Good Op-ed from the American Conservative

[jamiroguy1]

December 15, 2003 issue

Copyright © 2003 The American Conservative

“Free-Speech Zone" (Click Here for full article)

The administration quarantines dissent.

By James Bovard

On Dec. 6, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft informed the Senate Judiciary Committee, “To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty … your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and … give ammunition to America’s enemies.†Some commentators feared that Ashcroft’s statement, which was vetted beforehand by top lawyers at the Justice Department, signaled that this White House would take a far more hostile view towards opponents than did recent presidents. And indeed, some Bush administration policies indicate that Ashcroft’s comment was not a mere throwaway line.

When Bush travels around the United States, the Secret Service visits the location ahead of time and orders local police to set up “free speech zones†or “protest zones†where people opposed to Bush policies (and sometimes sign-carrying supporters) are quarantined. These zones routinely succeed in keeping protesters out of presidential sight and outside the view of media covering the event.

When Bush came to the Pittsburgh area on Labor Day 2002, 65-year-old retired steel worker Bill Neel was there to greet him with a sign proclaiming, “The Bush family must surely love the poor, they made so many of us.†The local police, at the Secret Service’s behest, set up a “designated free-speech zone†on a baseball field surrounded by a chain-link fence a third of a mile from the location of Bush’s speech. The police cleared the path of the motorcade of all critical signs, though folks with pro-Bush signs were permitted to line the president’s path. Neel refused to go to the designated area and was arrested for disorderly conduct; the police also confiscated his sign. Neel later commented, “As far as I’m concerned, the whole country is a free speech zone. If the Bush administration has its way, anyone who criticizes them will be out of sight and out of mind.â€

(Link to Full Article)

[pattbateman]

the clinton administration did it.

they do it at KKK

they do it all the time

whats the deal. its obviously for safety. sorry some dude over a year ago didnt get on tv????get some better shit jami

[jamiroguy1]

Originally posted by pattbateman

the clinton administration did it.

they do it at KKK

they do it all the time

whats the deal. its obviously for safety. sorry some dude over a year ago didnt get on tv????get some better shit jami

For safety? Right. Protesters aren't a security threat... they're a political threat.

[pattbateman]

sorry to say but these crazy ass protesters are not peaceful. they may advocate peace but to get their "peace" point across they use violence if you do not believe me then i will post evidence.

i take you for a somewhat intelligent person and i dont feel like lookin up evidence.

fuck it here the first one i found on a google search 'peaceful protest turns violent'

kinda funny how libs preach peace but yet turn into violent people when they are not getting their way

i know its not all protesters but they that do hurt you image

CBS) A protest march of at least 1,500 demonstrators against war in Iraq turned violent Sunday in downtown Brussels when dozens of youths clashed with police and attacked American-owned businesses.

Masked, stone-throwing youths broke windows at a McDonald's fast food restaurant and a Marriot hotel, as well as a local temporary employment agency. Only minor damage was done, however, as riot police moved in, backed by water canons. No tear gas was used.

Twenty-nine protesters were arrested. Police said many of them were charged with damaging private property and for rioting.

The rioting began when up to 100 youths, many of them of Arab origin, broke away from the main body of the anti-war protesters who were marching through the city center.

They hurled stones at businesses and police, who responded with baton charges. Photographers and TV camera operators were also targeted by the rioters.

Police helicopters were monitoring the demonstration and water-canon trucks were on standby as officers tried to contain the violence.

Police said 1,500 protesters comprising pro-Palestinian and anti-capitalist groups joined the demonstration led by a banner reading "Stop USA." March organizers said some 5,000 people took part.

"We are against President Bush's policies in Afghanistan and Iraq," said Han Soete, a march organizer. "We don't want another war."

They chanted slogans against the policies of U.S. President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Meahwhile, Organizers of the massive march which filled the streets of Florence on Saturday and which had prompted fears for the city's art heritage have called for anti-war rallies in cities across Europe Feb. 15.

"We're hoping for a total turnout of 10 million people" for the appointment, said Claudio Jampaglia, a spokesman for the European Social Forum said Sunday.

The group organized Saturday's march, whose peaceful, carnival-like mood defied critics, including Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who had expressed worries about possible violence.

Jampaglia said it remained to be worked out just which cities would host the Feb. 15 rallies to protest the U.S. government's position on Iraq.

Organizers boasted that nearly 1 million people turned out for Saturday's demonstration against any U.S. attack on Iraq and against the drawbacks of economic globalization. Police put the number at half that.

In the days leading up to the march, thousands of young people converged on Florence to hold discussions on peace and development.

Fearing violence like that which devastated much of Genoa last year during the G-8 summit, many merchants boarded up shop windows, banks covered over automatic teller machines and art officials worried about how to protect the city's Renaissance treasures.

