Boston police deal with protestors
Yahoo


"After four days of relative calm, protests became tense outside the site of the Democratic National Convention as demonstrators burned a two-faced effigy depicting President Bush on one side and Sen. John Kerry on the other and started a shoving match with police. About 400 protesters marched Thursday through the city before arriving outside the fenced-in demonstration area outside the FleetCenter. The throng pressed up against police officers who used clubs to keep the crowd at bay. Several protesters were dragged from the crowd and handcuffed by police. Other screamed at the officers to let them go. .... The Boston-area Bl(A)ck Tea Society, an ad hoc group of self-described anarchists and anti-authority activists that formed a year ago to stage protests at the convention, called for "decentralized direct action" Thursday. The group does not advocate violence but encourages demonstrators to hold street protests regardless of whether they have secured permits from the city." (07/29/04)


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/cvn_protests

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Free speech through fences
AlterNet
Margaret Doris

"There has been a lot of talk during this convention about free speech and civil rights. But in a world where delegates readily take off their shoes for Vermin Supreme, and attendees at a John Edwards party at the Rack happily hand over their IDs for scanning through a "visitor management system" with recorded name, date of birth, and gender checked against the invite database, it seems that many people have adjusted too easily to the creeping loss of civil liberties. And it's much harder to regain liberties lost than it is to hold hard to them in the first place." (07/29/04)


http://www.alternet.org/election04/19395/