I meant to take pics around the city, but there were so many "zones" defined that you could only enter with a certain level pass that I didn't bother. I will, however, remember to invest in portable fencing companies before 2016...Presidential election years have got to be their holiday seasons.
Anyway, here is a vid of the initial Occupy Wall Street South protest on Sunday as it passed by my building. The spokesperson for all of the protest groups promised 10,000+ for this initial event. I'll leave that up to you guys...
Oh, and the next morning the spokesperson complained in her "press conference" (kind of a podcast, really) that they couldn't attract the numbers they promised because the RNC, DNC, and Federal government had "squashed their right to free speech" by spending $50 million per city - a large portion being Federal funds - on fencing, cops, equipment, lethal and non-lethal weapons (including the auditory assault vehicle...if you have never seen that demonstrated it is badass; generates soundwaves that are out of the frequency range of human hearing, but are on a frequency that causes targets within range to become violently ill), National Guard, tactical response units, etc.
I'm not completely against all protesters, but I'm fairly certain that it's impossible to preemptively deny anyone freedom of speech. What is possible is preemptively preparing to assist citizens in their efforts to ensure their assembly is peaceful. That was 100% done in Charlotte for damn sure.
Blazr, was that the entire protest group? There is no way that was 10,000 people, especially when one out of every 10 or 15 people appeared to be a cop.
(09-08-2012 03:50 PM)smn1256 Wrote: Blazr, was that the entire protest group? There is no way that was 10,000 people, especially when one out of every 10 or 15 people appeared to be a cop.
That was the entire protest group on Sunday. They had a "kickoff event" which started at Frazier dog park, ran up to the edge of City Center, curled around by BofA Stadium, and then headed back to the starting point. The video I shot is just after they passed BofA.
For the rest of the week, their route was moved to the southwest corner of downtown, but still defined in the paper and cordoned by police as you see here. I could not get close to those marches...well, I could have but I would have had to go around City Center where passes were required to enter the area. The Charlotte Observer reported about 500 people at the march in the video and the same for all events the rest of the week.
And you're way off on the number of cops. The route was lined shoulder-to-shoulder with cops, on both sides of the street, for the entire roughly 3 mile long route. But there were also authorities in vehicles, close to 50 mounted cops (again, just on this Sunday), and about 3 times that number on bikes. There may have been more authorities in this city at any one time than Convention delegates...ranging from small-town cops, Sheriffs and Deputies, urban units (from Charlotte and other large cities), state troopers, tactical squads, National Guard units, and all the way up to FBI and Secret Service. $50 million was budgeted for Tampa and Charlotte with about two-thirds of that being Federal funds.
I've seen what the LRAD can do once activated. They mount them on Cargo Ships that sail in Pirate infested areas of the Indian Ocean. If a Pirate Vessel approaches, the LRAD drives the Pirates away....quick.
Chicago PD used the LRAD on Occupy Protesters during the NATO Summit when they penetrated the Security Perimeter. It drove them away. Occupy Chicago filed a complaint with the UN over its use claiming it was a "Human Rights Violation."
Apparently they prefered to be beaten with a Riot Baton.