Tampa announces "Free Speech Zone" for RNC
http://cltampa.com/dailyloaf/archive...c#.UEBea5bud8E
RNC protesters haven't lived up to expected numbers
http://www2.tbo.com/news/politics/20...orm-ar-477951/
TAMPA --
Two dozen police officers lined the side of East Whiting Street one day this week to keep a watchful eye on about the same number of Ron Paul supporters making their way to the designated protest area.
Suddenly, the sound of a glass bottle shattering echoed through the area.
One of the protesters had accidentally dropped a cold drink. A couple of the demonstrators stooped down to pick up the debris so they wouldn't litter the city's streets.
...
The city of Tampa had steeled itself for the arrival of as many as 15,000 protesters marching through the streets. Giant fences were put up to protect government buildings and businesses. About $50 million – paid for with a federal grant – was spent on security, mostly for extra law enforcement officers.
After three days, however, only a few hundred to, at most, a couple thousand protesters have appeared, scattered around the downtown area. An estimate of a couple hundred dollars property damage to the city so far would be "on the high end," Mayor Bob Buckhorn said.
After hundreds of arrests in St. Paul during the 2008 RNC, just three protesters have been arrested heading into the Tampa event's third day. That includes a protester toting a machete Sunday, one who wouldn't remove a bandana over his face Monday and one accused of battery following a fight over a piece of cardboard at a protest camp on Tuesday, police said.
Day One of the 2012 RNC: March on the RNC, 8/27/12: photos
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/201...9/18720513.php
First Amendment Violations to Watch for at the RNC and DNC
http://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech...ch-rnc-and-dnc
We know that photographers have been having problems all over the country with police harassment, and that demonstrators’ free speech rights have also been under assault. But with the Democratic and Republican political conventions coming up, we have all too much reason to expect that free speech rights will be swallowed up in the vortex of those events, which have become constitutional black holes in recent years.
Chris Hansen, our senior First Amendment attorney, has been litigating First Amendment cases for many years, including landmark cases such as Reno v. ACLU, and a number involving the free speech rights of protesters. I asked him to give me an overview of the situation, and he said that we’ve been seeing three big problems that come up increasingly at all these kinds of events:
1) “Free Speech Zones.” People wishing to express themselves are being sent to distant locations—euphemistically called “Free Speech Zones”—so they are inaccessible to the audience at the event. (There is one legitimate Free Speech Zone we don’t have a problem with, it’s called the United States of America.)
2) Arrests. People are simply being swept up and arrested, essentially for no reason at all, in order to clear the streets. Cities figure that they can just deal with the ensuing litigation later. They don’t much care that they don’t have grounds to arrest people, they just sweep the streets.
3) Surveillance. Unjustified surveillance is common, both prior to and during the event. Recent stories suggest that there is a lot more infiltration of protest organizers taking place than we had realized at first. But then there’s also the surveillance that takes place at the event, where often everything is filmed. Even worse are the new restrictions on what you can carry into the demonstrations, which give the police the authority to search you as you go in.
These rights violations are happening repeatedly, despite lawsuits that are filed and won after the event is over. Chris tells me, “the cities view it as a cost of doing business.”
Consciously and intentionally violating the law and Constitution is apparently viewed as a legitimate tactic by the same police and officials who are supposed to be enforcing the law.
Specter of protests outside Tampa's Republican National Convention stirs concern
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politic...cle1205835.ece
TAMPA — For an idea of how rowdy the protests at next year's Republican National Convention could get, consider this:
A pro-Israel advocacy group from Miami Beach is asking Tampa police to establish not one "free speech" zone for protesters, but two — one for its members, the other for its enemies.
RNC Relegates Ron Paul To ‘Freedom of Speech Zone’ For Upcoming Tampa Convention
http://libertycrier.com/politics/rnc...pa-convention/
First a few facts…
1.) Mitt Romney cannot win the Presidency without the votes of Ron Paul supporters, and everyone knows it.
2.) The GOP establishment hates Ron Paul, and everyone knows it.
3.) If Ron Paul is not included at the RNC he could throw a counter convention that would likely have more attendees than the GOP convention itself.
Now the GOP is faced with the arduous task of giving something to Ron Paul without actually giving him anything, in hopes of fooling Ron Paul supporters into thinking they have a place within the GOP establishment.
It won’t work.
After years of GOP abuses against their candidate, Ron Paul supporters already know the apple is poisoned.
Case in point: The RNC is offering Ron Paul a location for his own rally one day before the actual convention. This is NOT a speaking role, nor any kind of role, at the convention itself. This is NOT an offer to influence the party platform, nor an opportunity to influence the debate. Rather, this is an offer to put Ron Paul and his supporters into a ‘Freedom of speech zone‘, a place where you’re allowed to protest and speak out, and that also happens to be at a location where no one can hear you. If this offer was genuinely intended to appease Ron Paul supporters it just goes to show how little the GOP establishment understands their growing counterinsurgency. Ron Paul supporters hate ‘Freedom of speech zones’.
More from the Republican National Convention in Tampa - the pen where free speech is locked up - ):
http://www.facebook.com/OccupyBoston...15037068523265
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