Dear Harvey,
Thanks for giving my voice an ear and a pair of eyes! Otherwise, I'd explode from the frustration of not being able to write daily due to my carpel tunnel. Funny you should write about the acupuncturist, after calling around I found one who will see me Friday. Yes, I'm in that much pain. Simon, how do you say Uncle [phonetically] in chinese? Yes, I'm willing to submit to the needles. The pain they'll inflict on me is probably less than what I'm experiencing now.
About my handwritten letter, as you read it, remember that I'm mouthing off at the idiots that are trying to hold my city hostage by saying publicly that they will disrupt business and traffic in order to protest and have their views aired on TV, when and how they want to and not as the NYPD has negotiated.
I need to say that I'm enraged over the threats these protesters are making. When our founding fathers put that little adjective ‘peaceful’ in front of our right to assemble, they saw that right as an integral part of being a free citizen, to ensure the survival of our tenuous democracy [at that time]. Under British rule we were not allowed to exchange opinions or even discuss in public our differing views on any given topic, let alone be critical of the King and his representative.
These protestors don't wish to engage in a discussion, they don't wish to educate the public by putting out position papers or informational flyers. Instead, they're main goal is to show "what a fascist society we live in, as a result of our Homeland Security policies and the Patriot Act".
How do they do that? By provoking the police through various subtle but systematic means. I've seen this done time and again in NYC, and then when the police have had enough and move in, they fight police. . Anyone who's ever engaged in an act of civil disobedience knows that the police will tell you as they put their hands on you that you are "under arrest". If you resist, then you are choosing to do physical battle with the police and you become a potential threat not only to them, but to those around you, protestors and bystanders alike.
Anarchist organizations like, Love and Rage, teach protestors how to incite police action with methods of provocation, etc. Often they are staged and set up so that someone will video tape it. Indepundit's Citizen Smash has been a witness to this in the protests he covered a few months ago. He's now reporting on who actually is behind the violence at the democratic convention. Thanks for these reports Smash.
The bottom line is that these tactics are meant to do nothing more than to disrupt and to portray our government and law enforcement officials as.... dare I say it - "The SS" [their words not mine]. This is NOT peaceful assembly, this is NOT an exchange or discussion of ideas, this is just a tactic "to try and push [the police's] buttons so that when the 30 sec. video comes on the news people WILL believe that the police have gone too far". The actions ARE their arguments.
As far as I'm concerned, anyone who engages in duplicitous action, hostile or violent means, to express their views, or who puts the safety of innocent bystanders in danger through these means, do not deserve to be protesting in Times Square or across from Madison Square Garden. Let them assemble where they can be heard and seen without any danger or inconvenience to the general public. If you have problems with that, there are plenty of mainstream democratic means to have your opinions known, such as: petitions, letter writing, lobbying your representatives by paying them a visit, passing out flyers, attending your community board meetings to begin a movement on a grass roots level.
People who don't participate in the political process don't have any right to come in at the eleventh hour to express their opinion in a way that threatens my safety or my civil liberties. If they wanted to express their disenchantment with either, our gov't, our political system and/or the way the business of this country is conducted, they should use more effective means to change public opinion, instead of disenfranchising citizens. If they want to be listened to they should go to the voting booths, not occassionally but regularly.
To do otherwise means that you distinctly feel that the democratic process doesn't work; then the discussion becomes one about political ideology and not democracy!
[originally posted on blogspot on 7/28/04]