Denver Considers Protest Tool Ban For DNC

“Diversity of tactics” meet Denver City Council’s newest proposed ordinance (curiously prepared back in April):

The prospect of protesters linking themselves with devices that bolt cutters can’t sever or throwing buckets of feces on police has Denver considering putting a new law on the books before the Democratic National Convention.

Demonstrators would be banned from having items such as chains, quick-setting cement, homemade locking devices that are resistant to bolt cutters and “any noxious substance,” City Council members said Monday.

“Protesters are getting pretty sophisticated,” said Councilman Doug Linkhart, chairman of the council’s safety committee.

“In other cities, they’re not just handcuffing themselves to each other,” he said. “They put their handcuffs inside PVC tubes, which are inside concrete. They’ve figured out ways that keep the police from just using bolt cutters to cut them apart. They also use buckets of urine and feces and various noxious substances to pour on themselves or the police.”

Denver’s proposed ordinance would make it illegal to carry any “tool, object, instrument or other article” that can be used to obstruct streets, sidewalks and entry or exits from buildings or for hindering emergency equipment.

“We’re just trying to very narrowly define an area where, if they have these kinds of tools and we can prove intent, then we can arrest them,” Linkhart said.

Recreate WTO ’99! Urine, feces, noxious substances, oh my!

The broad definition will most likely make the new ordinance “more restrictive” than the one passed last month by Arapahoe County. More ACLU challenges, Glenn Spagnuolo quotes, and moonbat shrieking (and hilarity) to ensue:

Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz, another safety committee member, said Denver’s proposal is “more restrictive” than an ordinance approved by Arapahoe County, where some of the convention delegates will be staying.

Last month, Arapahoe County commissioners passed an ordinance that makes it unlawful for demonstrators to carry shafts, rods, projectile launchers and other potential weapons at picket lines and other public assemblies.

While the Arapahoe County ordinance deals with specific weapons, Denver’s focuses on tools that could impede police.

The ban in Arapahoe County also includes gas masks.

Linkhart said Denver police wanted to include gas masks and bulletproof vests in the list of banned items, but council members saw those more as items for personal protection than something that could be used for disruptive purposes.

Linkhart has requested a public hearing on the proposed law, which would stay on the city’s books after the convention Aug. 25-28.

A special safety committee meeting has been scheduled for July 23.

And will be well attended by the tinfoil/R68! alliance. The new ordinance, if passed, would also likely face testing at the annual Columbus Day Parade protestpalooza in addition to the proceedings at the DNC.

This appears to be a direct response to the indirect “diversity of tactics” mentioned repeatedly across the various sites of the protest groups planning activities at the DNC–vaguely defined, these “tactics” are intended to halt proceedings and impede the delegates, as well as bog traffic down and tie up police forces. The availability of tools making it more difficult to break up a group of determined protestors will only exacerbate the problem, lengthen delays, and create more opportunity for confrontation. Even with arms linked, protestors at the last Columbus Day caused delays of over an hour, and this action was limited to one street corner, a few hundred protestors, one parade, and a quiet Saturday morning. Anything but the type of conditions that will be presented at the DNC.

Denver Headed For A "Very Disastrous And Catastrophic Situation" At DNC Warns ACLU

“We think there is a strong possibility that Denver is headed for a very disastrous and catastrophic situation”–Mark Silverstein, director of the Colorado American Civil Liberties Union

More preemptive hysteria from the moonbats and their enablers at the Democratic National Convention–a “disastrous and catastrophic situation” if police arrest protestors in August:

Civil-rights activists say a Denver police policy could result in mass arrests and a clogged jail during the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and they have filed a claim seeking monetary damages over its use last Columbus Day parade.

“We think there is a strong possibility that Denver is headed for a very disastrous and catastrophic situation,” said Mark Silverstein, who directs the Colorado American Civil Liberties Union.

The policy regards police handling of misdemeanor offenses committed by protesters.

Previous police/protestor encounters at the annual Columbus Day Parade/Columbuspalooza prompted the change in policy:

Until last year, Denver’s policy for minor offenses was to give the accused a summons to appear in court. But before October’s Columbus Day parade, the police changed the policy to arrest and detain protesters, even for minor offenses. More than 80 protesters were arrested for trying to block the parade route, leading to the ACLU complaint early last month. The claim marks the precursor to a formal lawsuit, although Silverstein said the intent of the filing is to “nudge” the city into rethinking the policy change.

Silverstein says he first learned of the change during a meeting with city officials in July. During that meeting, he says, he brought up the example of New York City’s much-criticized — and litigated — policy of arresting and holding protesters during the 2004 Republican convention. More than 1,800 were arrested, and many were held longer than 24 hours, though charges were largely dropped later.

