Bush | Fringe Elements Seek to Hamper Law Enforcement at GOP Convention

Rosamilio NEWS. “Where is the legitimate protest in trying to endanger the public?” an angry ­Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told The New York Daily News.

As reported by Patrice O’Shaughnessy in the July 11, 2004, edition of the New York Daily News:

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Fringe elements are hoping to spark major disruptions at the Republican National Convention with a series of sneaky tricks - including fooling bomb-sniffing dogs on trains bound for Penn Station, the Daily News has learned.

Internet-using anarchists are telling would-be troublemakers to decoy specially trained Labrador retrievers with gunpowder or ammonium nitrate-laced tablets in a bid to halt trains or even spur the evacuation of Madison Square Garden.

Top cops are girding against the attempt to foil strong anti-terrorist strategies aimed at protecting conventiongoers - including President Bush - as well as peaceful protesters during the Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 GOP fete.

“Where is the legitimate protest in trying to endanger the public?” an angry ­Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told The News.

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So in addition to guarding against the most vile, organized and destructive of terrorists, Kelly and company have to combat a shadowy, loose-knit band of traveling troublemakers who spread their guides to disruption over the Internet.

The dog decoy ploy is the among most insidious in the fringe groups’ bag of tricks - which includes throwing marbles under the hooves of police horses and using slingshots to pelt the animals.

“They’re trying to use up our resources with false alarms. … The sensitive dogs would become burned out with too many alerts,” said a police source.

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The NYPD also is preparing for possible “Black Bloc” tactics by small groups of anarchists, in which demonstrators wear black clothing and bandannas over their faces - and wield pipes, bottles and commit acts of vandalism against corporate “enemies” such as the Gap, Starbucks and McDonald’s.

Cops have been trained to isolate violent individuals among peaceful protesters, and will employ an 1845 law that prohibits people from wearing masks in street gatherings, except for masquerades.

The NYPD has sent cops to Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Miami, sites of previous political conventions, and to Boston, which will host the Democratic convention this month, to collect intelligence.

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Via Little Green Footballs. The link to the nikita demosthenes post is here.

Posted by nikita demosthenes at July 12, 2004 02:30 PM | TrackBack

Is it just me, or does this strike anyone else as being about the stupidest thing the anarchists could do, short of trying to run interference for any Al-Quaeda folks trying to actually bomb the convention?

Protest is one thing. Trying to burn out bomb dogs, stopping trains and trying to evacuate buildings something else entirely.

As the police commissioner asked “Where is the legitimate protest in trying to endanger the public?”

J.

Posted by: JLL3 at July 12, 2004 03:03 PM

A thought I’ve been having for some time now: the left forgets that there are limits to the right of free speech. It is not an absolute thing — there really are limits. They seem to be trying to test the limits and to push the envelope with some of these things.

I think a few healthy jail sentences under some on-the-books sedition statutes would do wonders to improve the quality of debate.

Posted by: DWC at July 12, 2004 03:15 PM

I am a New Yorker, helping with the Convention as a volunteer. I am forced to ask - how are these people different from terrorists?

They get off on the ability to cause chaos. Forget right, and wrong. Forget other people’s right not to have their city, and personal safety threatened.

In the on going debate of what is “un-American”, this has to be the clearest definition to date.

Anyone wearing a mask should be arrested immediately, with liberal use of a baton. I would favor snipers to shoot them on sight (with a bean bag, or other non-lethal weapon - of course).

Tear-gas causes more chaos. Perhaps we should be prepared to gas roudy protesters like the Russians.

Most interesting will be comments by Kerry-Edwards in the aftermath. After all these people are the prospective voters the covet. I am sure they will say something like they “conveyed to you the heart and soul of our country”.

Posted by: Agrippa at July 12, 2004 03:21 PM

Arrest those little terrorist wanna-be’s. Fine them the costs of police actions they disrupt. Sentence them to 25 years in solitary confinement, and don’t give them parole. That will teach them a lesson.

And if any swing a pipe at a cop, shoot them dead.

Posted by: BattleofthePyramids at July 12, 2004 03:27 PM

so let me get this straight: anarchists are looking for no rules, but by defintion, not having rules is a rule, so that is rule and they don’t want rules, but that’s still a rule…maybe this is why these people are so nutty, they thinking circles…

I’d advise K9 units and rubber pellets, along with some good old fashioned arm twisting…maybe a water cannon or two…

WPoS

Posted by: WPoS at July 12, 2004 03:27 PM

Why not just deputize the entire NRA?

Oh, and before anyone cries “First Amendment!”, let me point out that it protects only the right “of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances.” Any assembly that is not specifically to express grievances peaceably, by definition is subject to regulation.

Posted by: gus3 at July 12, 2004 05:37 PM

My only quibble with you all is that anarchists are not really of the right or the left … Us leftists like big government, remember.

