Check out the "Free Speech Zone" in Boston

Heartwarming n'est pas?

:grr:

wire fencing, mesh on the "roof" and yes boys and girls, the National Guard was down there yesterday putting RAZOR WIRE on top of the fencing. RAZOR WIRE!!

"free speech" zone

what the fuck have we become?

What the hell are they expecting?


Nazis?

Gun-toting militiamen?

Diehard Naderites and Deaniacs?

just like a fucking concentration camp

They used to have a space where people could talk about anything Right on the Park. We, from BU used to go down on week-ends to hear them.Course that was 50 years ago and they may have stopped it by now.

to the Fleet Center (you can see it in background in first picture) that I think is possible. The area is very congested, especially with the big dig going on there (you can also see the ramp going to nowhere there). I'm trying to think of another area that is nearby that could handle that many people.

I don't care how close it is - this is BULLSHIT!!!!

It definitely seems excessive. I'm sure they'll say that since it is so close to the Fleet Center that the fence is needed since some terrorists might infiltrate the protesters. Sad time we live in - thanks Dubya!

over the outter fence to prevent any reporters from photographing and video of the protesters...ridge doesn't even want them to be seen

This "Free Speech Zone" gets associated with the Democratic Convention. Nobody really knows who is responsible for this thing. But this "Free Speech Zone" is all over the news, said in the same breath as "Democratic convention" and "John Kerry".

The "Free Speech Zones" that protect Bush from public opinion everywhere he goes are hardly ever mentioned. For many people, this is the first time they've ever heard of a "Free Speech Zone", and it's at the Democratic Convention.

In new york there will be demonstrations the likes of which have yet to be seen in this country - IMO

I thought at first they meant NYC with the story... Geeze, they must really be expecting some nasty Morans.

I saw a guy screaming on TV that it used to be a garbage dump and I thought well, at least you are near the convention...Bush protestors have to stand about 1 mile from where his limo "might" pass by.

Sid

Why hasn't Kerry come out against this travesty? If people wanna protest on all the side walks from the Fleet Center to the Harbor to Qunicy Market and beyond, I say let 'em ... as long as they aren't in the streets and let people pass, they've done nothing wrong.

.

Or are they waiting 'til the Democrat is in office? I realize they were initially created to keep rightwingers from screaming in the faces of women going to clinics tha might have performed abortions.. However, that is somehow different from political speech, in my opinion.

who were getting abortions.

I am just in awe of it all. :wtf:
I wonder what happens if people protest the free speech
zones IN THE STREET???
Do they get shot??

I wish Sen. Kerry would promise to abolish this nonsense on January 21. :scared:

We need to get some of these up quick.

... Nat'l Guard, the Secret Service, and Security at thes types of things. Bush and gang are responsible for the entire IDEA of "free speech zones".

I'd guess this is another pre-emptive attempt at tarring the Dems with what the Repubs will surely be criticized with come their convention.

Kerry needs to nip this in the bud and come out saying this "cage" is a travesty, and people should be allowed to protest wherever they want... that the ENTIRE COUNTRY is a "free speech zone".

That would make it all but impossible for Bush to escape criticism for his use of them at the Republican Convention the next month.

ny

Just how do they make a huge crowd of people who do not want to go into a free speech zone go into one? Just wondering.

... has netting over the top of it, a double wall of chain link fence topped with razor wire and plastic sheeting attached to the chain link. Everyone will be searched prior to entering and nothing may be brought into the "pen".

Yesterday however, a judge walked the site (in connection with a suit by a protest group) and by his comments on TV, it looked like he was very offended by the whole thing

ordered this for "homeland security" reasons ...WELCOME TO CAMP BOSTMO!!!....this was NOT the Demoicratic Conventions idea, ridge just wants to make sure that NYC looks the same for is asshole bosses convention in august...

DUDE WHERE'S MY FUCKING COUNTRY!?!?!?

... this "camp" and forcefully ask Bush/Ridge to stop this kind of practice.

And, gee, what better public venue to do so than at the Democratic National Convention?

I could just see it now: "TEAR DOWN THAT WALL, MR. BUSH!!" (hee hee!)

Does "work makes you free" sound familiar?

"they hate us for our freedoms" (which we have and are gonna take from YOU).

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Now, all you apologists on this board, tell us again HOW THE REPUKES ARE not LIKE THE NAZI'S!

as I am at the GOP?

Here it is, folks. They blindise us with issues that will always remain status quo (read: abortion), scare us about SCOTUS appointees, but in the background, both parties pull this sort of BULLSHIT!

Our liberties have been chipped away long before a bipartisan Congress passed the outrageous PATRIOT Act, and they will continue to be chipped away until we get a President that calls for the return tp Constitutional rule, starting with the repeal of PATRIOT in its entirety.

There are so many Cons heading to Boston to immediately rebut all of the events and speech's, I am wondering will they be allowed on the floor of the Democrat Convention? DeLay, Hassert, Frist, Sanitorius, etc., will not only personally attend but are sending their brown-shirted goons (aides) to disrupt.....you know the same ones they sent to Florida.

My question is: Will they cage all the Friends for Peace Activists, The Union picketer's, The Moran freeper's, together with the Con leaders and their brownshirts? Is this why they have activated the Guard?

...it could be used in NYC at the Repuke Convention this August

The Pentagon's Secret Scream
"Marines arriving in Iraq this month as part of a massive troop rotation will bring with them a high-tech weapon never before used in combat — or in peacekeeping. The device is a powerful megaphone the size of a satellite dish that can deliver recorded warnings in Arabic and, on command, emit a piercing tone so excruciating to humans, its boosters say, that it causes crowds to disperse, clears buildings and repels intruders"


Perfect! A way to clear protestors from the streets without leaving telegenic marks and scars! How long before this device gets used on Americans? Can you say "Republican National Convention"?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/030904E.shtml




The Pentagon's Secret Scream
By William M. Arkin
The Los Angeles Times

Monday 08 March 2004

Sonic devices that can inflict pain--or even permanent deafness--are being deployed.

SOUTH POMFRET, Vt. Marines arriving in Iraq this month as part of a massive troop rotation will bring with them a high-tech weapon never before used in combat or in peacekeeping. The device is a powerful megaphone the size of a satellite dish that can deliver recorded warnings in Arabic and, on command, emit a piercing tone so excruciating to humans, its boosters say, that it causes crowds to disperse, clears buildings and repels intruders.

" most people, even if they plug their ears, will produce the equivalent of an instant migraine," says Woody Norris, chairman of American Technology Corp., the San Diego firm that produces the weapon. "It will knock on their knees."

American Technology says its new product "is designed to determine intent, change behavior and support various rules of engagement." The company is careful in its public relations not to refer to the megaphone as a weapon, or to dwell on the debilitating pain American forces will be able to deliver with it. The military has been equally reticent on the subject.

And that's a problem. The new sound weapon might, in some scenarios, save lives. It might provide a good alternative to lethal force in riot situations, as its proponents assert. But the U.S. is making a huge mistake by trying to quietly deploy a new pain-inducing weapon without first airing all of the legal, policy and human rights issues associated with it.

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