Posted on 08/22/2004 5:25:28 PM PDT by Phsstpok
The paranoia of the guilty is a tragicomedy.
Finnman69, wherever you are - if you did this on purpose, this is truly "Hall of Fame" material. Beautiful!
Well, shouldn't our government pay for these adventurers' trip and abode? Where is the compassion? (/lib insanity OFF)
How sad! Their plans to mooch off of others have fallen through and they are just upset that they can't spend their time protesting instead of becoming productive members of society. What destruction these socialists have brought to our country. I'm deeply saddened that they aren't able to reak further havoc!
Have you seen this??
Ahem. RELATIVE newbie? (G)
I'd call this a sophistcated bit of cruelty, and the only reason they're whining about it, is that they didn't think of it themselves, and that they've been had.
Because you know that they'd do somthing more damaging - Identity Theft comes to mind first.
Thought you'd enjoy that!
when I read his about page, for some reason, I read his signon date as 2004, not 2001. And I can't even blame this on being lexicdys.
I'd call this a sophistcated bit of cruelty, and the only reason they're whining about it, is that they didn't think of it themselves, and that they've been had.
They don't have a Dick Tuck anymore (and that should test just how old Old Sarge is ;^>)
bump
And, the only answer to THAT is:
And the spittle is flying on their forum discussion of this event.
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"Internal Server Error'
That's what happens when you get spittle all over the forum.
update if you missed it:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/2/143110/3025
Guantanamo on the Hudson
by theoria
Thu Sep 2nd, 2004 at 11:31:10 PST
By now you've no doubt heard (and probably written) some of the stories about the new Guantanamo that was recently set up here in Manhattan. Well, I'm here to tell you another one of those stories via Jeff, my buddy from Colorado who just spent 36 hours making his way through the rather fucked-up system that is at work here this week.
My friend Jeff is here to take photographs of everything going on this week. Tuesday found him outside the NYC Library at 42nd and 6th, where a number of events were taking place. The police were plentiful, as they are on pretty much every corner in Manhattan these days.
Two youngsters began to drape a black flag on one of the lions, and white-shirted captain stepped forward and told them to stop. They'd just taken the flag down when another captain rushed forward and waved the first one off, calling on another group of police to take them down. The two kids quickly found themselves slammed face-down on the concrete, zip-cuffed and dragged away. The crowd that had gathered began to chant for their release, and to attempt to shame the police (hahaha.) The police warn that the crowd needed to disperse, and it does, for the most part. Bear in mind that this is the front area of the NYC Library, complete with table and chairs and kids and press and regular folks... and Jeff, who was taking pictures from a distance.
Well, the police formed a riot line at the top of the library steps and swept down them, scooping up whoever was still there. This included young people with their Macy's bags, NYU students who were there studying, families, grandmothers, etc. Everyone was eventually on the sidewalk, and they were directed to exit north on 6th toward Bryant Park. Of course, Bryant Park was barricaded, which was sorta the point. When Jeff and others saw the trap and turned around to go south (or run West across the street) the police line swooped around them with that damned orange fencing. Look out for that sh*t.
Jeff estimated that they had perhaps two-dozen of them wrapped up in a ten-foot square makeshift pen. NYPD ordered them to sit down... all captured on videotape by one of the other tourists. Later, they would each be charged with resisting arrest for following that order. (The existence of the videotape, however, convinced NYPD not to pursue it.)
Long story short (too late) everyone was zip-cuffed and thrown in the wagon. Depending on whether or not the people were moving fast enough for whatever grumpy cop was coming at you, you might even be slammed face-down on the cement, as was another photographer Jeff witnessed being manhandled... an older man who was dropped right down on his camera.
A few hours later, Jeff finds himself in an overcrowded holding pen on a pier in Lower Manhattan... one of seven he would stay in before his release 36 hours later. The pens were roughly 25' x 30', and sported razor wire around the perimeter. Each held perhaps fifty detainees. Detainees were grouped and assigned to arresting officers. What the hell does that mean? They were handing groups of arrested civilians off to officers who weren't even there so they could file the arrest reports.
Jeff estimated that more than half of these detainees were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time... shopping... studying... being a tourist. The arrests were completely indiscriminate, unless you're a delegate, in which case it cleared some human waste out of your path. If you were within a city block of the entrance to the NYC Library on Tuesday at about 5:30 pm, you were one of the estimated 1,200 people that ended up in a cage on a pier in Manhattan, waiting 12 hours before being given access to a phone, and more than 24 hours before being charged with anything. In most cases, this has amounted to being detained for 36+ hours (at least 12 hours longer that allowed by law here) and written a fucking ticket.
After two nights in the system, including one night on a floor of a warehouse where a medic told everyone not to let their exposed skin touch the floor for fear of getting the mysterious rash that has been plaguing people there (asbestos and motor oil, apparently,) Jeff finally went before a judge. Well, actually, he didn't. The judge and NLG lawyers were gone, so a cop handed him a ticket with an order to appear in court here in NYC next month and sent him on his way. When Jeff went to collect his belongings, he was told that his camera equipment was being held as evidence.
He has a date with an NLG lawyer this afternoon.
His flight back to Colorado leaves tomorrow.
I'm going down to Central Booking to take photos now... I hear there's a ruckus going on. I also hear that they've been ordered not to arraign anyone else until Bush leaves town.
If I'm not back in a few hours, send a lawyer to get me and tellk Janeane I love her. ;)
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/print?id=123478
GOP Convention Tempts Partisan Trickery
Disappearing Hosts, Shadow Volunteers and Agents Provocateurs at the RNC
By Andrew Chang
Aug. 27, 2004 - The Republican National Convention hasn't started yet, but both opponents and supporters are already engaging in treachery and double-dealing worthy of Spy vs. Spy.
