Say Anything Blog

Things are getting more and more heated in New York.

New York Times - utside a hotel in Times Square, delegates to the Republican National Convention were swarmed by protesters dressed in black and swearing at them. Blocks away, delegates engaged in shoving matches with protesters seeking to spoil their night at the theater. And outside "The Lion King" on 42nd Street, a delegate was punched by a protester who ran by.

Although the organized protests yesterday and Sunday have been largely peaceful, there has been a starkly different tone to smaller incidents in Midtown and elsewhere: angry encounters and planned harassment of convention delegates as they go out on the town.

Sometimes the delegates answer back in toe-to-toe, finger-pointing shouting matches. Other times the police, who are guarding delegate gatherings, have dispersed protesters, who move on to other locations to taunt other delegates.

The harassment of delegates came as organized protests continued to draw thousands of people. The Still We Rise march by advocates for social issues was peaceful, and a Poor People's March, a column several blocks long, proceeded from the United Nations to the Madison Square Garden yesterday after the police decided to let it go ahead without a permit.

When marchers approached the Garden, a police detective was knocked off his scooter. He was then repeatedly kicked and punched in the head by at least one male demonstrator, the police said.

The detective, William Sample, was listed in serious condition at St. Vincent's Manhattan Hospital, where Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly both visited him, the police said. There was no immediate word of an arrest in the assault, but as of 9 p.m., the police said there had been 11 protest-related arrests.

If you ask me these "organized" attacks have a lot to do with groups like Indymedia setting the tone by publishing the private information of convention delegates in a tacit order to do some damage. When a political movement is based on anger and hate one has to expect this sort of thing. It stems from a lack of respect.

Some of the protesters in New York have no respect for those on the right which in turn causes a lot of the problems we're seeing now. They don't feel that convention-goers have the right to free speech. They view Republicans as the enemy, not fellow Americans who just happen to hold different political opinions from their own.

And their leadership backs those feelings up, even encourages them in some instances, with fiery, venom-filled speeches aimed at dehumanizing Republicans.

Our country would be a lot better off if some of these people could return to the ideals of civilized political discourse.

Update:

Its getting even worse. A protester disguised as a convention goer just tried to get at the Vice President. (via Jeff Quinton)