Posted on 11/07/2004 4:58:05 AM PST by Ginifer
Protesters who gather each year to call for the closing of a military school at Fort Benning will be surrounded by temporary fences this year, local police decided.
The temporary fence will be set up in reaction to a recent federal court ruling that bars the practice of forcing SOA Watch protesters to pass through metal detectors.
The group gathers every November to protest the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, formerly called the School of the Americas. It's a training academy for Latin American soldiers.
Protesters allege the school teaches Latin American soldiers to violate the human rights of poor people in their home countries. About 10,000 people are expected at this year's protest the weekend of Nov. 20-21.
Columbus Police Maj. Julius Graham said the 8-foot-high chain-link fence will stretch a half mile along the road where the SOA Watch will march.
"The barricades we've had in past years simply weren't able to control access as we would have liked," he said.
The Rev. Roy Bourgeois, head of SOA Watch, called the fence a "needless eyesore" and said it was intended to intimidate.
"They just want to throw us another curveball," Bourgeois said.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled last month that Columbus police could not search protesters or use metal detectors. In a sharply worded decision, judges wrote that fear of a terrorist attack is not sufficient reason for authorities to search people at a protest, saying Sept. 11 "cannot be the day liberty perished."
Police Chief Ricky Boren told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer that police had to find new security options because they couldn't search each protester.
"Since we're no longer wanding the protesters, we've been forced to change our manpower assessment," Boren said. "Law enforcement has to be ready for anything."
I wonder who these idiots would call in case their town were attacked? Their drug dealer, to calm their nerves... or the US Military. Seems odd that the Super Rich Limousine Liberals all have their own military/armed bodyguards, but they don't want us to have a gun or a standing army....
You would think that the reason for the protest would have more than a single sentence explaining the reasons people are protesting. Instead of the reality and reason, we get to read about how the protestors themselves are corraled to prevent chaos.
I guess the protestors are more important then the message they are trying to convey. Typical bass ackwards MSM reporting.
I swear, if the US actually was guilty of half the bad things that the left is convinced that it is, these protesters would be mown down in their tracks. I guess some people can't see the blindingly obvious.
If the military were that guilty, they wouldn't waste money on another chain link fence when we have such a good one already built in Gitmo.
Ping
Two local "Elderly Nuns for Che" make this pilgrimage to Ft. Benning (seemingly) every year. And every year the local 'rat rag prints a big front page story about them.
Go to a professional sporting event. Everyone is run through metal detectors now.
You know, having been assigned and instructed there, the sad irony is that the SOA was/is the first time most of these Officers and NCOs from south of the border receive instruction on military ethics, law of land warfare and respect for civilians. These protesters are just more aging hippie types with a socialist agenda.
bump!
Smoke Bomb Hill bump.
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