with others from around the world, people bent on protestation over the relations between China and Tibet set out to extinguish the torch. The situation was serious enough that the torch route had to be changed for security reasons.

The announcement came during a day in which the torch's trek through the city was shortened and its path altered to try to minimize the chances that protesters would mar the event.

Anti-Chinese protesters and Beijing supporters lined the streets along the planned route hours ahead of the start of the relay.

The torch was lit in a short ceremony at AT&T Park in front of hundreds of pro-Chinese supporters who waved Chinese, American and Olympic flags.

I can honestly understand the outrage over the China/Tibet situation. I can equally understand outrage over the China/Taiwan situation, but it seems that's a less popular "cause" than Tibet. I have to wonder why? Do the people of Taiwan not deserve as much a chance to live without the threat of mainland China taking them over as the people of Tibet deserve?

Africa comes to mind, as well. At any given moment, on any given day, there are horrors and atrocities committed on the African continent, and yet no one protests. No one complains. No one forms groups to go out and picket on behalf of the people of Darfor, which was, for a few days, slightly newsworthy. There are no mass demonstrations against the atrocities of the Sudan. The United States went to war in Iraq and removed Saddam Hussein, and who was vilified? The dictator who was committing genocide, or the nation who had, supposedly, committed itself after 9/11 to go after terrorists any where that they were being given sanctuary.

How many warnings did we give the old Iraqi government that we were going to do something? Plenty. We gave them enough advance warning that they had ample time to move any weapons of mass destruction out of the country so that they wouldn't be found if and when American and coalition forces invaded. And yet the evidence of genocide was found in the forms of mass graves, torture and rape rooms, and the like. Yet that wasn't protested; the invasion OF Iraq to stop a dictator was what came under fire.

And yet Hillary Clinton and others are calling for George Bush to boycott the Beijing Olympics, while at the same time calling for a withdrawal of American forces from Iraq at a time when doing so would clearly destabilize the region.

I do not understand picking and choosing which evil to vilify and which to condone. The treatment of Tibet by China is wrong, but at the same time the treatment of Kurds and Iraqi's by Saddam Hussein was wrong, as well. Other nations call for the elimination of the nation of Israel, and they are celebrated, not protested. If an Israeli so much as sneezes in self-defense, there is outrage among those on the left in this country.

But are these things, are these situations, cause for protesting the Olympics? The Olympics are not Chinese, they are not Iraqi, they are not Israeli, they are not American. They are, truly, an international event designed for the spirit of athletic competition. And yet we have politicized even our sporting events now, protesting the host nation by taking out our outrage on the international community as a whole.

The Olympics are not about China, they're about all of us, all around the world, every man, woman, and child in every nation who wishes to compete in a fair and friendly atmosphere for the sake of competition.

In my opinion, in my mind, politicizing them cheapens the entire organization.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man


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