NYT: Denver homeless treated better than DNC protesters

A little R6!8 propaganda from the former paper of record:

Denver has promised to make its nearly 4,000 homeless people comfortable during the Democratic National Convention in August, enlisting private donations for extra hours at local shelters, flat-screen televisions tuned to cable news and bingo games in the evenings.

Such accommodations will not be offered to the dozens of groups planning to protest the convention, who have complained that they are being forced to protest from fenced enclosures — “freedom cages,” they call them — well out of earshot of the convention site.

That's just incorrect, unless the city's lying in its repeated assurances that protesters will be within sight and sound of the Pepsi Center.

“We’ll be like zoo animals,” said Tom Mestnik, a member of The Re-create ’68 Alliance, an umbrella group organizing the protesters. “We’re going to be hundreds of feet away from the delegates. They won’t be able to see us or hear us. It’s really creating Boston and New York all over again.”

And the Times takes his word for it, apparently seeing no need to interview anyone from the city or DNC.

The American Civil Liberties Union helped file a lawsuit on the behalf of more than a dozen groups, arguing that their First Amendment rights are being violated by the restrictions.

Glenn Spagnuolo, a spokesman for The Re-create ’68 Alliance, said the planned site was obscured by news media tents, which will be placed between the protesters’ area and the convention center.

Another unchecked assertion.

The judge hearing the case has tentatively agreed to visit the convention site this month and inspect the distance, Mr. Spagnuolo said.

Mr. Spagnuolo said the groups were happy that the homeless would be well treated. “But we’d just like to be treated well, too,” he said.

(Warning: blogger cliche): Quick, somebody call the waaahmbulance!