Really, they do.
McCain's speech is hours away and things are already getting tense downtown. Coast Guard boats with machine guns are cruising up and down the river. Clusters of cops, some in riot gear, are everywhere and we're a mile from the RNC. Traffic is totally erratic. A posse of protesters gathered on the South side of the river and had people heading towards the Capitol, over the Wabasha St. bridge, in staggered squads of 8-10. The sky is ominously overcast. Everybody here in the office is restless, at best.
McCain's speech is hours away and things are already getting tense downtown. Coast Guard boats with machine guns are cruising up and down the river. Clusters of cops, some in riot gear, are everywhere and we're a mile from the RNC. Traffic is totally erratic. A posse of protesters gathered on the South side of the river and had people heading towards the Capitol, over the Wabasha St. bridge, in staggered squads of 8-10. The sky is ominously overcast. Everybody here in the office is restless, at best.
The news is releasing more and more info on the anarchists. Apparently, they have been watched pretty closely over the last year. I suppose it wasn't that hard, seeing how they have their own web site and MySpace page. Police raided their home base, a banquet hall on Smith Ave., last Friday and confiscated a good amount of bad things. Plans that were, at least, discussed at one point or another included the possibility of kidnapping delegates, blockading bridges, using liquid sprayers filled with urine or chemicals on police and throwing marbles to trip police and their horses. But they do provide childcare to visiting anti-authoritarians who are coming to town. How weird is that?!
You can follow some of their actual chatter here, here and here on Twitter.
You can follow some of their actual chatter here, here and here on Twitter.
That IS scary!! I didn't really know about any of this. Other than a group of hoodlums was causing problems. Hadn't heard about the urine spraying or kidnapping (!).
ReplyDeleteThey're honest-to-Pete anarchists who planned real harm. I understand that their political philosophy is to reject government, and they can believe and say whatever they want, but when you hurt people, even just plan to hurt people, it becomes something other than a philosophy.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.twincities.com/ci_10344356?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.com
Did you read any of the Twitter posts? Those are real. Go back a few days and you'll find things like, "Cops are searching backpacks at 7th & Kellogg for gas masks - Hide them!"
ReplyDeleteMost of the "Anarchists" that I knew in High School would have been the first ones executed if true Anarchy was declared. There seems to be no recognition on the part of "Anarchists" that if their goals are achieved, it lasts about 24 hours. By the time the sun rises and sets on Anarchy, a Dictator has emerged. The greater the Anarchy and lawlessness, the more ruthless the dictatorship. It goes beyond and eye for an eye and becomes a Family for an eye. And where were the Anarchists during the DNC?
ReplyDeleteI wondered that as well. Apparently they were there, but they seem less organized than the groups here. Google DNCdisruption08and ReCreate68. I don't think they disrupted much in Denver though.
ReplyDeleteProbably because the air was too thin. You just can't shout "What do we want?!?! (fill in the conservative issue of the day) When do we want it?!?! (throw in some random time frame between now and eternity) when your lungs are fighting for the precious little O2.
ReplyDeleteAhhh. Good cardiovascular health should be important to everyone.
ReplyDeletePlus, the anarchists might have lessened the intimidation factor if they had to stop throwing their urine bombs to suck on an inhaler.