Party National Conventions

In response to the article here.

Holding pens for protesters and “free speech zones” far away from the national convention are not consistent with the values of the democracy we’re trying to preserve. Peaceful protesters and persons with messages inconsistent with the event should not be removed from the scene. I find it absurd that the judiciary routinely strikes down campaign reform as infringing on the “free speech rights” of contributors; and yet, when we see people trying to exercise the actual rights to speech and assembly, we seem to collectively think infringing on their rights is fine.

I’m sympathetic to the needs of host cities to maintain order. Protests exhibiting the violence of the late 1960s, in so far as they were instigated by the protesters not the police, are not acceptable. Police should show restraint when performing crowd control; as long as speech is peaceful it should be allowed. When protesters instigate violence (against persons or property) they should be removed and charged with the appropriate misdemeanors or felonies.

I find it embarrassing that the Democratic Party in particular is resorting to these police-state tactics, and I certainly won’t send them any contributions until they desist from and denounce these types of crowd control. A pox on your house! It’s emblematic of the desire of politicians of both parties to avoid any real debate of the issues; they can’t handle protesters because they’re unprepared to answer their concerns, and they won’t debate any other legitimate Presidential candidates because they’re afraid “third party” candidates will make it clear that there are significant similarities between the candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties.

In addition – the press should eschew their complicity in the whole affair by making a point of reporting on the protest area conditions, and by giving voice to the protesters, thus negating the effectiveness of the attempted exile. If you tune in over the next few weeks to the political conventions, please make a point of also discovering coverage of the protests; consider http://www.democracynow.org or http://www.indymedia.org as sources.