According to notes that Silverstein kept of the meeting, Denver Deputy Police Chief Michael Battista said that for arrests made during protests, Denver “doesn’t cite and release.”

Battista said the change followed the mass citations in 2004 during the city’s Columbus Day parade, in which 230 people were given a summons after they linked arms and stopped the parade. Protesters claimed the event celebrated the genocide of American Indians.

The 230 were cleared, and Battista said a review of the matter found that had they been taken in for a formal booking and bonding out, the city’s case against them in court would have been stronger.

And yes, protestors are concerned about the “chilling effect” of the policy due to the charges stemming from the Columbus Day protest–including suspended sentences that will trigger automatic jail time if they are re-arrested at the DNC:

Instead of issuing a summons to the 83 charged with blocking the parade route, the protesters were taken to jail. At least 40 of them were held several hours before they were allowed to post bond, and then they were held several more hours before being released. The claim was made on their behalf.

Paul Bame said he was arrested about 10:30 a.m. on the day of the Columbus Day parade, kept in a cell and not allowed to post bond until midnight. He wasn’t released until 3:30 a.m. the next day.

“Some of the marshals in the jail were harassing us, saying, ‘Well, you feel pretty smart about what you did now, huh?’ That kind of thing,” Bame said. “They were communicating to us: ‘You’ve been punished.’ “

Bame, who faces three minor charges, worries there will be a chilling effect on his ability to protest during the Democratic convention since some of his peers have received year-long suspended sentences for their Columbus Day activities.

“You can pretty much count on going to jail if there is another instance,” Bame said.

Poor, poor thing.

It’s hard out there for a moonbat.

Post poll on protests and violence at the DNC–at least 53% believe that there will be major protests and worse:

**Update–more changing headlines:

Original story headline

Updated headline

A little Post “editing.”

---

Drunkablog offers his usual humorous take on the protestors’ situation and the ACLU’s veiled threats.

Columbus Day Protestors’ Defense Plans To Put Columbus On Trial

Looks like Ward Churchill’s old buddy David Lane is trotting out the “we can do anything we want because our opinions matter more than any law” defense:

Defense lawyers argued Wednesday that Columbus Day protesters had a right to block a Denver parade because it celebrated a man whom American Indians view as a slave trader, murderer and rapist.

“Are you aware that to some [?–ed.] Native Americans, celebrating Columbus is the same as celebrating Hitler to Jews?” attorney David Lane asked prospective jurors during the first in a series of trials for more than 80 people arrested in the Oct. 6 protest.

Denver police made the arrests in an annual ritual in which opponents try to block the parade.

Lane argued that the parade is a form of “ethnic intimidation,” similar to burning a cross on a black family’s lawn.

City attorneys countered that the parade was legal because it had a permit. The only issue for the jury is whether the protesters violated city ordinances, such as blocking the street, they said.

“They want to use this to put Columbus on trial. That’s not what this is all about,” said assistant city attorney Melissa Drazen-Smith.

Surprising that Lane added the caveat “some”. Giving offense, apparently, legitimizes the actions of the protestors.

Those on trial include:

The defendants are University of Colorado political science professor Glenn Morris, who has been in several of the annual Columbus Day protests; the Rev. Julie Todd, a Methodist minister who is a doctoral candidate at the Iliff School of Theology, and Koreena Montoya of Denver.

More on the defense’s tactics in court (hoping something will stick):

The lawyers for the defendants made various opposing arguments, saying their clients may not have known they were breaking the law, that the police may not have sufficiently warned them and that Columbus was a murderer and a slave trader.

The first argument is clearly a load of BS–what with all the green-hatted “legal observers” there (and surely Lane was consulted beforehand).

The second argument is also ridiculous on its face. One only need watch the videos from the parade posted on this blog to hear the repeated, clear warnings issued by the Denver Police. Either the defense expects the jury to be stupid, or the protestors temporarily went deaf (could be those bandannas and the repetitive drum banging as well).

As for the third reason, it is clear that the arrested protestors and their defense wish to lecture the jury with their version of a “history lesson”/academic colloquium on Columbus.

What doesn’t appear to be happening is a challenge of the city’s ordinances prohibiting anyone from blocking a lawful parade with legitimate permits for any reason. The protestors would simply offer that their free speech rights and alleged “moral superiority” would trump any such trifling legal restriction. Beyond that, city/state/federal laws are ALL inherently illegitimate, based as they are upon white colonial power:

“Asking an illegal colonizer for permission to be on land that doesn’t belong to them doesn’t work for us”–Glenn Spagnuolo