Forget the conventions; protests are the real story

Blake Aued

The Democratic and Republican national conventions are getting less coverage this year than ever before. There's a good reason for that. The conventions, as has been pointed out an abundance of times, are scripted infomercials with very little news value.

We journalists are rather upset about this. After all, our job is to cover the news, and in this case, there's very little news to cover. So the talking heads on television just sit around and talk about the lack of news.

There IS news all around. It's just that most people are looking in the wrong place. Thousands of protestors have gathered at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, just as they have in Philadelphia for the Republican National Convention and in Washington D.C. and Seattle for World Bank meetings. These protestors are the only ones talking about real issues, and because of this they are being beaten and abused by the LAPD. The conventions are a sham; it's what's happening outside the conventions that's important.

The aforementioned real issues are headed by campaign finance reform, followed closely by corporate influence in government, environmental issues and the failure of the so-called drug war.

The people talking about them are a broad coalition of everyone from environmental activists and consumer watchdogs to unions and Second Amendment supporters. Such a diverse group of people are willing to work together becaue they, like most of the U.S. population, have been ignored by both the major parties in the scramble to see who can be the most moderate.

In fact, at both the DNC and the RNC, there were more protestors than actual delegates. That tells you something about how satisfied people are with the political process. I would bet that in November the proportions will be similar. I bet more people stay home than go to the polls. I bet the voter turnout will be the lowest in history. This is the most uninteresting election of the 20th Century, and it is also the one in which the candidates are most out of touch with the people.

Let's flash back to the protestors. The LAPD, forever tainted by Rodney King and coming off a huge corruption scandal that will eventually send dozens of officers to prison, had a chance to redeem itself by respecting the people's rights to free speech and free assembly. But when have the police ever been known to do that? Instead, they've cracked down hard, in most people's opinions way too hard. First, in June, the Los Angeles city government announced they were planning to confine protestors to a "pen," a fenced-in parking lot several blocks form the Staples Center, where the convention is being held. The delegates (and journalists) coming to and from the convention would never even have to see the malcontents. This idea was struck down by a judge because it blatantly violated the protestors' constitutional rights. The judge also prohibited police from entering buildings ocupied by protestors without a warrant, as police in Philadelphia had done the week before.

Then, the city announced it would allow the protests, but would fence in the Staples Center to keep protestors away. Then the LAPD moved into action. Yesterday, they used rubber bullets to disperse a group of 4,000 marchers protesting police brutality. The proof is in the pudding, my friends.

Monday, the rock band Rage Against the Machine put on a free show for 9,000 close to the Staples Center. The LAPD quicky moved in, on horseback and in full riot gear, to drive attendees toward a single narrow exit. At least 36 people were treated by paramedics for various injuries caused by rubber bullets, nightsticks, pepper spray and trampling. The American Civil Liberites Union plans to sue the LAPD for its actions.

The scene in L.A. is reminiscent of last week's RNC in Philadelphia. Police there confiscated several puppets (dangerous weapons, don't you think?) that protestors were planning to use in a show highlighting corporate greed and political corruption. This was after they'd entered the building, without a warrant, on the pretense that it was a "fire hazard," which it assuredly was not. No criminal activity was taking place, but apparently in today's America, puppet shows are dangerously subversive.

The beatings of peaceful protestors in Seattle and Washington, D.C. last year have been well-documented, but authorities have not learned from their mistakes. Nor will they, as long as the mainstream media continues to downplay the real issues in favor of lazily accepting whatever tripe Gore and Bush utter onstage.

If the two major parties want to survive into the 21st Century, they'd better change, and fast. Americans aren't going to put up with the lies and the violence much longer. Something's got to give.