Third of arrested DNC protesters will go to trial

The Rocky's Berny Morson:

Manuca Salazar came to downtown Denver to protest the war in Iraq on the first day of the Democratic National Convention.

The protest ended Aug. 25 with Salazar in police custody for 10 hours. The 22-year-old Denver child-care worker is charged with, among other things, "throwing stones or missiles."

She denies it and says she didn't see anyone else throwing rocks, either.

"I wasn't violent at all," Salazar said.

Salazar is among more than one-third of the demonstrators arrested during the convention who are expected to fight the charges against them.

Of 154 people arrested, 29 have pleaded not guilty and are demanding jury trials, said Brian Vicente of the People's Law Project, which is lining up defense attorneys for those arrested. Vicente said he expects another 30 to demand jury trials when they go before a judge in October.

About 75 have pleaded guilty, said Vince DiCroce, director of prosecutions for the city attorneys office. . . .

Anatomy of repression:

Frank Anello, of Denver, said police grabbed him near the Auraria campus Aug. 24, the day before the convention began.

Anello, his pregnant wife and 3-year-old child were downtown to protest the war in Iraq.

He said the protest was already over, and Anello's wife was using a porta-potty when a Humvee full of police in riot gear arrived. He said he was arrested after refusing to give his name or let officers search his backpack.

Anello said his face was covered at the time. He had covered it during the protest because he didn't want police to identify him.

But, he said, police also had their faces covered.

Fair is fair. Sauce for the goose. A rolling stone gathers no moss.

The News has mugshots, too:


It's a bad hair extravaganza! (The twit with "VIRTUE" tattooed around his neck, incidentally, was charged with giving false information.)

Most of the 128 miscreants pictured were charged with interference with a police officer and obstructing a street, presumably for the failed first-day-of-the-DNC riot; many of those were also cited for "throwing missiles." Well over half were from out of state [update: see Update II]. The oldest person arrested was the holy man pictured upper left--77. The person from farthest away was--well, that's enough. No Spagz. No Benji.

More: Over at the People's Press Collective, the world's most hygenic dictator (he claims), El Presidente, notes that one DNC carbon-offset program actually netted a profit of $18.34 while reducing (theoretical) carbon emissions by almost one ton.

Update: Commenter Laurie did a statistical breakdown of the arrestees:

72% were males 28% were females

ages 18-24 comprised 70% of those arrested

25-35 years- 23%

36+ - 7%

Although Recreate68 promised there would be "people of color" participating in the actions, only 7% of those arrested were Black and 6% were Hispanic. 87% were White.

42% were from 25 other states and DC while 58% were from Colorado.

The biggest representation of other states were from Washington, 6 arrested, Missouri, 5 and Kansas, 5.

While most were charged with obstruction of a police officer (during the performance of his duties), obstruction of traffic and trespass, a few were charged with more serious crimes. Three men, ages 19, 20 and 34 were charged with asssault. The 34 year old man, Richard Ellis of Boulder, was also charged with property damage.

Three young men, ages 18, 19 and unlisted, were foolish enough to have marijuana in their possession while committing acts of civil disobedience. Doh!

Miscellaneous: Three men wore collars indicating they were clergy. Three listed themselves as transients [probably not the same three--ed.] and a total of 5 had no information listed on their residence. There was one "John Doe".

Already nostalgic

Remember "Won't You Please Come to Denver"? No? Then it is my sad duty to remind you.

Doco dump #3

More DNC junk:


Plays Hail to the Chief: I didn't buy two!

And the people selling the horrid things, who appeared to have been driven mad by Obama winning the nomination:


His hat's almost as cool as Ward Churchill's.



Almost. (Mr. B.)






So 2006.



Laugh if you want, but I bet nobody's ever written a whole newspaper about YOU.


Since it's Abu-Jamal, though, they actually get circulation by featuring the Jonas Brothers every week.



Losers.

And finally, not one but two American flags spared from the infamous flag massacree at Invesco Field:


Confederate soldier (toy) included for scale and comparable un-Americanism.

Feces, urine bottles found stockpiled during DNC

Well whaddaya know. The Post:

Among items police said they seized during the Democratic National Convention were bags of human waste stockpiled in LoDo and an estimated 200 bottles of urine in a vacant house, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's office revealed Thursday. . . .

The mayor said that a stockpile of pipe was found close to police headquarters and a bag of quick-connect brass fittings for propane bottles and 6- to 8-foot heavy-duty chain also was seized. PVC pipe was found in an alley in Lower Downtown. Nails and screws were found scattered in LoDo streets. In another incident, two propane tanks were found chained to a fence in a LoDo parking lot.

The city also found material for a "sleeping dragon," which protesters form by using PVC pipe and chains to link themselves together, the mayor said.

On Aug. 24, police found "multiple bags of feces," the mayor's statement said. And on Aug. 26, a vacant house containing an estimated 200 bottles of urine was found.

