Click the above image to see a short video segment from a protest action that took place, when the Bush/cheney demonstration rolled through Traverse City, Michigan, on August 16th.

First off- let's deconstruct this, bit by bit...

First off- notice that the protestors are low-key folks- not the anarchists that so prominently made asses of themselves at the DNC protests, last month. They're just standing around, chanting, and waving signs. Trust me- I'm a veteran of countless protest rallies- and this is the most genteel bunch I've seen, in a long time.

Secondly- notice how the Black vans carrying the Campaign past the protestors are burning rubber- clearly violating speed limits, in a residential area, to avoid the campaign staff seeing a single glimpse of the protestors.

Thirdly- notice how the two protestors who are arrested, go along, peacefully, and quietly. True- the tape doesn't show what horrific crimes they perpetrated, but it's obvious (by closely watching the background crowd), that they are being arrested AFTER the campaign caravan has passed, and they are being pulled out of the crowd, BEHIND the police barricade.

Why does this bug me so much?

Well- for many different reasons.

First off- in every rally that the Bush campaign has set up, they've limited attendance to registered bush volunteers, who have signed a loyalty oath- not content with that, the powers that be have decided that those who DARE to show up to oppose them, are subject to being caged, behind lines of police cars, and subject to (apparently) arbitrary arrest.

Secondly- folks, I was in Boston, during the ANSWER protest against the DNC in Boston, and out of the 2,000 who marched, there were only two arrests.

Here, we see two people being arrested in a small town, in a protest rally of only a few hundred people.

Basically- this means that the police cordon that surrounds the Bush Campaign, is less tolerant of a few hundred protestors, than the DNC security staff was, with a few THOUSAND.

And, that brings me into my next diatribe:

Next week, over a quarter of a million people will converge on Manhattan, to protest the republican convention- and I GUARANTEE- that the arrest ratio will be FAR beyond the 1-to-1000 that we saw at the DNC. This will be the biggest protest that NYC has seen since the February 15th protest against the war, back in 2002, and I can remember seeing police vans being packed SOLID with protestors, and peeling off, with the traditional sinister squealing of brakes.

I have a feeling, that, unlike the officials in Boston, the folks in NYC will brook NO tolerance for the anti-bush protestors, and the city's booking offices will be working overtime.

The crux of all of this:

I ISSUE THE FOLLOWING CHALLENGE:

Has one, single republican been arrested, for peacefully protesting against John Kerry? If so, I BEG them to get in touch with me. Send me a copy of your arrest report, and your account, and I will post them here, publicly. (Note: your account of your arrest will be verified, by a phone call to the police department responsible for your arrest- so don't try and pull anything funny, here.)

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 6th, 2011 at 2:04 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed. You can trackback from your own site.