Not many photos today. Not much action today either, alas. Planned Parenthood had a rally in a nearby park but that happened before I was able to get there, so I knew I'd miss that. I had heard there'd be a march from the Romneyville camp (which is a story in itself----a homeless activist managed to rent camping space right in downtown near the convention, the city went apeshit and tried but failed to close it down, and a number of protesters have been spending the night there) in the afternoon, though nobody seemed to know when it would start or where it would go. When I asked a couple people at Romneyville, I got a couple different answers; a little later I ran into some folks from Occupy Tampa, and they didn't know any more than I did. So I never saw any march. Either it never happened, it happened somewhere that I wasn't, or it happened after I left for the day. Same old story as always--the left is a disorganized mess, and our communications suck bigtime. (sigh)
Let me say out loud that I am disappointed with the turnout. The "protest the RNC !!!!" is, frankly, becoming a bust. The St Pete pre-convention action went enormously well, and the RNC march on day one was energetic, but it's been rapidly downhill from there. At the beginning of the week, I assumed that everyone and his brother would be here, and that no matter what time of what day I got here, there'd be something going on. Instead, the "cage" protest area was dead-empty--nothing but a few bored cops standing around. No marches, no groups of protest signs, nothing. The big crowd of out-of-state protesters that was supposed to happen, didn't. All I found were a few local people standing on corners with signs. Even the Ron Paulites are gone. The only ones still here are the Westboro Baptist wackadoodles.
What that left me with today, though, was cops. Lots of cops. Hundreds of cops. Cops who were tired, cops who were bored, cops who didn't understand why they were still here, and cops who wanted to go home.
For weeks before the convention, the cities of St Pete and Tampa pee'd themselves in terror. There would be 15,000 anarchists in our beautiful cities omigod !!!!!!! They'll break windows and burn cop cars and run amok and fornicate in the streets and kick dogs and little children !!!!!!!! To protect western civilization and avoid the zombie apocalypse, the cops breathlessly declared, we need cameras running facial recognition software, and lots more cops from all over the country, and infiltrate the terrorist groups like Occupy, and turn half the city into a demilitarized zone, and decree a big long list of "thou shalt nots" so we have excuses to arrest all the ruffians !!! Oh, and we need armored cars too !!!! If we don't get all that, the dirty fucking hippies will burn our town to the ground !!!!!!!!!!!!
For the first two days, being here was like being in a conquered city. The police presence here was simply stunning. You literally could not walk a single block in the downtown area without having a knot of uniformed police or a column of horse-troopers or bicycle-officers pass you on patrol. If you went to a store, a bar, or a restaurant, they were there. If you got out at a bus transfer center, they were there. Anywhere you went, there were a dozen cops in sight. There were metal fences and police checkpoints for vehicles. There were uniformed guards at gates and street entrances. The tactical squad with their armor, visors and shotguns made their big show. It was a real-life version of TV scenes from Iraq or Kabul. THIS is what a police state looks like.
And what happened? Nothing. The 15,000 anarchists in the streets, turned out to be one thousand nonviolent peaceful grannies and kids. Not one dollar of damage has been done anywhere; only two--TWO--arrests have been made, both of them misdemeanors; Western civilization did not collapse; the zombies did not rise from their graves. Nothing. The war never happened, because only one side showed up with any intention of fighting it.
Today was the day that all those expensive cops with their expensive toys finally realized that they--probably the most massive concentration of police force in Florida history--are here for nothing. There are no violent anarchist protesters. The zombie apocalypse stories they had all been told, were baloney. The cops milled around in small groups, and walked around seemingly aimlessly. Where they could, they sat in the shade. The mounted police in Gaslight Park amused themselves with horse tricks. The expression on everyone's faces said it all---they didn't want to be here any more.
At lunch, I was sitting near a table of police officers from Osceola county. "We're not needed here," I heard one of them say. "Can't they just let us go home?" "We signed a contract," another one reminded them. "They're not gonna let us just leave." "This sucks", a third one concluded, and the other two nodded wistfully.
Photos below the fold:
The helicopters have been a constant presence overhead ever since the hurricane passed and the weather became flyable.
The outside of the "event zone" is marked by closed streets and blocklades.
As you get closer to the convention site, large areas are blocked off by metal barricade fences, and covered by camera towers.
Most of the large office buildings downtown are blocked off. Employees are required to show ID to get in, and can only enter at specified times.
Vehicle checkpoints surround the immediate vicinity of the convention forum.
The police sent around regular patrols criss-crossing the downtown area, by horse . . .
. . . by bicycle . . . .
. . . and by foot.
Troopers on a highway overpass.
The Federales stayed pretty much behind the scenes, but it was apparent that they were the ones running the show.
The cause of all this ruckus: "The Cage", the designated protest area two block away from the convention forum, stands empty. There were no large marches or protests here today.
A smattering of local protesters.
The Westboro Baptists spewed hate and homophobia . . .
. . . and attracted a young counter-protester.
As the protesters got fewer and the afternoon got hotter, the patrols became, um, less thorough.
Some of the horse troopers entertained themselves by doing horse tricks in the park.
Most of the cops milled around in small groups to complain to each other . . .
. . . or looked for a place to get out of the heat.