Don Hajicek, a 36-year-old graphic artist from Wyoming, was planning to travel 2,000 miles to New York City to join the anti-GOP protests and stay at an apartment belonging to a sympathetic New Yorker.
But then he learned that the person who had offered him accommodation had tricked him, and the shelter he had been promised was a lie.
When planning his trip, Hajicek found an offer of housing on an Internet bulletin board for would-be protesters, CounterConvention.org.
The host — describing himself as "an architect who specializes in low income housing" — was so accommodating that Hajicek became suspicious. "I'm originally from Chicago, so I didn't just fall off the turnip truck," Hajicek told ABCNEWS.com by telephone.
With a few Google searches, he found a posting by someone with the same Web name as his host on FreeRepublic.com, a conservative discussion forum. The posting suggested giving fake offers of accommodation to anti-Republican protesters, and gave the Web address for the bulletin board Hajicek had consulted. "Anyone interested in providing housing for lice-ridden protesters?," it read.
Another member of the forum apparently took up the suggestion, writing a few minutes later: "Offered space in an existing building. Of course, the building in question is a bar, but they won't know that until they get there. Hope I can make this work."
Hajicek said he thought the scam was "kinda sorta funny," but it also left him angry enough to draw attention to it. He turned to DailyKos.com, a progressive political forum, to warn "others out there who are depending on the kindness of strangers." He said the fake offer had ruined his plans to go to New York, but added "it certainly would have been worse if we'd actually gone there expecting a place to stay."
Both Sides Guilty
Double-dealing isn't limited to one side of the political debate though. For weeks, opponents of the convention have been threatening to stage a "Shadow Protest" — signing up en masse as volunteers and disappearing when they're most needed.
The protest Web site RNCnotwelcome.org contains a "tactics" section with headlines asking "Why not sign up now to volunteer to work for the convention and then miss your shift!" and touting, "Activists infiltrate RNC events".
The Web site contains a caveat: "Listing of tactical resources does not imply an endorsement of said tactics for any or all circumstances. They are here for informational and historical reasons."
But other left-wing sites have posted proud accounts of infiltration. On Indymedia.org, one article headlined "Protesters Get Into Two RNC Events … (So Can You)," was a protester's account of crashing a Republican event.
"After covering the bathroom with our own agit-prop, we cleared the table of their Bush crap and replaced it with our own," the protester wrote.
Republican officials and convention organizers said they were aware of the threats, but are not convinced that they will have much of an impact. "We are extremely happy with the overwhelming response to our call for volunteers," Ethan Davidson of NYC Host Committee 2004 said.
Ruining Their Image
Meanwhile, protesters suspect they might be infiltrated themselves. The Patriot Act, passed in reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, broadened the government's domestic spying powers and some protest organizations believe they are routinely infiltrated.
"Infiltration was understood once we applied for a permit," said Louie Jones, an organizer for Still We Rise Coalition, a group of 35 local community organizations holding a march on the first day of the GOP convention. Jones said he believed infiltrators were mainly there to collect intelligence, and said his organization had nothing to hide.
However, other protesters fear that certain infiltrators might do more than just keep watch. Some may be agents provocateurs — double agents that will incite violence and ruin the prostesters' public image.
Protesters say the spectacle of riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and later, during the World Trade Organization talks in Seattle in 1999, distracted the public from any calls for change.
"Since Seattle, every protest in the U.S. has been marred by this image of broken Starbucks windows," said Angela Coppola of No RNC Clearinghouse, a protest organization.
Trend Apparent?
After Hajicek posted his warning on DailyKos.com, one respondent said, "This sort of sabotage isn't new." The respondent recounted signing up for a locally-organized screening of the anti-Fox News film Outfoxed in Washington, D.C. "When I arrived, there was a crowd of people on the sidewalk and the address didn't exist."
Some discussion members expressed fears that a coordinated effort was under way to disrupt the protesters.
Mark Libkuman, a developer at CounterConvention.org, says the site's organizers have removed 30 to 40 listings they suspected were fake offers for accommodation in New York. "Some were very witty," he said, "but they didn't do much for the usefulness of our site."
The site has since instituted a registration process that deters would-be pranksters, and Libkuman and his colleagues screen the listings and spot most of the fake ones right away, he said. He said the listing that snared Hajicek was the only one he is aware of that stayed on the site and caused disruption.
On the other hand, members of the FreeRepublic.com discussion board discovered Hajicek's frustrated trip to New York and were buoyed by the account. One applauded the hoaxer: "If you did this on purpose, this is truly 'Hall of Fame' material. Beautiful!"
A Poorly Conceived Prank
For Hajicek though, taking an early bullet in this secret war hasn't turned out so badly.
After ABCNEWS.com sent an e-mail to Hajicek's purported host asking to speak to him, Hajicek's purported host sent a contrite e-mail to Hajicek to "profusely apologize for any inconvenience."
"It was a poorly conceived bad prank gone way too far," the hoaxer wrote in the e-mail, which Hajicek provided to ABCNEWS.com. The hoaxer did not respond directly to ABCNEWS.com's e-mails. A woman who answered the phone at the number he provided to Hajicek denied any knowledge of the prank.
As a result of his warning, Hajicek says he received dozens of offers of places to stay, and is planning to go to New York after all. He even received some money as a measure of sympathy. He now has a reservation at a hotel off Times Square, just blocks from the Republican Convention.
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