WHAT VIOLENT PROTESTS?
Two from J. Orlin Grabbe

Apparently the FBI and New York City's Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg are expecting violent, 1960's style, protests during the Republican National Convention. My question is why? The only real violence I've seen in the past few years, from the Seattle WTO protests to the anti-Iraq war rallies, has been in the form of some smashed windows courtesy of youthful masked anarchists. Oh yeah, there's also the violence that the police have used against peaceful protesters, but I guess that Bloomberg and the FBI don't count that. So, what the hell are they talking about?

Hmmm. Maybe this report from the London Guardian might shed some light:

FBI 'harassing' protesters

The FBI has questioned dozens of demonstrators planning to come to New York for the Republican convention later this month and encouraged agents to scour protest groups for evidence of any planned disruptions.

In a nationwide move that civil rights advocates called "chilling", the FBI has drawn up a list of people it intends to question because they may have information about possible violence.

In Missouri, three unnamed young men have been subpoenaed and informed that they are part of a domestic terrorism investigation, although their lawyer says the police have not told them on what grounds.

"It is part of a national effort to chill dissent in this country," said William Dobbs, the spokesman for United for Peace and Justice, which is planning to stage week-long demonstrations in New York during the convention. "And it is always a worry that this kind of intimidation will scare some people off."

And just to drive the point home, this sort of thing has actually been done before, and quite recently:

Last year Denver police agreed to restrict intelligence-gathering after it was revealed that they kept files on 3,000 people and 200 groups.

Click here for the rest.

Yeah, that's right. All this talk of "violence" may very well be simply a justification to bust some hippie heads. After all, the FBI is under Ashcroft's Department of Justice, and he's obviously no friend of civil rights or hippies, and Bloomberg is most certainly a party man. He and his people are laying on the violence meme pretty thickly.

From the London Independent:

New Yorkers braced for violent protests aimed
at Republican party convention next weekend

For Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican himself, the four-day gathering is an opportunity for his city to sell itself. But he is concerned that it could go horribly wrong. How nice will New Yorkers be to their guests? And how violent may the promised protests become?

With only a week to go, the city is in a stand-off with an activist group called United for Peace and Justice that expects as many as 250,000 people to turn out for an anti-Bush rally next Sunday. The group is suing for the right to hold the march in Central Park. The city is refusing, citing probable grass damage.

"I am afraid this Central Park thing is really going to blow up," said Gary Ferdman, director of a business consortium that persuaded Mr Bloomberg to announce last week a discount programme for protesters who behave. Any activist who promises to protest peacefully will be rewarded with a badge entitling them to discounts in restaurants, hotels and theatres.

Of course, the problem with this whole "violence" thing is that there's just no evidence of any protesters actually planning any:

Last week, a director of the FBI's anti-terrorism division acknowledged that the agency expects some of the protests to become violent. The FBI has sent out agents to infiltrate some of the political groups coming to New York to try to uncover their strategies. But no actual plot to cause violence has yet been found.

Click here for the rest.

Like I said, what violence? This is all a bunch of crap, and my bet is that there probably will be some violence, but it'll be the kind caused by cops, not protesters. And I'm sure they'll find a way to blame the people they're beating up. And I'm sure the corporate media will buy the whole thing hook, line, and sinker.

Man, the GOP sucks.

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