On Sunday, as thousands of participants headed home, art officials expressed relief that Florence's Renaissance heritage had escaped unscathed.

"I'm very happy that the outcome was so good," said Florence's museum superintendent Antonio Paolucci. "But I reiterate that Florence doesn't lend itself to demonstrations of this kind -- all the danger was there."

Demonstrators came from Greece, Spain, Britain, Denmark and other countries to join Italians in the protest, which was also aimed against the corporate interests of multinationals at what protesters say is the expense of the poor and the environment.

[pattbateman]

........and another.......

German police turned water cannons on school students outside the US consulate today during their first clashes with demonstrators protesting against the war in Iraq.

Violence erupted when some protesters broke off from a peaceful march of about 20,000 pupils in Hamburg and headed to the US consulate, where police said Palestinians armed with wooden sticks joined them and began attacking police securing the building.

There was no immediate information on injuries or arrests.

Police turned water cannons on the demonstrators to disperse them, Schoepflin said.

Eyewitnesses said that protesters threw bottles at police, who responded with billy clubs before calling in the water cannons.

School students have been among the most active anti-war protesters in Germany, often skipping class to take to the streets.

Germans have staged protests against the Iraq nearly every day since the conflict began.

[pattbateman]

.....in the us too......i can go forever...have i made my point????

(San Francisco, February 30) Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators crowded the streets of San Francisco today to protest a possible war with Iraq. Protesters marched through the streets angrily confronting police officers, smashing windows, and blocking trafic. But there is concern among organizers tonight that the actions of a few individuals may overshadow the overall spirit of the event.

At about 3:00 in the afternoon, a few dozen protesters broke off from the main demonstration and walked back up Market Street. They were observed passing by a number of windows, which remained intact. They smiled and waved at police as they passed by. One of the protesters was carrying a baby, who was reportedly very cute and played peek-a-boo with passersby. Among the protesters was a friendly dog that let people pet it. Demonstrators were overheard singing songs such as "Give Peace a Chance," and "Where Have all the Flowers Gone." Some were seen sharing food with each other. According to police, their chants included a dismaying lack of obscene words.

Police lieutenant Bustin Hedz commented, "It's a darn shame when a violent protest like this turns peaceful. Most of the people that came today came expecting to participate in a violent demonstration. Then you've got a bunch of guys like these (peaceful protesters)."

Asked whether the actions of a few individuals had ruined the demonstration, organizer Madat T. System replied, "I don't think so. I think people understand that, overall, this was a very violent demonstration. A lot of people came here to smash windows and scuffle with cops, and that's what we did. It is unfortunate that the actions of a very few individuals are going to receive more attention than they really deserve. Whenever a few people get peaceful, the press always blows it way out of proportion."

System refused to condemn the peaceful protesters, saying, "I respect their right to express themselves however they choose. It's just too bad, because now this whole thing is going to be labeled as a peaceful demonstration."

[pattbateman]

but this one is so good and its about france!!!

Posted: March 25, 2003

1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Several young Jews were beaten by Arabs during a massive anti-war demonstration in Paris, the lastest attack in a wave of anti-Semitic violence in France over the past two years.

A mob of assailants beat two members of the Hashomer Hatzair youth organization who were standing on the sidelines of the protest Saturday, and two others were treated for bruises at a hospital, according to the Associated Press.

Among the estimated 90,000 people who turned out for the demonstration were tens of thousands of "enraged" Arabs, reported Nidra Poller, a Paris author who was at the event.

Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe spoke out against the attacks yesterday in a statement.

"In the name of Parisians, I want to condemn, as strongly as possible, these unacceptable acts," he said. "In Paris, everyone must be respected in dignity, no matter what their culture, identity or spiritual faith."

The wave of attacks in France against Jewish schools, temples and cemeteries has coincided with the Intifada, or uprising in the Holy Land, which began in September 2000. France has Western Europe's largest Jewish community and one of the continent's biggest Muslim populations. Jewish leaders have expressed fear that the war on Iraq would increase tensions.

Intifada and Jihad: Assault on Jews

The demonstration march Saturday began at the Place de la Republique, marked by France's symbol of liberty, the statue of Marianne.

Poller said that after a peaceful group went by, which included parents and children, the tone changed to shouts, screams, accusations and threats from contingents wearing keffiyehs and Hamas scarves.

A booming sound truck bore portraits of imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan. Huge Palestinian flags snapping in the breeze were accompanied by displays of support for the Intifada and jihad. Algerian, Moroccan, Iraqi and Hezbollah flags also appeared, she said.

American flags had a Nazi swastika in place of the star-spangled field of blue.

