Tasers and Holding Cells: Denver Prepares for the DNC

Posted by Steven D., Booman Tribune at 9:14 AM on August 15, 2008.

Dear Denver Residents and Visitors,

If I were you I wouldn't walk around anyplace near where the Democratic convention is being held this month or you might get swept up in a mass police arrest and held at a detention facility for no reason other than you were in the wrong place at the wrong time:

In Denver, police are preparing what a local political organizer calls a 'concentration camp,' laying in wait for mass arrests anticipated during the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

On Wednesday, a Denver CBS affiliate sent a news crew to crash the police department's improvised detention facility, found in a warehouse owned by the city on the north-east side of town.

"This is a building filled with metal holding cells," described reporter Rick Sallinger, introducing the segment. "We showed up at the facility unannounced today, the doors were wide open, and we managed to shoot for several minutes until a Denver sheriff's captain asked us to leave."

Footage of the warehouse revels tall, chain-link fence capped by barbed wire, and segmented pens each bearing an identifying letter at about shoulder height.

"Each of these fenced in areas is about five yards by five yards," said Sallinger. "There's a lock on the door. How long those arrested will be kept here is not known. A sign on the wall reads, 'Warning! Electric stun devices used in this facility.'

So, if you get arrested for walking the lovely streets of Denver you risk detention like a caged animal, and possible tasering by the Denver police (after you will no doubt be charged for resisting arrest and/or assaulting a law enforcement official). Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture? What massive protests are the Denver police expecting? Is there a large group of people who intend to protest Obama in the same peaceable fashion hundreds of thousands protested Bush’s nomination in 2004? I highly doubt it. So why all the extreme measures and preparations for Armageddon in the streets of The Mile High City? This strikes me as ridiculous in the extreme.

Tagged as: tasers, police state, denver