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September 9th, 2008 Maeve Conran
153 people were arrested during protests at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Glen Spagnuolo with the Recreate 68, the group who organized many of the DNC protests, says that police violated protesters civil liberties and they are planning litigation.
September 9th, 2008 Jim Banks
The Denver Police Department released a 7 page budget document on Friday, outlining the costs of policing the Democratic National Convention. Included in the budget was more than $10 million to pay for officers from other jurisdictions, $111,000 for riot gear turtle suits and over $650,000 for ballistic helmets. Jim Banks followed the protests on the streets of Denver and at the Freedom Cage during the DNC. He found the Freedom Cage to be virtually empty most days, as protesters were kept out of sight of delegates attending the convention, so most decided to stay away.
As the Democratic National Convention drew to a close Jim Banks hatched a plan to help the city of Denver pay for the money it spent policing the empty Freedom Cage.
September 3rd, 2008 KGNU Staff
A Boulder-based group called Bikes Belong made free bicycle transport available for people to use during the Democratic and Republic National Conventions.
September 3rd, 2008 KGNU Staff
Suzanne Jones of the Wilderness Society takes a group on an ECO-Flight air tour of some of Colorado’s public lands during the Democratic National Convention.
September 2nd, 2008 KGNU Staff
August 31st, 2008 CoyoteJ
Coyote is a
sometimes playful,
sometimes foolish,
sometimes wise,
archetypal figure
who often
gets into trouble.
I recently read with interest a story in the Rocky Mountain News that said that Denver law enforcement had done such a good job of policing the Democratic National Convention, that their approach would now be a guide and model for all future conventions. Before we light our cigars and pat ourselves on the back, however, I think it is important that we hear the other side of the story. This is my take on the new Denver model.
As I was covering police and protesters for KGNU last week, five questions kept coming to my mind. By Tuesday night my answers to these questions led me to believe that Denver had developed a new model for policing large political conventions, gatherings and protests, and that this new model was indeed very successful. Unfortunately, completely and totally successful. Here are my five questions:
First, why did police keep such a large presence in Denver when it became clear by Sunday night that the number of protesters was vastly smaller than predicted? The answer is that Denver’s strategy was never proportional response, but shock and awe. From the first day of the convention, Denver presented an overwhelming force of riot police, police on horseback, bike, and foot, as well as an awesome array of police cars, buses for mass arrests, swat tanks, and large SUV’s to transport officers. The clear intention was to show all weapons and forces in overwhelming numbers, sending the message to protester and populace that if anybody gets out of line, they will be crushed. De-escalating forces to match the number of protesters would have short-circuited this plan of shock and awe. All forces and weapons would be shown from beginning to end, no matter the number of protesters. Shock and awe is the first pillar of the new Denver model.
August 31st, 2008 Joel Edelstein
New York Times reporter David Sirota describes the glamorization, the celebrity, of the Presidency and asserts that all too often stories about political celebrity supersede stories of social importance. Social change is generated from the bottom up. Don’t expect a president with the power of celebrity to instigate reform.
August 30th, 2008 KGNU Staff
August 29th, 2008 KGNU Staff
August 29th, 2008 KGNU Staff
August 29th, 2008 Tim Correll
KGNU reporter Tim Correll followed the Immigrant Rights parade to a rally at Lincoln Park.
August 29th, 2008 Maeve Conran
Mark Silverstein, legal director of the Colorado ACLU reacts to the policing of the DNC, the massive police presence and the arrests of the protesters.
August 28th, 2008 Barry Gilbert
ABC News’ Asa Eslocker was investigating the role of lobbyists and top donors at the DNC. He was arrested and charged with trespassing, failure to follow a lawful order, and interference with a police officer while he attempted to interview Democratic senators and donors coming out of a reception at the Brown Palace Hotel. The incident was caught on video by his crew.
August 28th, 2008 KGNU Staff
The Mercury Cafe hosted several poetic activists over the weekend before the Democratic National Convention. Here’s one of the poets performing an anti-war poem.
August 28th, 2008 Maeve Conran
Maeve Conran checked out the Rage Against the Machine concert and the Iraq Veterans Against the War Peace March to the Pepsi Center.
August 28th, 2008 Tony Robinson
Denver’s convention might be the most militarized convention in suppressing dissent of any in American history. And what’s worse is, so few seem to care.
How many cops are in Denver? They won’t even tell us. 52 different jurisdictions have send officers to Denver—Wyoming has even sent a cavalry unit. In Boston for the 2004 convention, they mobilized 5,000 officers. That’s a ratio of about 10 cops per protester at most of the demonstrations we seen in Denver.
I counted the officers on my journey from Colfax and Kalamath to the Pepsi Center. Without seeing a single protester, I counted 77 cops, including three vans bristling with riot police cruising around without seeming purpose or urgency. On every downtown corner and back alley we see packs of heavily armed police. During the anti-war march, the Denver Post concluded that there were more officers than protesters. Long lines of riot police formed near the Pepsi Center and they shut the whole place down when a few hundred protesters moved near the Center and wouldn’t quickly retreat to the freedom cage, a stark concrete desert surrounded by concrete barriers and fences—and completely hidden from view of any delegate.
I saw the cavalry in action myself, rushing across Civic Center Park to the puppet march—giant puppets of all things, constructed by the usual demonstrators, but also young children and seniors, gathered to march their colorful puppets. And of course the police swarmed the scene. It was here that I saw a young woman, without a weapon or provocation, beat to the ground with a baton for insulting an officer, who shouted out (as reported by the Denver Post) “Back it Up”—and swore at the women with a derogatory term rhyming with hitch.
They say they are just keeping order. Sure, the Nazi’s made the trains run on time, didn’t they? So you got order, now just be quiet and enjoy it. Or go speak in your freedom cage, where no one can even see or hear you. It’s obscene.
And what’s worse—we can’t even pretend the whole world is watching, because its not.
I asked one superdelegate about the protests and the police, and he replied “Haven’t heard a thing about it.”
During a lunch with another delegate, he reminisced about the 1960s days of protest. What about the protests in Denver, I asked. “Haven’t heard anything,” he said.
I talked with Denver’s outgoing President of City Council, Michael Hancock, about his thoughts on the forlorn freedom cage—“I’ve never even seen the cage,” Hancock admitted.
It’s the banality of evil. The commonness of authoritarianism. The whimperered acceptance of omnipresent police force on every corner.
When this convention is over, we shouldn’t measure success by the number of dollars raised, the business success fostered. We shouldn’t measure it by whether Obama wins. Success should be measured by the extent to which a convention truly become a celebration of democracy, a moment when people can gather to speak out, celebrate their freedoms, water Jefferson’s tree of liberty with the water of dissent. How can we have a democratic success like that when we have wrapped this convention in a blanket of armored guards, mounted police, and baton clubs at the slightest provocation? “This is what a police state looks like” one protestor chanted while arrested. I have a hard time disagreeing.
It should make us sick to our stomachs and what our city has become during this convention.
KGNU’s national politics analyst, Tony Robinson, is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado Denver. You can find more at http://mypoliticscampaignblog.wordpress.com/
August 27th, 2008 Students of Colorado Film School
August 27th, 2008 Students of Colorado Film School
August 27th, 2008 Students of Colorado Film School
August 27th, 2008 Tim Correll
Vietnam veteran and peace activist Ron Kovic, joined IVAW on their march to the Pepsi Center on Wednesday afternoon.
