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'Free Speech Zones,' aka 'Freedom Cages,' at the DNC

By Chris Nolan, Firedoglake. Posted August 25, 2008.


The entire U.S. is supposed to be a free speech zone, isn't it?
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My first assignment at the DNC was to find a designated "free speech zone" aka a "freedom cage." Apparently, there are several around the Pepsi Center. This one is near the corner of 7th St. and Auraria Pkwy, in sight of an amusement park.

The cage is just a parking lot in the baking sun, surrounded by a fine-gauge metal fence.

Street protests are forbidden outside these zones. Every effort has been made to isolate the areas from public view. DNC organizers made a big deal out of the fact that protesters would be allowed to use the parade route.

A "parade route" sounds public, maybe even prominent. In fact, the march takes place inside a semi-opaque corridor of cyclone fencing. Where the cyclone gauge is wide enough to see through, the fencers added green mesh to block out the light. On one side of the corridor is the University of Colorado, which is closed to the public today. On the other side is the security zone around the Pepsi Center.

I followed a Falun Gong marching band through the corridor in the mid-day sun. Between the altitude and the heat, nobody was feeling very well by the time we arrived at the cage.


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Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.

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Remember the freedom cage Monty Python skit?
Posted by: loxias on Aug 25, 2008 5:22 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Ohh when I was young, we used to dreeammm of freedom cages."
"Freedom cages?!" "We had to stuff ourselves, 36 people deep, in a small shoebox... and eat nothing but dried poison for 26 hours a day!"
"Really? ... you lucky bastard!" "After working half a week on the first day, every day of the week, our father would beat us until we died! Then we would each have to carry 11 others one at a time to the protest site, which was a pie tin under a dumpster in Shaftsbury!"

You should be thankful. I'm sure there are people in China starving for freedom cages.

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» RE: You're right ... sorry! Posted by: Cybershaman
Amendment I
Posted by: ProgressiveManiac on Aug 26, 2008 4:58 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

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» Yeah, but have you forgotten... Posted by: photon's feather
Free Speech Zone
Posted by: ikonoklast on Aug 26, 2008 5:57 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There should only be one Free Speech Zone in America, it should stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the 49th Parallel to the Gulf of Mexico, and any restriction therein should be reason enough to overthrow our federal, state, and local gov'ts--by peaceful means if possible, by violent means if necessary.

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» Hell YEAH! Posted by: Godzilla1916
completely unconstitutional
Posted by: cyr3n on Aug 26, 2008 5:58 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
this is a direct assault on our rights and no one should stand for it.

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» Vote Nader/Gonzalez Posted by: Godzilla1916
» RE: Vote Nader/Gonzalez Posted by: KDelphi5950
What country is this?
Posted by: logic on Aug 26, 2008 6:02 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
People who are afraid are easier to control.Is there somebody up there we could talk to? Those aren't proper keep left signs. It is an exparrot.

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Voted for Bush? Hillary 'PUMA's' - How about Institutionalized
Posted by: Purple Girl on Aug 26, 2008 6:18 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
anyone who voted for W Twice should Recuse themselves from the Democratic Process. they ahve proven themselves too gullible and to naive to be an Informed Voter.
As for the PUMA's their ideology and militant ways are the reason women have been suppresed in the Political process. Wake Up ladies...You are cheering on a woman who used Sexism against YOU!Re affirming every patronizing stereotype ever used as an excuse to keep women off the 'field'.She attempted to separate out Women from the Equal Rights Movement!We are the Equal Rights Movement- we are women of various races, backgrounds and mothers to the females and males of the same variety!There is NO Distinction!What she seems to have achieved is pulling Out White Women who still demand the rules be altered and their damn chair pulled out!these are the Armchair 'feminists'-eating bon bons and watching soaps all day.Any woman who has had to go out and fight for equality KNOWS You NEVER ask or Demand any Bar to be Lowered- it lends credence to the Sexists!
You want to know what a REAL libber Admires, Michelle Obama- fought & won against Sexism & racism!
Funny how these NEO Feminist were No where to be found when Mosley Braun was running 4 yrs ago!
these are vindictive '50's wives who don't have a clue about what we have been striving for over the last 35 yrs!
'PAY BACK'S A BITCH!' Is NOT a REAL Libbers Slogan!Catch Up ladies, We are NOT Trying to become the 'Good ol' Girls' club!Reverse Sexism is STILL Sexism!and Hurts Us as much as straight forward Sexism.Have some self Repect and Brains!

