[Peace-discuss] Ray McGovern on suppression of free speech at the RNC

[Stuart Levy]

See this article:
     http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/09-5
     "Trickle-Down Preemption: Baghdad on the Mississippi"

Some points of special interest (but it's worth reading the entire article)...

  - Sarah Palin 'ridicule[d] the nation of reading people their rights':

	The way she dissed community organizers was hard to take.
	But that would pale in significance, so to speak, compared to
	the way the governor of Alaska proceeded to ridicule the notion
	of reading people their rights.  I had thought that despite
	the distance between Alaska and Washington, the reach of the
	U.S. Constitution and statutes extended that far.

  - yes, of course the police were using tasers along with everything else:

	The following day Col. Ann Wright, other members of Code Pink,
	and I went to the jail to offer support to the young people
	who had been brutalized and then released.  They had not been
	read their rights.  Many were camped out on the sidewalk,
	refusing to leave until their friends still inside were also released. 

	Out of the jail came Jason, a well-built young man of about twenty
	years, who needed help in walking.  We talked to Jason a while,
	and he showed us the seven, yes seven, taser wounds on his body.
	One, on his left buttock, had released considerable blood,
	creating a large stain on the seat of his pants.

   - infiltrators:  one, recognized since he'd been involved
	in a pre-emptive police raid, apparently worked for the Sheriff's office:

	    Resourcefulness

	The young protesters had some success in exposing infiltrators
	in their ranks.  During confrontations, members of the Welcoming
	Committee, in particular, took copious photos of law enforcement
	officers and then memorized the faces.	This tactic worked like
	a charm in one of the St. Paul parks, when a man who looked like
	a protester -- dark clothes, backpack, a bit disheveled-walked by.

	One of the protesters recognized the man's face and searched
	through her camera until she found a photo of the man actually
	performing the raid on the Welcoming Committee's headquarters
	on Friday night.  The young protesters asked the man, and two
	associates, to leave the park, at which point the three hustled
	into a nearby unmarked sedan.

	The license plate, observed by a Pioneer Press reporter, traced
	back to the detective unit of the Hennepin County sheriff's
	office, according to the county's Central Mobile Equipment
	Division.

	Protesters later drove two other men out of the day's planned
	march -- one because he was wearing brand-new tennis shoes.
	The two left without indicating whether they were with the organs
	of public safety.