RNC Student Protest (Sept. 4th)

[pohibaba]

First, they sure as hell know what they're doing - they're standing up for their constitutional rights. Second, the members of RATM are citizens of this country and have every right to protest, encourage a protest, and join in with it. Third, calling people dumb or commie who are not only standing up for their rights, but yours as well, is pretty fucking hypocritical.

RATM was not encouraging a protest, they were inciting a riot; there's a big difference. And he's not calling them commies because they were protesting; they're commies because of their political ideology.

[Tyche]

Commie would be wrong too though, more of anarchist. And yeah, they were inciting a riot. As I said, I don't blame officials at all for not letting them play, and I'd be the first to buy the ticket if they did =/

[Olo401]

Standing up for "my" rights? Please explain that one to me, rioting and breaking into buildings is very very far from standing up for my rights. Neither is them beating on previous members of congress and spraying bleach on a congressman's wife.

No that's called being a big giant 20 pound extreme douchebags.

Protesting is one thing, doing what these jackasses did is completely different, and in my opinion people who do dumb shit like this deserve to get beaten down with firehoses and pepper spray.

The people who did that deserve to be arrested and anything that comes with it. And that's the limit of it - people who are being nonviolent and nondestructive do not need that kind of negative attention, and neither does any protest movement.

Ironically, I wrote a pretty big spiel on the virtues of civil disobedience and ended up erasing it.

[pohibaba]

The violent protesters in the crowd were anarchists, but there's no way that RATM themselves are anarchists. They're nearly as red as you can get.

[Day]

Cmon you guys know you'd fucking incite a riot if you had the power to.

[Tyche]

The violent protesters in the crowd were anarchists, but there's no way that RATM themselves are anarchists. They're nearly as red as you can get.

Well, they claim to be anarchist

[Olo401]

Not necessarily a riot.. I'd go for a civil protest in the spirit of Thoreau, Gandhi or MLK. Violence and acting like a fucking maniac doesn't solve anything.

[pohibaba]

To be fair, pure communism is anarchy, so I guess we're both right?

[6souls]

One of my coworker's sons was at the capitol last night to see RATM and this is what happened. The group putting on the show had a permit to present live music until 7pm. Rage was set to go on @ 6:30pm. The police delayed the band from going on stage until 7 and then told them that they were not allowed to play.

Tonight is the scheduled RATM show. Mpls/StP is really worried that this show will get out of hand because 8 years ago in L.A. there was a riot after a Rage show in a similar political climate. So the Minneap police have flown in L.A. police that were there for riot to help advise them on what to do and to provide an added show of force.

Last friday i was in downtown Minneap for a Gopher football game (college) and after the game i walked back to where i was parked. every two blocks there was a group of police or state patrol. Obviously they were not very organized. If something was to break out, their reaction time would have been low. What would have been better would be to spread them out a bit. My dad, who was with me, commented that with as many officers as we had seen, they could have had at least one person on every corner in the downtown area.

[6souls]

I have new info about the student protest. I joined their Facebook group and Myspace page so I could be informed of anything new going on. This morning they had gotten a tip that their "base of operations" was going to get raided, but nothing happened blah blah blah. They've been working hard to get the message out to local students by handing out new fliers, they went to every high school & college in the immediate twin cities area, that contain this;

The student strike is committed to being a non-violent peaceful protest. Youth Against War and Racism has been granted a permit for our march and rally, and we are in communication with the St. Paul police to ensure a safe event that clearly conveys a hopeful message for change. We wish to create a festive atmosphere that welcomes all youth, parents, teachers and families. We ask that all participants follow the Non-Violence Code:
- Follow the instructions of the Peace Marshalls
- Do not agitate the police
- Respect the property of others
- Follow marked protest route

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
Students have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. This means you have the legal right to peacefully walk out of school to express your political views. Your school officials do not have the right to punish you for walking out any more severely than for any other un-excused absence. Furthermore, your parents can write a note excusing your absence from school due to the walkout.

and offered this personal message to the group;

Like us, you are no doubt alarmed by the police violence and repression of protesters in recent days. Many arrested were engaged in non-violent actions or were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. For instance, Amy Goodman and several other reporters with Democracy Now and other outlets (the right-wing Washington Post included) were illegally corralled and arrested last night. While organizers and supporters of Youth Against War & Racism may disagree with some of the tactics employed by some protesters, the real violence on the streets of St. Paul yesterday was done by the hands of the police. The best response to such police misconduct, and to re-affirm our right to freedom of speech and assembly, is to turn out in even greater numbers in the peaceful protests planned for the coming days.

