Ludwig live from Denver: Log 1
By Mike Ludwig
August 28, 2008
Editor’s note: Athens NEWS Campus Editor Mike Ludwig is reporting from the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week. Ludwig, a senior journalism student at Ohio University, will submit at least one daily log, possibly more if events call for it. We will post them online as they come in, and then in print on Thursday. TS
Posted at 2 p.m. Monday, Aug. 25: Upon arriving in Denver Saturday night, I’ll admit I didn’t have much of a plan. I ended up crowd surfing at a punk show, drinking a bit and waking up the next morning on the back patio of some anti-war protesters I didn’t know. Then I went to a rally featuring Dead Prez.
Sunday morning is apparently the perfect time for a hip-hop show on the steps of Colorado’s Capitol building in the center of Denver. Hundreds of activists gathered there to see the revolutionary rap group Dead Prez perform politically charged hip-hop before taking the streets for a protest against the Democrats and their failure to end the war in Iraq. Protesters have come from all over to challenge the Democratic National Convention, even as the Dems prepare to nominate Sen. Barack Obama, who is arguably among the most progressive presidential candidates in years.
As of Sunday, the 2008 DNC was only warming up with fundraising parties and relatively boring public-relations events, but hundreds, possibly thousands, of protesters were already attending rallies marching in a variety of leftist-organized anti-war protests. It’s the 40th anniversary of the infamous riots at the 1968 DNC in Chicago, and this early activity could preview dissenting voices at DNC 2008 being louder and more intense than usual. In fact, one of the main local groups organizing protests goes by the name Recreate ’68. They have gone so far as to book free concerts featuring bands including Dead Prez and the legendary agit-rockers Rage Against the Machine to attract dissidents to Denver.
The city of Denver and its police seem fully aware of the situation. According to an American Civil Liberties Union statement, Denver budgeted $18 million for crowd-control resources last spring, and Congress allocated $50 million in emergency security funding for the city.
As I walk the streets of Denver, one thing is obvious: cops are everywhere. Countless police squads have been brought in from surrounding counties and cities. They ride in motorcycle brigades, in unmarked cars and armed vans. They walk the streets in groups wearing full riot gear and holding guns that shoot balls of mace and tear-gas canisters.
Some Denver citizens aren’t happy about it.
A man named Marcus Lindsey Clarke told me that the police presence has “completely changed the atmosphere downtown,” and the “increased anxiety levels” have been bad for his business of earning money by playing guitar on the street. At noon on Sunday, he had already given up on the idea of making money for the day, even with influx of journalists, Democratic delegates, activists and Obama supporters pouring their wallets into the local economy.
Caitlin Hedbug, a University of Denver master’s student, said people in her downtown neighborhood don’t necessarily feel safer with so many police around. Hedbug said she recently witnessed a police SWAT squad raiding an abandoned building near her home, and she couldn’t say whether it was a training exercise or a real operation.
“It kind of felt like I was in a war zone,” she told me.
Anyway, Dead Prez played and they were great. The “Revolutionary But Gangsta” rappers hyped the crowd with half a dozen hit songs and some anti-Obama badmouthing before sending their fans out into the street. I decided to skip the anti-war march that followed the concert. I figured it would a be run-of-the-mill event full of annoying rhetorical chants (“Whose streets? Our streets!”) and would eventually dissolve into smaller groups of protesters following one another around and shoving Ralph Nader propaganda and socialist newspapers down each other’s throats. Several protesters I talked to after the marches ended at 2 p.m. confirmed my suspicions.
Instead of wandering aimlessly in a sea of confused delegates and angry leftists, I saved my energy for a “street reclamation” protest at 3 p.m. I followed over 100 protesters as they attempted to lose their police escort and hold a spontaneous, permit-free “street party” that blocked traffic and occupied several intersections as it moved through downtown Denver. Most of the participants were at least radical in appearance, resembling either Yippie street performers or the black-clad, bandana-masked anti-capitalist militants notorious at the 1999 anti-globalization riots in Seattle.
This radical parade gave me a severe case of déjà vu, and then I realized that it was almost exactly like the near riot that occurred on Court Street during the CrimethInc. anarchist gathering in Athens last summer. So I kept an eye out for pepper spray and people climbing telephone poles.
The “street party” ran into blockades of riot police twice in front of the state Capitol and once a couple of blocks away on Stout Street. Minor scuffles broke out after the Denver police chief gave out two separate orders to disperse from an armored van. The police were relatively passive, choosing intimidation over escalation so early in the game. There were few arrests, and I only saw a boy, who couldn’t have been older than 12, arrested after throwing some kind of ball at the police.
According to lists of events and actions passed out by activists of all stripes, Sunday’s marches and actions were only the beginning of a long week of confrontational protests. I’ll keep you all updated on the protests, the reaction from the Democrats, and the Democratic National Convention itself.
The Dems are on the warpath to prove that they can connect with average Americans and change the course of this country for the better while their radical opponents on the street are preparing to tell the world that the Democrats are just one side of the same coin. And they have pledged to shut the convention down. If 1968 is really “Recreated,” I’ll be there, and if it’s not, I’ll have the scoop on all the hot air from the Democrats above and their gadflies below.
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