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» And, 3. Posted by: truthlover
» RE: And, 3. Posted by: Xynyx
What did Alternet do with the Fox News Story....
Posted by: Allstar Cookie on Aug 26, 2008 8:59 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...from yesterday??!

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American prisons, are freedom cages!!!
Posted by: chiefwanadubie on Aug 26, 2008 9:07 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
And everyone acts like these are new!!! HOW MANY, NON-VIOLENT PEEPLE, are locked up, for exercising their rights of freedom??? I served 5 years/ a nickle, the mandatory minimum, for exercising my rights of freedom of expression, and demanding a "REDRESS OF GRIEVANCE", with my "COOPER HILL POT PLANTING PARTY" in 1993, in which I succeeded from the UNION/ fired the government, from my yard, heart, lungs, bladder...put a "BULLSEYE" on my roof, for they would not bomb my neighbors, by mistake, advertised, and planted "MARIJUANA" PUBLICALLY!!! ALGOA PRISON, is within view of the MISSOURI'S Governors office, and conveniently, where the most colorful of the political prisoners go, with the big cage, with razor wire, and guard towers!!! From where they will shoot at us POTHEADS, DRUNKS, and DEADBEAT DADS, if we get out of line!!! PLANTING SEEDS ARE A CRIMINAL OFFENCE, be them, HEMP, CHILDREN, or SEEDS OF THOUGHT!!! WE'RE GUILTY OF THINKING, AND, THATS A CRIME, WORST THAN ALL!!!

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"Protesters: Police pepper-sprayed 'peaceful' gathering" - Rocky Mountain News
Posted by: BlueBerry PickN on Aug 26, 2008 9:19 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
note that the **AVERAGE** citizen has no idea what the REAL or non-MSM definition of 'anarchist' might be
EVERY SINGLE TIME PROTESTERS GATHER against WTO, SPP, CAFTA, GATT or IMF 'free trade'
out comes the rubber bullets, gas, batons & tasers.

Protesters circled by SWAT teams on 15th street at 7:30p. on Aug. 25, 2008.
Protesters: Police pepper-sprayed 'peaceful' gathering
Anthony & Sabalow, Rocky Mountain News, Updated 8:11PM, 25.Aug.08

Denver surround, mace & detain protesters at 15th and Court.
"Anarchists Get Gassed By Police"
- Video Flickr
- Photo Griffin & Hussin
"Police surround a group of protesters after an impromptu demonstration near Civic Center Park on 15th street Monday night.

DOWNTOWN -- Protesters who clashed with police tonight near Civic Center Park say they were sprayed with pepper spray & shot with rubber bullets.

The protesters, 100 or more who range in age from their teens to their 50s, have been cordoned into an area of 15th Street between Cleveland & Court places by dozens of police in riot gear.

The standoff started in the park & then quickly moved, said Brandon Brown, a volunteer medic from Seattle, Wash. Brown was carrying a bottle of water and offering it to the journalists and protesters who had been sprayed by officers. Many coughed from peppery haze near the steps of the Wellington Webb Municipal Building. When the crowd reached 15th, the officers formed a wall with their bodies.

The protest, which began about 7 p.m. in Civic Center Park, was an unpermitted event designed to "Disrupt the DNC," as a series of anarchist protests organized by Unconventional Denver have been labeled.
...
Almost immediately, said protester Magi Belknap, 21, police fired pepper spray at the protesters, causing them to flee across the park and onto 15th Street, where numerous officers blocked them into a pair of parking garages.

"The police started hitting people," Belknap said. "We only walked for like a block" before the confrontation, she said.

Protester Honey Traiman, 55, said the police action was unprovoked.