"We had a lot of eyes and ears looking for this stuff, and they knew what to look for," said Sue Cobb, the mayor's spokeswoman.

Return of the homeless!

In an unedited guest commentary in the Rocky, professor and self-conscious writer-guy Stephane Dunn evokes Denver after the convention:

The city street lights, horse drawn carriages, bicyclers, and outside patio diners still looked pretty picturesque but among all that, a part of Denver's real life became more visible too.

Uh-oh: "real life." He's going to show off his caring.

Here and there, a guy curled up in a doorway asleep, a hippie generation looking girl hawked papers for dollars, a youngish, dread-locked guy politely asked for leftovers [sic] from passing people, and a homeless woman trotted along with her dog. The dog had been homeless too, she said, and they adopted each other.

Uck. Dunn's free to sentimentalize the homeless all he likes, of course, but then he lies, sort of:

That Friday night [after the convention], the homeless folk seemed to come into sharper focus though I knew they'd never been gone; it was reminiscent of LA back in 1996 when the downtown area had been expertly purged of major signs of its homeless folk.

A clunky paragraph that tries to have it both ways, but what Dunn seems to be saying at the end is that Denver did indeed "purge" its homeless. In fact, while there may have been an early plan to do a bum roundup, it never came off amid the free zoo passes and movie tickets, the flat-screen TVs and hair-stylings.

In any case, The D-blog, who was all over town before, during and after the convention, saw tons of bums. Signholders. Bedroll carriers. Scraggly beardites. Change-cadgers of all shapes and sizes. They lined up for noon meal at churches while protests shouted past, shuffled along the Sixteenth Street Mall as CodePinkers acted out, and cut bemusedly through the Rage March to find a place to pass out along the river.

Actually, the only place I didn't see bums was at the community "feeds" put on by Recreate-68. Just white kids. And lots and lots of wasted food. Dunn:

After all the pomp and skin tingling moments at the convention-Michelle Obama's speech, Hilary's and Bill Clinton's grand slams, and the historic Thursday night that gave us Stevie Wonder, fireworks, and of course Barack Obama, I will remember something just as powerful that came in the quiet of a Saturday morning.

What could possibly be as powerful (not to mention skin tingling) as Stevie Wonder and fireworks (and of course Barack Obama)? Why, it could only be a noble bum:

She sat on the bench outside the hotel munching on a bag of chips. It was five thirty in the morning and the woman was barring the cool morning air with a thin blue blanket.

I was struck by the lively eyes looking directly across towards the shuttle where I sat. I saw a security guy being beckoned by a hotel attendant then trek towards the woman on the bench.

She sat on munching and looked up pleasantly when the guy approached and spoke. I couldn't hear, but I knew what he was saying. She got up quietly, almost leisurely, gathering the thin blanket around her like a sarong and walked off.

The shuttle began to pull off and I kept looking back. Sure enough, she appeared once more heading for the same spot but the guard came back too.

She smiled, pulled the blanket closer to her skinny body, and regally sauntered away I knew for the last time that morning. I knew too she'd probably return to that bench another night.

Of all the magnificent scenes in the mile high city, that's one I won't forget. That woman lives in cities all across America, including my own.

Magnificent. The Colorado Voices piece immediately above Dunn's is equally magnificent: "In celebration of colonoscopies."

Rage march

Caught the aprés-Rage Against the Machine march at 15th and Arapahoe, the marchers actually having marched from the Denver Coliseum, four miles away. It was by far the biggest protest yet, which isn't saying much. There may have been 4000 people all told:





Everything For Everyone.




Somehow I spotted Glenn Spagnuolo (center):



The Iraq Vets Against the War were a larger presence in this march than in any before:



I have no problem with vets protesting the war. (Big of me, ain't it?) But consider this man:



Didn't catch his name if he said it, but he claimed that he and his squad sent Iraqi soldiers out on patrol after disabling their AK-47s. Guess who he blamed for this criminal act. That's right: Chimpleron X-7 from the planet Halliburton. And this evil punk had the balls to feel sorry for himself: "No amount of therapy will change the fact that I may have killed men I don't even know."



Radical chic.

Nobody seemed to know where the march was headed, except that it wasn't to the Freedom Cage.


Ready for a baton-twirling exhibition.



This little barbarian spent the time standing in line (there was a lot of that as the alleged army vets made bullhorn speeches that very few could hear) taunting the cops:



He had a sticker that said "Thank You," and kept asking cops to take it while calling them "nice little fascists" and such.

The cops, by the way, continue to be polite as all get out. Much less smiley, though.





Old family name.
A few chants:

There ain't no riot here, take off that silly gear.

Exxon, Mobile, BP, Shell.
Bush and Cheney go to hell.

In the streets and off the sidewalks.