Posted by: rdelephant at July 12, 2004 05:53 PM

rdelephant:

what you say above is fair, but it is worth noting that the “anarchists” are planning to cause trouble at the GOP convention, not the Dem convention (according to this apparently well-researched article anyway).

further, i certainly think the “fringe elements” the article discusses are at least partially comprised of “Bush haters” - who would probably would have fit-in quite nicely at the Whoopi Goldberg/DNC Bush-bashing event at Madison Square Garden a few nights ago.

fair warning to lefties: you may not be part of this “fringe element,” i agree - but your continued histrionics about Bush hatred make this look like a distincition without a difference.

Posted by: nikita demosthenes at July 12, 2004 06:16 PM

Nikitia-

Top cops are girding against the attempt to foil strong anti-terrorist strategies aimed at protecting conventiongoers - including President Bush - [b]as well as peaceful protesters[/b] during the Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 GOP fete.

They are going to be foiling those damn righist protestors too. We all know groups like ANSWER and Moveon are just shills for the GOP.

Posted by: Lakhim at July 12, 2004 06:30 PM

After the protesters are caught, make sure they are prosecuted. I don’t know how often such protesters are prosecuted. Having followed anti KKK protesters in Ann Arbor and anti War protesters in Chicago, I do know that an arrest without a conviction is considered a moral victory by the protesters.

Posted by: Tomorrowist at July 12, 2004 06:41 PM

Where’s PETA when you need them?

Posted by: roosterchick at July 12, 2004 06:48 PM

Well, whether they will protest at the Dem covention remains to be seen. Perhaps the Boston police chief just hasn’t held a news conference. But since the Republicans are in power, it makes sense that they would focus on the Republican convention, just as the antiwar protesters in 1968 focused on the Dems.

I detest Republicans too, but this is not the way to express it.

Posted by: rdelephant at July 12, 2004 07:01 PM

rdelephant:

you “detest” republicans?

don’t you think that’s a tad strong?

lay off the caffeine, dude, and go have a good laugh.

geez.

Posted by: nikita demosthenes at July 12, 2004 10:57 PM

Lakhim,

I thought you sometimes showed a glimmer of intelligence. You have now proven that you are a
TOTAL, BLITHERING IDIOT with your comment about ANSWER.

ANSWER is NOW and has always been a front for the most vicious and most deadly Communist organization on the planet. That Communist organization is the one that organized and funded the pre-Islamic Terrorists including the Red Brigades in Italy and the Bader-Meinhop killers in Germany, among others.

Killers, PURE and DEADLY. That is well documente. No one but an idiotic fool would claim they are GOP connected.

Whatever else they may be, the GOP has NEVER supported Communism. I cannot say the same about Democrats.

Posted by: leaddog2 at July 12, 2004 11:17 PM

Leaddog, ever hear of sarcasm?

Posted by: Lakhim at July 13, 2004 12:44 AM

Lakhim:

Sometimes it’s hard to tell, especially if someone’s been confrontational or disagreeable in the past. I looked at your post, thought of others I’d seen by you, and thought… ummm, I’ll wait and see if he clarifies it.

We may have our disagreements here on this board, but I think we can all agree that this proposed stuff by the anarchists is just plain a Bad Idea by any reasonable standard.

J.

Posted by: JLL3 at July 13, 2004 07:56 AM

One thing to remember about the protests is that the Republican convention comes weeks before the Democratic convention. It’s just first. Anarchists by definition, dislike any authority. If they make a media splash at the R. convention, then they’ll probably do the D. convention as well.

Posted by: Mona B. at July 13, 2004 09:03 AM

No, the R convention comes AFTER the D con, in September. If they really wanted a trial run, they would hit the D’s first.

Those who actually commit violence need to spend some Quality Time, say 30 days, in a real prison, with muggers and murderers.

Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds at July 13, 2004 10:50 AM

“you “detest” republicans?”

“don’t you think that’s a tad strong?”

yeah, maybe a tad

Posted by: rdelephant at July 13, 2004 06:10 PM

Nikita A victim of his own Hyperbole…

Posted by: Cap'n DOC at July 13, 2004 07:56 PM

If you give this scenario any thought, you realize that “faking out” bomb-sniffing dogs or creating mass transit nightmares in Manhattan is as de rigueur as throwing M-80s into a funeral service for a guy killed by a pipe bomb.

No, there’s no difference between the ‘anarchists’ and the terrorists who have vowed to destroy America. Their goals are, in fact, remarkably similar: the destruction of civil society. Therefore, they should be treated in a similar style. If the bastards are caught, they should be declared enemy combatants (sans uniforms and therefore outside the guidelines of the Geneva Convention).

A few months in Gitmo and mommy and daddy are going to wonder why you haven’t emailed them from Columbia for more money (there goes your A in Eng Lit). And you’re going to meet a whole new class of anarchists, ones who don’t appreciate your Mont Blanc pens - ones who have never known the downy-soft feeling of Charmin.

Personally, I’d prefer they not be caught - alive. Put their heads on poles at the entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel. Teach them what it means to ‘play’ at war when a real one’s in progress.

Posted by: torpedo_eight at July 13, 2004 11:10 PM

….Fooling bomb sniffing dogs?!? This and other methods of disruption could be lethal if it creates a big enough panic. Short sheet the delegates beds or, better yet, protest peacefully. This goes for either side at either convention.

Posted by: WIseman at July 14, 2004 03:32 PM