Detention, Negativity, Christ

The card someone handed me yesterday said that at 9 Public Enemy would be at Civic Center Park followed by a march at 11. In fact, at 10 there was a folk singer from Seattle on stage while the American Indian Movement got things set up. Several people spoke about racial issues and political prisoners in front of a crowd of 150 at the most. I wandered around and checked out the Pictures of You: Images from Iran exhibit and checked out the Falun Gong marching band and float. Apparently, the Falun Gong marched down to the "Freedom Cage" to play music and hold signs about Chinese torture practices, but since that free speech zone is totally out of the way, nobody was there to hear their message.

At noon, the protesters marched down part of the mall and up to the Federal Building (10th Circuit Courthouse). Speakers talked about Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu Jamal, and other prisoner issues. 20 or so people did the march in orange jumpsuits and black hoods and then knelt by signs about Guantanamo prison. Someone gave a demonstration of waterboarding (but with a plastic mask over the face for safety). Turnout was pretty low; the march had about as many police (including 20 or so on horse) as protesters.


I wandered back down to the mall and came upon the Angry Christians Holding Signs intersection. Apparently there had just been a confrontation and a few dozen police officers were blocking portions of the intersection while one guy was arrested. There was a small crowd exchanging barbs with the "Homo Sex Is A Sin" crew, but police in the vicinity again outnumbered protesters. There was no police escort for the dozen or so Hillary Clinton supporters marching with signs and balloons on the mall. If march participation is any indication, Leonard Peltier has more support than Hillary Clinton.

After taking some pictures at the Code Pink "look at the absurdity of the freedom cage free speech zone that nobody can see" event, I made my way back to Civic Center where I had an interesting discussion at the Pictures of You installation with a guy born in Iran, a youth whose dad was an Iranian teacher, and a couple middle-aged white guys. Some of the conversation was taped for the documentary they're doing about the piece. I was also interviewed a couple times by the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post because I had a colorful hat. I can't find the parts of their websites the reporters were talking about, though.

On the inside-the-convention front, Michelle Obama's speech and the "candid" family interactions were quite deft political maneuvers. Republicans have had the upper hand in media savvy in recent times, but the Obama campaign are clearly an image force to be reckoned with.

Listening to KGNU tonight, I learned that about 80 people got arrested tonight. Many of them were probably involved in "Unconventional Denver" actions to disrupt some of the 1200 DNC-related parties going on. The police strategy seems to be:
(1) Have heavily-armed police all over the place, standing around and looking imposing.
(2) If something happens, quickly form a large police barrier so crowds can't get in.
I think it's a better strategy than police have adopted at other major protest events in the last ten years, but it's kind of disconcerting to walk down the street with guys in SWAT gear standing around every thirty yards.

The number of folks "on the street" today was already pretty small; if a lot of folks get arrested, later events might be quite vacant. I hope enough people show up tomorrow to power all the street puppets.

Flickr only shows the latest 200 pictures on free accounts' photostreams, so 20 pictures I took yesterday aren't available. I grabbed links to all my photos currently available and stuck them in an ugly page on my site in case you want to find something later. I'm posting to Flickr this week mostly so I can participate in groups and tags. My gallery will be the long-term home for these pictures.

Come Out of the Closet and Embrace Jesus

Thinking about the small group of in-your-face Christians that distracted a lot of attention from the Backbone Campaign's Procession for the Future, I came up with a good sign to quietly hold near such loud-mouths:

Jesus Even
Loves Assholes.
Try Loving
Your Own

Discuss, Nurture, Create

The Backbone Campaign rocks. They're a group from Washington state who create human-scale puppets and other tools to share a message of progressive ideas in a creative and colorful way. Since I opted for Denver instead of Black Rock this week, I was hoping to find some Burning Man energy. These guys have it: large scale participatory public art.

Unfortunately, a lot of attention was drawn elsewhere. Arrests last night and general low turnout this week meant it was tough to get 150 volunteers to animate puppets and carry banners. As Jim Page was singing on stage, the same Christian blow-hards I blogged about yesterday arrived at the top of the amphitheater and started shouting in a megaphone. The police got them to move further up the sidewalk so people on the benches could still hear the speakers on stage. However, their vitriol attracted a throng of folks like moths and a 300 watt porch bulb. One Recreate 68 member got arrested (I heard it was for "Not complying with a police request" or something) and the crowd followed him to the street where, predictably, several dozen police kept the crowd away while they waited for the paddywaggon. During that process, a Code Pink member ended up on the ground in the street and was then arrested.

I saw the Hillary Clinton supporters march leave, but didn't get a chance to photograph them or check the marcher to officer ratio.

Energy had picked up a bit by the time the Procession for the Future was ready to hit the street. Most of my photos from today are from the march. Unfortunately, the great imagery wasn't seen by many not in the march and the Denver Diner as nobody was hanging out on the blocked-off sections of Colfax.


After resting up (including a bagel and melon slice from the awesome Food Not Bombs) and listening to a few speakers, I wandered back to the 16th St. Mall. Aside from a passing "Life began 4.5 billion years ago. Stop the murder of bacteria!" ejaculation, I passed up the pro-lifers-with-a-megaphone on one side of the street and pro-choicers-with-a-few-signs on the other. A few blocks up I found a much quieter abortion display and asked a few protesters if they supported wide-spread dissemination of birth control. They both said they're okay with condoms, but didn't want to endorse birth control. I got into an extended philosophical discussion with one guy (teenager, I think) about the difficulties (and unhelpfulness) of defining "person" and suggested that, as a practical method of bringing more pregnancies to term, pro-life groups and hopeful adopters should increase the financial incentive for women to deal with nine months of physical and emotional stress. I saw a lot of interesting people on the mall that weren't part of a big organization, just sharing their message as an individual.

Even though the blisters on my feet complained, I walked up to City of Cuernavaca Park to check out Tent State and the Alliance for Real Democracy booths. The trees, grass, and calm people were a welcome refreshment. Despite their out-of-the-way location, they had some neat installations including Eyes Wide Open, a Guantanamo cell, and The Ministry of Propaganda.

The main progressive/radical left event tomorrow is a concert with Rage Against the Machine, the Flobots, and others. I don't think I would learn a lot I don't know there or get many good pictures. So I think I'm going to wander around downtown and start conversations with interesting people. So far my big floppy red+yellow+purple hat has garnered me a bunch of interviews and compliments (including several from police standing around). Thursday's immigrant rights rally might be the best-attended march all week.