Above Top Secret & Brian Ross / ABC News – 2008-08-30 00:38:07
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread386488/pg1
US. Marines/Iraq War Veterans
Cornered & Threatened
By Gestapo Storm Troopers at DNC
DNC- Iraq War Veterans March & Speak Truth About the War as Cops at the Democratic National Convention surround and threaten to gas and shoot them.
Why won’t Barrack Obama, the supposed ‘anti-war’ presidential candidate, talk to these people? Does he live in Israel’s pocket?
Ron Kovic (a paralyzed Vietnam vet and author of Born on the Fourth of July) is there in his wheelchair still speaking loud and strong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1oIePnELIw
Repression in Denver Highlights
Assault on Democratic Rights in US
The squashing of basic democratic rights at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Denver has been extensive. It has included:
* The formation of a new quasi-legal and multi-level police apparatus under the control of the executive branch of the federal government, made possible by the DNC’s status as a “National Security Event,” a designation established in 1997 by “executive order,” i.e., presidential fiat, by Bill Clinton.
* The militarization of a major US city. The size of the police force has been doubled by the recruitment of law enforcement personnel from the surrounding areas. Police in riot gear armed with machine guns, police dogs, watchtowers, helicopters, and armored personnel carriers are ubiquitous sights in Denver.
* The creation of a prison camp (dubbed “Gitmo on the Platte” by protesters, referring to the Platte River in Denver) designed to imprison thousands.
* The implementation of a separate assembly-line court system (“DNC courts”) designed to furtively and rapidly process thousands of prisoners.
* The building of a special “free speech zone” in a parking lot near the convention to limit all demonstrations. The zone resembles nothing so much as a prison camp. It is a small area surrounded by a steel security fence mounted on concrete barriers, all topped by razor wire.
* Police provocation, harassment, and intimidation of protesters.
* The suppression of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly through police barricades and arbitrary demands for dispersal from public sidewalks.
* Police violence against peaceful protesters. This has included the use of pepper spray and truncheons.
* The mass arrest of nearly 100 protesters, most of whom were charged with the catch-all “failure to obey a lawful order.”
* An attempt to process prisoners without providing the option for legal defense.
* Arbitrary and warrantless search and seizure of property.
* Police toleration of right-wing intimidation of protesters.
* Police harassment and arrest of the media.
If events such as these were unfolding in a foreign country targeted by the US, for example Russia or Venezuela, one can be sure that the media and politicians would be apoplectic in their denunciations of the suppression of political opposition. But this repression is instead taking place in an important US city under the auspices of one of the two parties of America’s ruling elite.
The national media has deliberately suppressed any coverage of the police state atmosphere in Denver going along whole-heartedly with the pretense that the convention—a stage-managed affair largely paid for by corporate America and protected by the police and armed forces from the people—is a expression of America’s democratic process at work. No significant representative of the Democratic Party—which purports to defend democratic rights—has denounced the political repression.
What is taking place in Denver should serve as a blunt warning to the working class. The vast numbers of police and military personnel is way out of proportion for the small number of peaceful demonstrations. The only explanation for this mobilization is that it is a dry run for measures to come.
It is a military exercise in the repression of the civilian population through a new combination of federal, state and municipal police and military agencies and bureaucracies. Indeed, though the Denver Police appear to be responsible for most of the heavy-handed actions, they are in fact operating under the Secret Service and at the behest of the Department of Homeland Security.
The consensus policies of the ruling elite—imperialist war abroad and class war at home—are thoroughly unpopular and will eventually drive millions into active defiance. The police methods being practiced in Denver will be the ready response to the coming mass struggles of the working class.
See Also:
Police continue repressive tactics in Denver
[28 August 2008]
Democratic convention meets with Obama campaign in crisis
[27 August 2008]
Police repress protesters at Democratic National Convention
[27 August 2008]
Democrats convene in Denver amid police state security and a sea of corporate cash
[26 August 2008]
ABC Reporter Arrested in Denver
Taking Pictures of Senators, Big Donors
Asa Eslocker Was Investigating the
Role of Lobbyists and Top Donors
At the Convention
Brian Ross / ABC News
• (Click here to watch video of the arrest.)
DENVER (Aug. 27, 2008) — Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel.
Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit.
A cigar-smoking Denver police sergeant, accompanied by a team of five other officers, first put his hands on Eslocker’s neck, then twisted the producer’s arm behind him to put on handcuffs.
A police official later told lawyers for ABC News that Eslocker is being charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order. He also said the arrest followed a signed complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel.
Eslocker was put in handcuffs and loaded in the back of a police van which headed for a nearby police station.
Video taken at the scene shows a man, wearing the uniform of a Boulder County sheriff, ordering Eslocker off the sidewalk in front of the hotel, to the side of the entrance. The sheriff’s officer is seen telling Eslocker the sidewalk is owned by the hotel. Later, he is seen pushing Eslocker off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic, forcing him to the other side of the street.
It was two hours later when Denver police arrived to place Eslocker under arrest, apparently based on a complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel, a central location for Democratic officials. During the arrest, one of the officers can be heard saying to Eslocker, “You’re lucky I didn’t knock the f..k out of you.”
Eslocker was released late today after posting $500 bond.
Eslocker and his ABC News colleagues are spending the week investigating the role of corporate lobbyists and wealthy donors at the convention for a series of Money Trail reports on ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson.”
• Pictures of greed and luxury
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WorldNews/popup?id=5652277
• Click Here for the Investigative Homepage.
http://abcnews.go.com/blotter
• Complete Coverage: On The Money Trail at the DNC
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Conventions/story?id=5669790&page=1
