If you're at all shocked or surprised by this. The state exists through force, it keeps it's power through the inherent threat of violence and deprivation of liberty. This is nothing unusual except for the fact it happened to white people close to a heavily media-scrutinised event. Abstracted power over masses = violence. You can dissent, but don't step outside the white lines! Stay in the "free speech zone"! You can't use that sign, it's offensive! Don't peacefully blockade us, it could be embarassing!

The result if you do? Immense violence. The clear warning that if you say anything that would truly upset the status quo, you get a boot to the head.

Anarchists are not perfect, they are human the same as everyone else. But fuck, if seeing that there is something critically wrong with the way power systems operate currently is "criminal", then sign me up to be a criminal. The worst anarchist "crimes" in recent history? Some shop windows broken. The worst state crimes in recent history? Fucking hell, where do you start?

Occasionally something will happen that even stuns misguided liberals into brief action. Yes something horrible is going on. It must be stopped.

Their solution? "Vote for the other guy! He'll make it better! Oh please, help me arbitrate my own power and responsibility Mr. rich smooth talker in a suit!"

Surprise surprise, your guy in a suit is still a corporate whore who will do everything he can to cling on to power and retain legitimacy. He will lie, steal and murder to do it. Just like every other centralised power-holder in history.

There is a way to be both cynical and optimistic guys. It depresses me that ANYONE who claims to be even mildly leftist or in favour of freedom still chooses to vote or participate at all in this utterly idiotic and horrible system. As the great George Carlin (an admitted anarchist btw) once said; "the game is rigged."

... What if those kids were your kids?

How bad does it have to get before it isn't funny anymore? If I had been an outspoken Jew who was thrown on a train headed to out of town, Jebbie would have thought it was a good time to make a joke?

There is something wrong with you people. I am literally both shaking with rage and sick to my stomach. You disgust me.

-- adnoto

I thought the "joke" was disgusting when I read it, but you have gone over the top. After all, the fellow who made the joke is here mainly to make bad jokes and derail threads from serious topics. UT is just a 'chat room' to many here and you must get used to it. Hell, several use it just to hone their stand-up act. (did Lewis Black start here?)

You will also find that many on both sides of the political divide love to use the government to punish those they dislike or that they do not understand. I have seen Democrats calling out for government action against others for decades --- they just call out for action against different groups than the Republicans.

This is one reason the "freedom message" falls flat when Democrats use it; it does not ring true to the populace. Don't get me wrong, many Democrats are true friends of freedom and liberty. Too bad they are such a tiny minority inside the Democratic Party. (same as with the Rs)

When people focus on an act, whatever it is, and not the reasons behind it I tend to get a bit suspicious.

Nowhere here has anyone spent time focusing on why it happened. All I see, even from the writer, is, "The Gestapo strikes! OMG! Those bastards!"

It's damned comical in a distinctly hiding-the-facts sort of way and once more shines the spotlight on the whiners whining while the doers do.

So, what were the reasons? If there were no reasons the lawsuits will prevail and cities and police departments will pay through the nose. However, as we all know very well, this rarely happens in "the real world" because these entities usually have just cause.

Everyone knows when a large group of "passionate" left-wingers and anarchists get together to "protest" anything people end up getting hurt and property destroyed.

The right to protest doesn't include terrorizing participants in whatever is being protested. It doesn't include making them feel threatened in any way. It doesn't include you being able to stand on the very steps shouting 2-line political philosophies that will never change anything at all. In fact, there is no right to even be present when protesting. You can easily protest anything from a block or two away and if you don't impede traffic, interfere with police officers, or make a huge mess, you won't even be bothered at all. That's what the right to protest protects. :) Some people just don't get that so you have to take preventative measures ESPECIALLY when the people involved are the same people who have done what I described above AGAIN and AGAIN.

It's simple common sense. We pay our police to enforce the law. When the enemy of the common good is massing on the borders with all their weapons of warfare you have to expect a war is in the future.

So, why did the police do it? Any truthful -even if you don't agree with it- answers?

If you don't want confrontation, don't advocate it. But obviously, you do want confrontation. Then why are you surprised, that you have it? Worse, why are you whining about it?

Precisely how many people will flood into St. Paul's narrow streets is anyone's guess, but 50,000 is a safe estimate when you lump together the GOP activists, reporters and protesters."

Government has the capacity to be an attack dog, but is chained to a fixed point by law and the Constitution. Climbing a fence and taunting the dog will occasionally lead to the dog breaking free and mauling the idiot that taunted it. Oh well.

People die from being shocked by tasers. Perhaps you hadn't heard, or perhaps you had and you are simply a pathetic sadist.

Too bad. You'll note that I specifically mentioned "rock throwers". Attack the police and odds are good that they will respond. Oh well.

Most protesters, left and right, go limp during episodes of civil disobedience and the cops simply carry them away when the disobedience actually occurs. In the U.S., we don't preemptively send militarized police to detain them, remove their personal belongings such as computers and diaries, and harass them beforehand. Until now.

Sadly this is pre-9/11 thinking. 19 guys with box cutters traumatized an entire nation. What do you think 50.000 people are capable of? Nobody knows these days, and the people responsible for the safety of many thousands don't want to find out.

god help us everyone ... "a new law that prohibits people from carrying certain items if they intend to use them for nefarious purposes" ...and reasonable search and seizure laws work how when dealing with thought crimes?

This is just idiotic. Who carries pee and poop around with them while walking in a demonstration? In the age of AIDS, it may be a lethal weapon. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but I damn sure don't want to find out.

About time society decided not to let troublemakers disrupt other people's gatherings. Enough of the noisy tiny minority who could care less about the rights of others.

If law enforcement thought that demonstrations would be peaceful, the likelihood of strong-arm tactics would diminish. But experience has demonstrated that to be an iffy proposition. When people gather that claim the RNC has no right to exist, one prepares for the worst.

Speech has consequences. Speech that advocates the withdrawal of the right to assemble and speak, are just as culpable as those that go overboard in defending those rights. That goes for BOTH sides of the conflict. And make no mistake about it this is a conflict. A conflict engineered by the left.

A camera and a laptop might do the nation good, right now, if they had the time and wherewithal to jump in a car and head for the convention. It’s hard to dismiss all this as the work of “anarchists”, “weirdoes” and “drug addled Commie freaks” when you can see it up close on YouTube.

Quite so. This is the age of instant broadcast, and almost total coverage. If something goes wrong, publicize it. Let the world watch. The caveat is that the camera doesn't blink and if the left instigates violence, I can laugh and say, told you so.

While I'm at it, the colonists were prepared to fight and die for their cause, while you people scream and squawk, when your rights are "taken away". You're all lip and no zip.
Pussies.