{"id":1252,"date":"2007-08-30T06:48:50","date_gmt":"2007-08-30T11:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1252"},"modified":"2007-10-05T09:33:13","modified_gmt":"2007-10-05T14:33:13","slug":"a-world-all-their-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1252","title":{"rendered":"A World All Their Own"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not one of those conservatives who reflexively bashes the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union.<\/p>\n

But I do relish the chance to give them a rhetorical wedgie.<\/p>\n

They’re organizing a phalanx of lawyers to defend the well-heeled “anarchist” fops that’ll be swarming the Cities about this time next year.<\/p>\n

Katherine Kersten, as usual, is the only voice in the major media with the real story<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The pinstripe brigade may see lots of action. At the 2004 Republican convention in New York City, police arrested more than 1,800 people, though a smaller crowd of protesters is expected here next year.<\/p>\n

The MCLU’s volunteer lawyers will go to bat for any demonstrator arrested at the convention, regardless of conduct or offense, says Samuelson.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Really?<\/p>\n

So if a ProtestWarrior runs afoul of a cop for whatever reason, the MCLU will be there, defending a conservative counterprotestor?<\/p>\n

What sort of protesters are likely to benefit from these legal eagles’ skills? Earnest grandmas who wave signs outside the Xcel Energy Center aren’t likely to get in trouble with the police. Arrestees will probably disproportionately be anarchists and other self-proclaimed rabble-rousers who are eager to flout the law.<\/p>\n

One such group is Unconventional Action, an “emerging network” whose national membership advocates “militant direct action.” At a recent planning conference, members listed goals to “shut down” Minneapolis and St. Paul, and “to deter [other] cities from wanting to host [political] conventions in the future,” according to an anarchist web site.<\/p>\n

Unconventional Action lauds the strategy of an organization that helped create havoc at World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999, another website says. In Seattle, according to published accounts, a relatively small group of activists used weapons like Molotov cocktails and ammonium-nitrate bombs with nails to provoke violent confrontations with the police. Millions of dollars in property damage and numerous injuries resulted.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union is going to elevate malicious violence to the level of a civil liberty, worthy of our defense?<\/p>\n

According to Unconventional Action, the Twin Cities have “strategic vulnerabilities unique to any trade summit or party convention of recent years.” The group is considering blockading traffic on narrow highway interchanges, bridges and key intersections and conducting other kinds of civil disobedience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hm.\u00a0 It’s a little late to organize this, but wouldn’t it be fun to organize a counteprotest to visit this next bit…<\/p>\n

This weekend, the so-called RNC Welcoming Committee, a local anarchist group, is hosting activists from across the country — including Unconventional Action — to strategize. The committee has urged people to march through St. Paul to “gather information, take measurements, check drain covers, etc.” At a news conference on Monday, the group showed a video featuring masked figures and hinting at violence. “There exists no ‘peaceful’ option,” it said in a news release.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…and block their <\/em>right to speak freely?<\/p>\n

Wonder how they’d like it?<\/p>\n

No matter.\u00a0 The MCLU, head buried firmly in sand, will be there to get Ian and Ashley out of the clink:<\/p>\n

Samuelson says that protesters have no “license to riot.” But he expressed little concern about anarchist threats, and said that serious problems — if they occur — are likely to arise spontaneously.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, Chuck Samuelson – is the MCLU defending the right to commit violence as a general thing?<\/p>\n

Or only violence against Republicans?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not one of those conservatives who reflexively bashes the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union. But I do relish the chance to give them a rhetorical wedgie. They’re organizing a phalanx of lawyers to defend the well-heeled “anarchist” fops that’ll be swarming the Cities about this time next year. Katherine Kersten, as usual, is the only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,41,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-08","category-convention-08","category-liberty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}