What Really Happened at the RNC Riots

Email Print posted by Taximtime 09/06/2008 01:35:34 AM EST

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Okay the MSM is doing a lame job at covering the protests and riots surrounding the events at this year's RNC, and for good Reason, since reporters are arrested once the police designate a protest area as a "riot". That being said, I can see why CNN or CBS would avoid getting thier fragile little snowflake reporters fluffed over such a tiny incident. Instead, they will talk about stuff like Bristol Palin's "OMG A TEEN IS PREGNANT" story (the town i just canvassed today off of VA route 50 had like 9 of them)

I'm going to make a distinction here between the Radical leftist groups which have been labeled "anarchists" by the local news and the leftist reporters along the lines of Democracy now and Daily Kos. Essentially the coverage by the pig-licking minneapolis local news is sufficient, thier coverage of the radical leftists, barring some disputable figures, portrays an accurate representation of what they were doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=_Ue78juosss

Much of the instigation was wrought by radical leftist groups loosely affiliated with the students for a democratic society. It is clear that these groups were out to incite a police backlash against peaceful protestors by comitting illegal vandalism and generally frightening behavior. These groups were loosely organized, thier whole goal was to turn the peaceful protest into an angry one, and in some ways they succeeded. They successfully provoked the police into arresting everyone, spraying and shooting (with rubber bullets) many innocent bystanders in the process. One of the famous examples of how the crackdown turned out poorly for the police was the violent arrest of several journalists, the most famous of which appear to be working for leftists like Democracy Now.

http://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=2jreRSEQ_yg

Amy Goodman and her two producers were arrested, she talked to the police chief at a press conference that followed shortly after.

http://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=xbL_EE7RtV0

This video made me wrench my fist in anger. The police quite obviously shat on the first amendment in thier abuse of the reporters trying to cover these riots, they accused the radical leftist provocateurs of assaulting and intimidating the public when it was actually the ensuing police crackdown that scared the peaceful protestors. He described what happened as "control" but it came off more as repression. I nearly threw my monitor when he said that press credentials did not enable reporters to commit crimes.

But I do think that the radicals had a point. It would be inappropriate for those angry of the policy failures of the past eight years and the terrible downward trend of discourse in this country to do nothing out of the ordinary. I forsee more of this in the future if McCain gets elected this November. For perspective, when we talk about the "Hanoi Jane" un-patriotism of the Vietnam era anti-war movement, we tend to forget about the raw anger that americans felt at that time. This sort of thing does not happen when everything is hunky doory and people agree to disagree, it happens after 12 years of divisive partisan politics, fear mongering, war mongering, plutocracy and repression. The violence of the 1968 DNC far outclassed anything that happened this week.

For laughs, I will now present the Sean Hannity perspective
http://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=u5RgrIhTZJA&e

Some facts:

Peaceful protestors constituted the majority of the protestors.
Police outnumbered protestors by an order of thousands.
The police cracked down on all protestors after the radical leftists initiated vandalism.

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What Really Happened at the RNC Riots | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
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I have seen the "anarchist" faction really ruin the impact of several protests, especially here in Olympia, Washington where we have had barricades of Stryker forces and armored vehicles at the port, vandalism of the state capital and downtown at Labor Day demonstrations, etc. 

It makes me wonder whether these factions are infiltrated by those who wish to discredit the protesters and diminish the impact of peaceful organized protests.

by desertpear on 09/06/2008 03:23:08 PM EST

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Part of this behavior may be because of the stereotype that liberals are weak, ineffective and non-violent. Young people are angry as this distortion and want to dispel the myth that they neither love nor fight for thier country.

The radicals do not diminish the effect of the protest as much as it polarizes sides on the issue. Those who support the protestors interpret the events as victimization and police brutality while conservatives who watch the "anarchists" are affirmed in thier ignorant belief that they are the only ones who patriotic.

by Taximtime on 09/06/2008 04:11:10 PM EST

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I totally understand the anger too.  But when I see protests made up of really ragged "hippie/punk" types, they aren't going to be taken seriously by your average Joe.  [said as a former hippie]

I know Marcos Moulitsas of Daily Kos has a new book out in which he discusses street protest as strategy.  I really want to read that.  

by desertpear on 09/06/2008 04:37:46 PM EST

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What Really Happened at the RNC Riots | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
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