Commentary: Just Because We’re in a Cage Doesn’t Mean We’re Not Free

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.

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Presidentialism: Celebrity vs Substance

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.

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Recreate 68 Freedom March to Federal Courthouse

August 30th, 2008 KGNU Staff

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Reactions to Barack Obama’s Speech at Inveco Field

August 29th, 2008 KGNU Staff

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Barack Obama’s Speech at Invesco Field, DNC 2008

August 29th, 2008 KGNU Staff

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Immigrant Rights March

August 29th, 2008 Tim Correll

KGNU reporter Tim Correll followed the Immigrant Rights parade to a rally at Lincoln Park.

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Mark Silverstein with the ACLU Reacts to Police Presence During DNC

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.

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ABC News Reporter Arrested In Denver

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.

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Mercury Cafe Hosts Poetic Activists

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.

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Rage Against the Machine

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.

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Commentary: Police Presents

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/

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Pro-life vs Pro-choice at Denver Planned Parenthood

August 27th, 2008 Students of Colorado Film School

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Music Performances From the Streets of Denver

August 27th, 2008 Students of Colorado Film School

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Political Prisoners Rally

August 27th, 2008 Students of Colorado Film School

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Ron Kovic with Iraq Veterans Against the War on Their Peace March

August 27th, 2008 Tim Correll

Vietnam veteran and peace activist Ron Kovic, joined IVAW on their march to the Pepsi Center on Wednesday afternoon.

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Iraq Veterans Against the War March for Peace Towards the Pepsi Center

August 27th, 2008 Maeve Conran

On Wednesday, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, in full military formation lead a peace protest that included GI resistance, Military Families Speak Out and Vietnam veteran and peace activist Ron Kovic, as well as thousands of peace protesters.

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Meditate ‘08

August 27th, 2008 KGNU Staff

The Denver Aquarium was the site for the Meditate ‘08 gathering that brought people of diverse spiritual persuasions to create an alternative perspective to view the DNC politics at hand. Special guest Giancarlo Esposito of “LA Law” fame was the featured guest.

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Commentary: Progressive Women Rising in Power

August 27th, 2008 Tony Robinson

Tuesday was the 88th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote—and here in Denver it was quite a celebration.

At the Convention Center, Emily’s List shared the news that 55% of the electorate will be women this year—the highest ever. The DNC Women’s Caucus met in a sprawling ballroom filled with a thousand energized delegates, celebrating the fact that about 60% of the overall Democratic vote every year is women.

At that very same moment, that same sentiment was sweeping down Denver’s Colfax Avenue. Just as thousands of Convention women celebrated their power and role in the Democratic Party, hundreds more women gathered to march down Colfax. Out in the streets passionate Hillary Clinton supporters had travelled to Denver from across the country to celebrate the woman who nearly claimed the presidency. They filled Colfax sidewalk to sidewalk, banged drums, chanted Hillary’s name, and promised to put a woman in the Oval Office within ten years.

And to cap it all off, on Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton addressed an adoring crowd of thousands in the Pepsi Center, in a moment that will be remembered through history in the same breath as suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton herself.

The growing power of women in American politics is big news for politics and great news for progressives.

Progressives should take heart in the growing political power of women, because women vote Democrat. Obama enjoys a 12% pre-convention lead among all women voters—while younger Millennial women voters give Obama an incredible 30-point lead. And here’s more good news for progressives. Younger women are now 57% of all college students. And as college graduates are increasingly female—they are likely to grow their civic participation even more. And the future female powerhouses of the country are even more liberal than senior women. 46% of young women believe that America’s growing racial diversity is entirely a good thing—only 30% of senior women think that. 36% of young women believe that it is good that the Christian tradition is declining in strength—since there are traditional notions of patriarchy embedded within it. Only 26% of senior women shared this idea. And 53% of young women believe in full acceptance and inclusion of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgendered in the community—while only 26% of senior women agree. As Hillary addressed the American people Tuesday night, she represented a real and fundamental transformation in American society. Like never before, the future of American politics is in the hands of women, and especially young women— progressives can take heart in the future these women will build.

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/

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Panel Discussion “Deconstructing the Ethnic Vote” Hosted by John Rudolph

August 27th, 2008 KGNU Staff

New York Community Media Alliance and Feet in Two Worlds hosted a panel discussion on the impact of ethnic voters, which coincided with the Democratic National Convention.

This panel discussion was hosted by John Rudolph, Executive Producer of Feet in Two Worlds. The panel included Jehangir Khattack, a U.S.-Pakistani reporter with the Defense Journal Dawn; Raymond Dean Jones, Political Columnist, Denver Urban Spectrum; Lotus Chau, Chief Reporter, Sing Tao Daily; and Pilar Marrero, Senior Political Writer and Columnist, La Opinion.

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The Big Tent

August 27th, 2008 Tim Correll

The Big Tent offers bloggers and DNC observers a lifeline link to the Internet. It also hosts a big stage giving a variety of speakers a forum. KGNU’s Tim Correll hung out at the tent and quickly got to know how to work the technology. He captured two commentaries: Van Johnson from Green For All and Robert Kennedy, Jr. on the climate problem and solutions.

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