See you all Thursday!

In Solidarity,
Ty Moore
for Youth Against War & Racism

[Quicklet]

Students have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. This means you have the legal right to peacefully walk out of school to express your political views. Your school officials do not have the right to punish you for walking out any more severely than for any other un-excused absence. Furthermore, your parents can write a note excusing your absence from school due to the walkout.

That sounds like BS lol. Breaking school rules + creating a (minor to moderate) disturbance isn't the same as "freedom of assembly." But whatever, nearly everybody in high school doesn't know what the real world is like anyway.

[guartz]

To be fair, pure communism is anarchy, so I guess we're both right?

I lol'd how marx came up with that conclussion. Communism will be so AWESOME dude, we won't need government anymore! Don't you see?! PEOPLE WILL JUST DO ALL THE STUFF WE WANT THEM TO DO!.. you know, after awhile.. they'll learn. Fuck you, my dog learned to scratch at the door when he needs to pee, I don't need to remind him anymore!

[Quicklet]

Wouldn't pure communism be essentially anarcho-capitalism too? Since you wouldn't be able to call it anarchy if you required any kind of central planning...

[Beckwin]

it's anarchy in the sense that there's no state. order/authority/whatever becomes communal... everything operates through direct democracy and communities/soviets, in theory. guartz, your characterization of marx's conclusion is pretty shitty, you'd be incensed if I explained anarcho-capitalism as simply Mad Max.

[SwampdonkeyPLD]

This seemed somewhat relevant to the chart Tyche was talking about. I can't remember who did the study, but some magazine found that Rush Limbaugh listeners were the most politically informed group of people in the U.S.

[Olo401]

This seemed somewhat relevant to the chart Tyche was talking about. I can't remember who did the study, but some magazine found that Rush Limbaugh listeners were the most politically informed group of people in the U.S.

That must've been Mad Magazine.

[Demosthenes11]

That must've been Mad Magazine.

not saying that study was at all right (rush seriously? ) but you really are the king of "I don't agree with that so it's not true"

[SwampdonkeyPLD]

That must've been Mad Magazine.

For some reason I want to say TV guide. I guess I'll see if I can find it.

Edit: Way wrong. http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1068

[Gregorio]

not saying that study was at all right (rush seriously? ) but you really are the king of "I don't agree with that so it's not true"

It makes sense. You won't listen to Rush if you're not interested in politics and up to date on them. So it's more like people who are politically informed are listening to Rush, not listening to Rush makes you politically informed by itself. Meanwhile, liberal radio stations would kill for 1/5th of Rush's audience...which is why we're not hearing about how informed Al Franken's listeners (are there any?) are.

I've also read that a Daily Show viewer is more informed than the average person, but I wouldn't put the average viewer of a comdey show up against the average Rush listener.

[6souls]

for Saphirea

4 Code Pink convention protesters arrested

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Even as the most militant protesters vow to press on, police efforts at disrupting anarchist plans to crash the Republican National Convention appear to be largely successful.

Police have arrested nearly 300 people since Saturday in pre-emptive raids and at protests marred by violence. Most of the arrests, and the violence, happened Monday.

Today's only arrests so far came when four women from the peace group CODEPINK crawled under a fence a couple of blocks from the Xcel Energy Center.

Ramsey County Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin says those arrested are being processed as quickly as possible.

Total arrests have reached 294, and of those 16 felonies and 47 gross misdemeanors have been charged. All the others arrested were either cited for misdemeanors and released, let go pending further investigation, or released outright.

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_arti...523530&catid=2