No cops, no KKK
No fascist USA.

Cops out now.

1,2,3,4, we don't want your racist war
5,6,7,8, organize to smash the state.

The Dem party is scared shitless by now.


These two ladies held an impromptu die-in.



Detail.



No battle.

But the vets did get a meeting with Obama aides to discuss their three-point plan, which I think is immediate withdrawal, reparations to Iraqis, and care for vets.

As the protest ended, Ron Kovic took center stage again:


There was hugging and tears.

And people dispersed.

Update: the Rocky's account; the Post's. Neither mentions the allegedly murderous vet (Bush's fault!).

Update II: El Marko was up in Golden checking out Arab TV network Al Jazeera's presence and the locals' reaction (not very friendly).

Obama to give acceptance speech from replica of Greek temple

Really. A teeny-tiny replica of a Greek temple:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's big speech on Thursday night will be delivered from an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek
temple.

The stage, similar to structures used for rock concerts, has been set up at the 50-yard-line, the midpoint of Invesco Field, the stadium where the Denver Broncos' National Football League team plays.

Some 80,000 supporters will see Obama apear from between plywood columns painted off-white, reminiscent of Washington's Capitol building or even the White House, to accept the party's nomination for president.

(via Tim Blair)

Police arrest protester for carrying bottle--of feces

He was with--urk--Food Not Bombs. The Post:

A 22-year-old Massachusetts man was arrested Monday after police saw him carrying a bottle filled with feces, according to a police report.

Zachary Patrick Grey, a University of Massachusetts student from Marion, Mass., was arrested at 1:40 p.m. Monday after a foot chase, according to a Denver County Court complaint. . . .

A police officer was in the process of arresting someone in the 1600 block of Champa Street on Monday afternoon when a police lieutenant spotted Grey holding a bottle of feces, the police report says.

Grey was "getting ready to throw the bottle at officers," the report says.

The lieutenant tried to grab the suspect, who ran away, the report said. While he was running, Grey dropped the bottle, police said.

Grey was charged with interference, disturbing the peace and possession of "irritants" in public.

An irritant is something that "smells bad," said Saunier.

A bottle of feces probably qualifies.

According to CBS 3 of Springfield, Mass., Grey belongs to a group called Pioneer Valley Food Not Bombs.

The TV station quoted him as saying that he and others were peacefully demonstrating with signs against a two-party system.

He told the station he was surrounded and violently arrested by 20 bike cops who stretched his shirt.

Pigs!

"I did not deserve to be arrested because I'm here to organize community and take part in beautiful new world," he was quoted as saying.

A beautiful new feces-filled world.

Saunier said police believe they saw people throwing bottles of urine and feces from a garage during Monday night's confrontation at Civic Center. None were arrested.

None was arrested. Even in stories about feces throwers it pays to mind your grammar.

Mainly protests

First was the Parade of Puppets and Props:


Rosa Parks.



Bullet train. (Picture by "Mr. B.")



Recreate the Fairness Doctrine!



Time for your prostate exam! (Mr. B.)



Codepinkers, oddly, marched with the R68ers' puppets. (Mr. B.)



I don't get it.



It's "Boobs," you illiterate, not "Books." (Mr. B.)

Then there were the Phelpsian homo-haters:






This guy [Update 9/9/08: Carlo Garcia] did something near them and the cops pounced:


"Are you getting this?"



The horse had no comment.



Horse's ass: Amazingly (since the crowd was chanting "let him go!") the cops took the guy away.


Please don't break my crown: Next it was a CodePinker's turn to get herself arrested. Don't know why, don't care. [Update 9/9/08: lots of other people did, didn't they? Funny, I still don't.]


A cop poked his baton at Larry Hales (above, without touching him, just for the record) a couple of seconds before I took this shot. Hales had walked into the street after they'd told everyone to stay back while they made the arrests.

Of course, there was the usual infantile chanting. Whose streets? Our streets!

Spagz, outraged by it all (believe it or not!).

A little later came the Iraq Vets Against the War:

They pretended to be "clearing" the town.

The Rocky and Post put up a fight (I saw Mike Littwin firing from a window until he was vaporized by a grenade), but were quickly neutralized.

A few more miscellaneous (I spelled that right first go) shots:

(Mr. B.)

On a truck. (Mr. B.)

Weiser Bud: on a street line. (Mr. B.)

Bike with plywood frame. (Mr. B.)

Compulsive Shoppers Against the War. (Mr. B.)

Hats: "Welcome, police."

What time is it?

Mom, daughter and evil little doll that comes to life and stabs you in the ankles until you go down so it can get at your eyes.

And finally, fresh from his attempted mob-incitement against Michelle Malkin, Alex Jones and His Troofers!


Actually he wasn't fresh at all.

Gotta admit, though, the Troofers are a good-lookin' bunch:

Cute, cute, cute.