"It was a very peaceful little march," she said. "They came from every side."

"They came from all around," said a young woman wearing a bandanna over her mouth after she made it past a wall of officers who had blocked her inside with their batons. "I tried to get out, but it was only when I started crying that they met me out."

The woman declined to give her name.

Some observers said it appeared demonstrators may have hidden dozens of protesters inside the parking garages on 15th Street.

"I think they were hiding in the garages," said John Chodkowski, who lives on Capitol Hill & said he was there to watch the events unfold after being caught in them while on a bike ride.

"This is pretty crazy."

Information officer Jim Shires of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department said he hadn't heard of anyone being injured in the scuffle.

Shires said officers were separating those behind the barrier and interviewing them.

He said he didn't know if anyone had been detained.

Pete Nelson, 23, of Denver called the scuffle a "police riot," as he held a video camera, filming the wall of riot police.

"The cops were being brutally violent," he said. "They weren't doing anything but chanting."

The crowd continued chanting "let them go" & singing songs nearly a half-hour after the crowd rushed to 15th. But by 8:15 p.m., the protest seemed to die down"

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'Freedom Cages' for the Sheeple
Posted by: perkywa on Aug 26, 2008 10:10 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I would have loved to see the government try to stuff my grandparents generation into a "Free Speech Zone"...Capitol Hill would have been burned to the ground in a fortnight.

Alas we have several generations educated by the government to not get out of line/cause problems and get into your "free speech cage"...AND THEY DO.

America: Stick a Fork In It, It's DONE!!!!

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Projectile vomit
Posted by: KDelphi5950 on Aug 26, 2008 12:29 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
DNC= fascists. GOP= fascists. Are we going to take this shit, people?

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This entire stupid system we are living in exists
Posted by: Koondog on Aug 26, 2008 12:54 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
because to one degree or another, each of us is cooperating with it and carrying it forward. It will collapse when people cease to cooperate with it. Our cooperation is its support. Take that away and the whole thing will come down. There doesn't have to be a single shred of violence involved. Simply stop cooperating and the whole thing will grind to a halt. The deafening silence might then give us all some space to think up a better system, maybe one that operates on doing the greatest amount of good for the largest number of people.

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and the real flight to Canada begins once people realize...
Posted by: Bearzerker on Aug 26, 2008 2:39 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
... that the DNC "IS" the same party as the GOP!

are you disillusioned enough yet?!!!
freedom cages... another invention by BUSH43 and his henchmen of the incompetents!

and no doubt, will be embraced and enforced by the new power elite!
just like all of Dubya's other policies and ??reformations?? totally illegal and unconstitutional...

throw this group of lackeys in jail already!

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Banishing Dissent
Posted by: Dianka on Aug 26, 2008 10:44 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Maybe this has just become a matter of habit for the New (post-DLC) Democratic Party. Dissent doesn't fit into the program. It's distasteful. Ignore it.

Well,look how successfully they put the poor into a cage, isolating them far outside the public forum. We don't talk about them, or about the conditions that have caused US poverty to soar. The day you fall from working poor to destitute, you no longer exist. Poof! Gone. We were enlightened about the poor by our leading conservatives. Even our progressive community is oblivious to the poor, too many of whom do die on the streets, in abandoned buildings and from the lack of basic medical care. We don't see them, hear them, talk about them. They are confined to a designated zone far outside of our zone of consciousness.

So, both the poor and dissent have been banished. I wonder who the Dem's will banish next?

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ALL AMERICA IS A FREE SPEECH ZONE!
Posted by: Eliz77 on Aug 29, 2008 7:50 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
And we better remember that. I sent a large banner with that on in and flyers with the part of the First Amendment about making no prohibition for peaceful gathering to petition the government for redress of wrongs. Code Pink used the banner (9' long and 4' high to demonstrate IN Front of some of the cages. The entire concept is so insulting, and that people would actually use them is scary. Don't ever let our freedom be caged. It is our responsibility to make sure this stops. It is time to organize and remember that the Prez and Congress are public servants who are supposed to represent our interests. It is up to us to make sure they do.

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