Posted on 07/26/2004 10:36:56 PM PDT by CaptIsaacDavis
Where Have You Gone James Otis?
July 26, 2004 © New Republican Archive
Boston – The Democratic National Convention started today with most local Bostonians fleeing for the hills and protesters driven away by the palace guard (Secret Service). Traffic on the roads and in the subways was so light today that it was like a normal Sunday evening, only this wasn’t Sunday, and it was anything but normal. The local traffic was so light, nearly a 70% drop from the norm we are told, that police are reported on the local airwaves to be planning to scale down their presence for Tuesday. The terror of government predicting all hell breaking lose, and imposing restrictions on movement that have come close to shutting down one of the world’s largest cities has had its effects. Come to think of it – the economic impact is close to what a terror attack might have cost the city. Businesses in the city are losing a fortune (during one of the busy summer tourist weeks) that Mayor Menino will no doubt end up paying for come the next mayoral election (upbeat revenue forecasts offered by the city to justify everyone paying a de facto tax to host the partying Dems are now proven to have been a sick joke).
With many local businesses shut down or grasping for any business at all, delegates tended to drift away from the Fleet Center towards downtown. The center of protest action and delegate feasting was shifted a number of blocks away from the police cordon, towards the Common, Government Center and Quincy Market. So, too, were the mobs of press junkies ignoring the Fleet Center to hang out at Quincy Market to remark at the sight of bloated gas-bag anchors and other media whores filling time on the airwaves with the sort of meaningless drivel that passes for "news" and "political commentary" these days. A rather pathetic looking stand for public speeches inside the "speech zone" remained unused for most of the day, while a local cop used it as a spot to just sit and take a break from it all. Where have you gone James Otis? (if you don’t know who James Otis is, it is time to pick up a history book about our revolution).
News coverage claimed that protests were light, but this only revealed their utter ignorance and isolation from events. There were more protesters evident today than there were on Sunday, but they were definitely more spread out across the city, from the park and Downtown Crossing all the way to Quincy Market. The big Lefty rumble led by ANSWER had only attracted some 500 participants (at best) on Sunday, and it was very easy to find some of the same motley mob of multi-cultural "revolutionists" (one punk crowed to a local TV reporter) spread out in mini-protests from the Common down to the Fleet Center (openly violating the local rules imposed for the speech zone). It definitely looked today like the local police were bailing on enforcing the planned "zone." This is the "unintended consequence" of the ridiculous and disgusting "speech zone" policy. Few want to gather in "Camp Ashcroft-Kerry," except to take photos and stare in bewilderment that some pathetic bureaucrat actually thought it would suffice. He obviously never thought through that not only would the protesters just ignore it, but so, too, would the local police start relaxing enforcement concerning signs and protest activity along restaurant row and the narrow sidewalk along the north side of the Fleet Center, all because the "zone" idea was such a disgrace.
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Thanks, interesting.
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Apparently not many up this late, you think?
Actually, I'm totally perplexed at why a fascinating story for real conservatives (forced into the speech zone pen here in Boston, as anti-abortion protesters get permits pulled, while the leftists roam the streets first with permission by a judge and then unrestricted by local cops) is going totally unreported on the "conservative" news channels (even Coulter's non-column was more of a flack attack than a commentary about LIBERTY). Now here, the moderator is pulling the post, while mere chatter fills up the "top" lists.
It's all about control. Perhaps Conservatives want to cage any protestors in New York as well, and so are keeping silent. Kind of a "we won't complain about our people who want to protest getting caged in Boston, and you don't complain about your people who want to protest, getting caged in New York.
I think the whole concept of the cage is disgusting and very un-American, but I seem to be in the minority in that belief. I expect this (caging protestors) to become the norm, since the police, judges, and officials (elected or not), seem very happy with this.
The good news is that most judges and most police are NOT happy with this. As you can find at
http://www.newrepublicanarchive.com/pages/4/index.htm
the judge who signed off was mad as hell about it, but was compelled to do so by an AUSDA who probably used the usual "orders" from on high (need to know, etc.).
Check out my latest update of pictures from Boston. On-site, the entire zone concept has broken down. There are protesters and leafleters all around the Fleet Center now -- cops are not enforcing it.
The core issue in my mind is that many conservatives have "let go" of some of their principles in the wake of victory over the Soviet empire. The real battle has been, since the Civil War (when Marx was a journalist for a New York paper and the world's first communist and socialist parties sprouted in 1863), with SOCIALISM. The Soviet experience was just one phase of a centuries old struggle, which is, unfortunately, beginning to evolve into one of conservatives who value liberty against socialist and social democratic factions in BOTH parties.
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