Now that the major political party conventions are over and the respective candidates officially nominated, it seems appropriate to look at the protest campaigns that were carried out in the city streets of Denver and St. Paul. 

First it seems appropriate to define the term to be used for those carrying out their attempts at disrupting the peaceful assembly of the party attendees and media personnel and embark on riots of destruction of property in the streets.

ANARCHIST: 1. one who rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power

2. one who uses violent means to overthrow the established order.

(Source: Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary: 1961.)

It appeared, from the few TV shots of the street rioters in St. Paul, that those indulging in such violent and unlawful actions were actually paid distrupters of the peace.  They were not “college kids” out for a lark, but looked like they knew exactly what they were doing and had been told just how to proceed, probably to gain the most public attention.  The ones on our screen appeared to be at least 25 and were bent on being as destructive as possible, without having a clear-cut item to actually protest.

Of course, the First Amendment to the Constitution specifically protects the right of peaceable assembly to seek redress from wrongs from the government.  Those rioting were, of course, in no way “peaceable” in their assembly, nor were they seeking redress from any real or perceived wrongs from the government, at any level.  Instead, it appeared that they were out to inflict as much damage and disruption on the cities and conventions as they could get away with.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, the cities do not take strong enough action to put down these riots. After all, it is only logical that as long as they, and their financial supporters (expected to be on the Left) can get away with such goings on, they will feel empowered to continue.

These reminded me of the situation in the 1960s at The University of Colorado and elsewhere.  As the president of the Denver Alumni Association of my college fraternity, it became my place to meet, together with the provence alumni director and provence chief with the president of our chapter on the Boulder Campus.  We were understandably concerned that our undergraduate members might be involved in such illegal actions. 

He advised us that the protests and riots were conducted by PAID squads of goons brought in from out of state to put on the show.  He also stated that the students that did show up did so because the perpetrators of the riots were furnishing free beer to those watching, who formed the backdrop for the media cameras to give the impression that there was massive support for the function. 

Also, he said, those students in the difficult professional studies, such as engineering, geology, medicine and law. simply did not have time or interest in becoming involved, even as observers.  In summary, it was his contention that the whole mess was put on for the benefit of the media to try to sway public opinion around the nation and world.

Of course, any time anything of this sort is dreamed up, they first notify the media so that there will be electronic and print media coverage of their actions.  These things would probably be far less common if the law enforcement agencies would not tolerate violation of existing laws, at any level, such as illegal alien invasion, and if the media would not show up.

Often, such goings on are many times smaller in participation than is reported and the actions recorded are actually choreographed by the media for maximum impact to the public.

  The United States is supposed to be a nation of laws, not ruler fiat.  Let’s have more enforcement of the existing laws by governments and repeal of bad or antiquated laws by legislative bodies.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 25th, 2008 and is filed under Columns.