Protester shot by police "sting balls" in Oakland, April, 2003


So why are they building cages for protesters in Denver? (See “Gitmo on the Platte.”) You’d think they’d need such extreme measures more in Minneapolis, where the soon to be partying party has an incumbent who is about as popular as Hitler at a mahjong game in Miami Beach. But not in Denver, where the candidate is a charismatic young black man promising Change. Nobody but a handful of weirdo racist loonies will be protesting that, and they’ll be universally reviled (or at least considered pretty damn stupid for making their racist leanings publicly known). My friend the conspiracy theorist says it’s all a psychological operation, those Denver cages and concentration camp-like prison set-up. Obama is a star—the BMOC of the DNC—and that’s precisely why they’re putting out a big show like he’s not, like We’re Expecting Trouble, Here. Could be. Also, remember, this is just how they deal with protest these days—like it’s war, like dissent itself is an illegal act. It has always been thus; but since 9/11, the military response to protest has gone into overdrive, with the Robocops out in full force, even for clusters of crunchy granola kids from Portland who, like, want peace, man. Also consider the huge Homeland Security pay-offs and payola around stuff like building cages and make-shift jails. The extra man-power, the rubber bullets and tear gas and on and on. It's all big money. For somebody. Hey, how come we the people never see the books?

Did you see in the news, by the way, how the City of New York had to pay a $2 million settlement for the false arrest of 52 people in 2003—people who were doing nothing but peacefully protesting the Carlyle Group? (Here's the New York Times on that.) None of the mainstream media reports managed to mention what the Carlyle Group is, or does, or why anybody would want to protest it (they’re war profiteers). A friend who was arrested that day is getting a $14,500 payment (most of the $2 million settlement went to legal fees). He said he thought the city got off cheap, since essentially they were paying him for his First Amendment rights.

It's ironic that the Olympics in China have again brought focus—or more tellingly, failed to bring much focus—on the Chinese government's intolerance of dissent. The militaristic measures employed by the Chinese police state are now the same as many in the U.S. "law enforcement" arsenal. It has long been a fear that, for the jackboot-wearing-type of law and order boys here in the U.S., China has long been the model.