The attack began, according to a report by the French news agency Digipresse, when a group carrying sticks – their faces covered with keffiyehs – ran up from the rear of a contingent, shouting "there are Jews over there."

Three Digipresse journalists who filmed the incident followed the attackers.

They saw a 14-year-old Jewish boy thrown to the ground, beaten and finally rescued. The youth had come with two friends to watch the protest.

At the next corner, the gang turned into rue Saint-Claude and headed for the Centre Bernard Lazare, where the Hashomer Hazair youngsters meet on Saturday afternoons.

The Quran says...

As their numbers began to swell, the assailants massed in front of the door of the Jewish center, shouting insults and injuring two more Jewish boys.

Two young women participating in the demonstration attempted in vain to stop the violence, said Poller. A middle-aged woman who tried to help was knocked over, and another who tried to intervene was beaten off.

A demonstrator with a Palestinian flag flying from his shoulders as a cape shouted through a megaphone "We Muslims, we Arabs, can walk with our heads high."

Pointing to the Jews, he said, "They have to hide. The Quran says 'what was inflicted upon you, you may inflict … .'"

The incident, according to Digipresse, occurred during the passage of a contingent from the group Coordination d'appels pour une paix juste au Proche-Orient [For a Just Peace in the Middle East], or CAPJPO. Some older members of the group managed to hold back the crowd until law enforcement arrived, but they told journalists that the boys had been "provoked" by members of the Jewish group, who attacked two girls.

Hashomer Hazair monitors denied any provocation and insisted that the incident started when three of their members were insulted and attacked.

The Digipresse journalists said in their report that they not only were shocked by the violence against the Jewish kids but also by the threat of violence against themselves if they continued filming.

Their video report, however, was rejected by news directors of France2 and France3 television, who said they "didn't have time to treat the subject."

P. Sebag, a clothing manufacturer whose showroom is next door to the Jewish center, witnessed the incident.

One of the Jewish boys was beaten right in front of his shop window, he told Poller. His call to the police likely averted a far greater disaster, Poller said, because the assailants were trying to break down the door of the center.

Sebag said, according to Poller, he could hardly reconcile himself to the "savagery of the mob and the irresponsibility of a government that allows this rage to develop and flourish."

The clothier told the Paris author how neighborhood merchants organized a defense 20 years ago. But things seemed to quiet down, and it was easy to slip into a comfortable life. And now, he says, "We don't defend ourselves."

Each increment of violence confirms his apprehension.

"I cannot live this way," he said. "I cannot live in a country where a 14-year-old boy is beaten because he is Jewish."

Members of Hashomer Hazair interviewed on Jewish radio corroborated Sebag's version of events and have a video of the attack that enables them to identify the assailants. They've filed an official complaint with the organizers of the demonstration, calling on the violent elements to be excluded from future events.

French TV: Jewish Extremists involved

CAPJPO does not deny involvement in the incident, but calls it "another Sharonian aggression and provocation" that took place Saturday in Paris, and insists its members were the victims.

According to CAPJPO, its contingent was peacefully marching behind a portrait of the American student "Rachel Corrie, deliberately crushed by an Israeli bulldozer," and signs protesting the "American-British aggression in Iraq."

A group of four or five Jewish boys "violently" jostled two young ladies in keffiyehs and shouted racial insults at them, CAPJPO maintained. The women called for help, dozens of young people came, and the assailants ran away. The defenders chased them down a side street where the Jewish youth allegedly met up with about 20 of their friends who were shouting "Israel, Israel."

The Jews, CAPJPO asserted, were carrying baseball bats and iron bars, the "usual equipment of Jewish extremists such as Betar and the Jewish Defense League."

A fight ensued, CAPJPO said, in which one of its members "apparently" grabbed "at least one" iron bar from a Jew.

France3 television described it as a "fight between Jewish extremists from the Betar and pro-Palestinian demonstrators."

CAPJPO's communiqué concluded with an analysis of "Zionist support" for the Iraq war and accused the Jewish community of duplicity, alleging that it secretly backs the extremists and the war but currently adopts a low profile because of the overwhelming anti-war sentiment in France.

False and defamatory reports of aggression are circulating on the Internet and on Jewish radio, the group asserted, and, "They'll get what they deserve."

[jamiroguy1]

Sad you generalize as you do. That explains your views on jews and black people.

[pattbateman]

what are you talking about dude

i am giving you examples of how peaceful protest turn violent

what are fuckin talking about

where are you spinning this from?????

seriously i would love to know?

[pattbateman]

its not my fault they turned violent and people beat up jews

shit im defending the jews

and the blacks where are gettin this from

the other two articles are about people looting american businesses

damn if you do not have an argument then dont post anything dont make yourself look foolish