Gitmo on the Platte: Colorado building secret jail ahead of Dem Convention

DENVER - Activist groups say the converted warehouse poses a threat to civil liberties. The city maintains the facility is needed in case of mass arrests during the Democratic National Convention.

The makeshift holding center, dubbed "Gitmo on the Platte" by activists, is located on city-owned property near Steele Street and 38th Avenue. Newly-installed security cameras guard the exterior, chain-link fences and barbed wire form cells inside.

"We feel the city should be ashamed of this secret prison they've set up," said Re-create '68 organizer Glenn Spagnuolo.

Spagnuolo and other activists gathered outside the formerly-secret facility on Friday to protest the city's plan to use it as a processing center for all those arrested outside the DNC.

"The public was never going to view this place, it was just found out," Spagnuolo said. "They got caught with this place. They told our lawyers in negotiations that this place didn't even exist."

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=97741&catid=188

The terrorist won on 12/12/2000!

I'm just thinking of who's likely to be protesting in Denver, and thinking (unkindly) that I really don't care if Fred Phelps or members of NRTL get arrested....

...unless, of course, you're suggesting that there will be discord among our own ranks?

They'd be remiss if they didn't, so I'm sure Minnesota has planned a holding/processing area too.

Freedom of speech includes speech we don't like.

But you're wrong, these people aren't going to be Republicans, they're far left people who don't believe the Democratic party is doing enough to end the war or prosecute Bush for his crimes. Do you really feel comfortable with those kind of people being arrested?

..if they engage in civil disobedience (which, as pointed out elsewhere, involves breaking the law), then they should be arrested, without regard to their political affiliation.

...and it's wrong, and bad, but if Fred Phelps were sent to Gitmo and waterboarded, I wouldn't shed a tear.

Keep in mind, you don't have to be a protester to find yourself swept up in a mass arrest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Republican_National_Convention_protest_activity#Police_tactics_and_Pier_57

(yeah, I know it's a Wikipedia entry. But it's short, to the point, and provides a starting point for wider research)

Police tactics and Pier 57

Inside Pier 57Concerns have been raised about police tactics in arresting nonviolent protesters with many apparently innocent people being swept up in mass arrests. <33>

Guantanamo on the Hudson was a term coined during the Republican National Convention by a lawyer who, amongst 1000 other people, was detained in a facility by the New York City Police, in such conditions that he said that the city had created its "own little Guantanamo on the Hudson" (an allusion to the tortures reported in prisoners camps in Guantanamo).

The City police reportedly closed a whole street where some protesters were marching, and arrested protesters and bystanders alike. People were required to show identification cards or face arrest; the arrested people were not immediately informed of charges against them.

The facility was the then-recently closed Hudson Pier Depot at Pier 57 on the Hudson River in Manhattan, a three-story, block-long pier that has been converted into a temporary holding facility, though unfit for detention of prisoners. Arrested protesters have complained about extremely poor conditions describing it as overcrowded, dirty, and contaminated with oil and asbestos. People reported having suffered from smell, bad ventilation, and even chemical burns and rashes<34><35><36><37><38>

Numerous troubling cases were reported, notably:

A 15-year-old diabetic girl on her way to a movie was arrested. <39>
A former vice president of Morgan Stanley was arrested while riding her bicycle. <39>
A 16-year-old protestor was lost to her mother for two days, even though her mother knew about and supported her daughter's participation. <40>
Small pens were used to contain "30 to 40 people" at once. <41>
Many people were detained longer than 24 hours on relatively trivial charges. <42><43> One was a 23-year-old Montreal student arrested for disorderly conduct and released three days later. "He says he spent a total of 57 hours between the pier and Central Booking, during which time he says he was moved 14 times and repeatedly handcuffed and shackled to other protesters as young as 15." <4>
The City reportedly refused to release the prisoners until a judge threatened to fine it for every extra hour every prisoner would spend in prison. The victims of the arrests have filed lawsuits against the City of New York.

"The makeshift holding center, dubbed "Gitmo on the Platte" by activists, is located on city-owned property near Steele Street and 38th Avenue. Newly-installed security cameras guard the exterior, chain-link fences and barbed wire form cells inside."

Sounds like a pretty bad secret. Location, ownership, where the cameras are, what the use is for, why they did it are all known.

...I think it's kind of self-righteous and silly for protesters to refer to something like this as "Guantanamo <place>." There isn't anything about this that even remotely resembles the terrible treatment of the Guantanamo inmates.

Involves getting arrested. People forget that part of the equation.

...but it normally doesn't involve being held for years without charge or being tortured. They wouldn't call it "Auschwitz on the Plate" would they?

Prepare to be caged.

:shrug:

:evilgrin:

Of course, they've probably got a get-out-of-jail card of some sort. :(

Would you like to backtrack or clarify that statement? Or, heaven forfend, apologize profusely?

Just the ones going to protest the convention because she's not the nominee.

Notice the differential. You can't support a candidate who is no longer running for President.

It wouldn't matter to me if every last one of these protesters are Republicans, it would still be wrong to lock 'em up simply because we don't like what they're saying.

If you behave and peacefully protest I'm against arresting you. If you don't behave i.e. block streets, don't get a permit, cause a riot. To the PUMA cages you go. If you are willfully breaking the law to make a point going to jail is part of that statement.

Good to know someone thought of that.

and the protesters that blocked streets caused an endless headache for Residence. Blocking a Public street by chaining yourself together ins't free speech its a public nuisance. They timed these events on major highways and intersections during rush hour in the morning and afternoon.

How many people did they cause to be late and incur either trouble from their boss or extra childcare expenses. Not to mention the fire/ambulance response they disrupted.

As far as I'm concerned a night in the PUMA cages will do those people good.

God forbid you might get home a little later.

and whatever that statement was. I disagreed with.

They were reall effective. Piss people off. Great way to win new support for your cause. Worked during the 60s...oh wait Richard Nixon got elected twice.
I swear we are our own worst enemies at times.

Put the street blockers and jail and don't let them out for a week. Than send them back to their 50,000 a year colleges.

Recreate '68 is going to be the main protest group, and they're left wing. They just don't think the Democratic Party is doing enough to end the war or prosecute Bush for his war crimes.

68 led to Richard Nixon. Shame on them.

They're wannabe hippie jackasses.

nt

The city should be prepared for them.

"Riots" are not "peaceful protests".

making clear that anyone rounded up must be processed within a VERY short period, or the authorities will face VERY serious penalties.

What's really scary is, though, are the comments below the original article at the link.

and these protester do nothing to advance their own cause but only create republicans?

Sorry I have no sympathy for them if they break the law in the process of protesting.

I have it on good authority it is a catch and release facility. Catch disruptors and release after the convention is over. Criminals will have to post bond go to court etc. I have no problem with it as I see it as a holding tank for opp chaos members (dittoheads)...

Frankly I would like to see dittoheads waterboarded and witness the transformation to Democratic voter.