Live from DNC: Eyewitness to Mayhem (Day 2)
What to do if you have an unhinged radio host screaming in your face.
Normally, a bus into downtown is not a bad choice at all; there is a bus stop within a block of my place, and the Denver-Boulder B bus will put you right at Union Station or the Market Street Station, from which you can pick up the free mall bus. Cost is about $3 — less than gas — and given the cost and effort of finding parking downtown, even on a normal day it is probably about as fast. You might think, after my piece on trains, that I’m against public transportation. I’m not. I’m just against public transportation when it’s stupid.
During the convention, it’s tending toward stupid. Driving in is probably also stupid. Frankly, the whole convention is stupid. I’m tired of it. Go home, Democrats.
Oh, wait, I’m getting a gig out of it. Never mind.
So I got to the Mint at about 4:30PM, to find a dozen mounted police, a half dozen other media people, and no protestors. The reason for the Mint was that the “Recreate ‘68″ people promised to recreate the famous levitation of the Pentagon, of song and story, and — well, actually nearly unremembered except by a few 60’s throwbacks. The story was that Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies (not “yuppies”) were trying to levitate the Pentagon as an anti-war protest. It didn’t work, and I don’t know that anyone ever quite explained why levitating the Pentagon would be an anti-war protest particularly, but in those drug addled days it did seem like a cool idea.
(Sigh. I remember when spending $100 on drugs meant you were planning a party, instead of a bottle of Vitorin and some laxatives.)
Still, I thought it would be amusing one way or the other, and certainly if they did manage to levitate the Mint, it would be something I’d be sorry I missed.
I’d been there for a little while, long enough to text out my proposed lede (”What if they held a levitation and nobody came?”) when down the street comes Michelle Malkin along with one of the various bloggers who are here. (Sorry, guy, in the ensuing excitement I never did quite figure out who was who.) I greeted them, we had a pleasant conversation — we don’t agree on some things, but Michelle is very sweet, and rather prettier in person than she seems on TV. Which is rather astounding when you think about it.
Finally about 5:10 the demonstration arrived. There were still more media than demonstrators; in general the demonstrations seem to have about two cops per demonstrator and three media per cop.
All I can say is these street theatre demonstrations were more fun when Abbie and Allen Ginsberg were still alive. A couple of amusing costumes and some “Peace and Love” chanting. Michelle and I went over to see them more closely and get some pictures, and the PJM/Founding Bloggers video guys came along as well.
All was good and we were having a good time, until our male antagonist spotted Michelle. He shouted her name, and ran over with his little mob of lickspittles and sycophants, along with his video guy. You can see the video here.
After they surrounded Michelle and the shouts of “kill Michelle Malkin” started, it looked like it would be desirable to intervene, so I moved between them. Miss Alex didn’t like it. He shouted at me; when that wasn’t fun, he shoulder butted me and screamed at me to keep my hands off him. When we moved away, he blindsided me with what felt like an elbow across the kidneys. If you watch the video, you’ll see that throughout, his camera guy was more or less up in my face. He’s apparently no more competent than his patrón, since he was so in my face all he got was a good chunk of excellent footage of my grey whiskers. At one point I got separated from Michelle — luckily, Jim Hoft was also playing volunteer bodyguard — so I went to a policeman on foot, told him about getting hit, and asked him to do something to protect Michelle, who at this point was surrounded by a screaming mob, being incited by girlyman.
He smirked at me and asked if we needed an ambulance.
We did get Michelle away, and no one was hurt. I’ve got a call in to Hickenlooper’s office, with the question being whether we think it’s good police procedure to watch a mob threaten to kill a 95-pound Asian woman without intervening. I’m still awaiting a response.
I do want to make one thing very clear: the Peace, Love and Levitation guys were not the ones threatening Michelle. In fact, a tall Asian guy who looked a lot like Kitaro was up trying to calm Alex as well.
* * *
This just on on Ask Charlie Anything.
Mike, here in Denver, asks: “Just how much has your opinion of Alex Jones gone down? Does he wear a brown shirt? Was the foam from his mouth difficult to clean up afterwards?”
Well, since I had never heard of Alex before — I doubt he’s very widely known, frankly — it started low and continued lower. Just another black helicopter nut, I guess. He wasn’t wearing a brown shirt, except in spirit. And Michelle did express a wish to shower afterwards.
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Charlie Martin is a Colorado computer scientist and nearly-successful screenwriter who contributes to the Flares Into Darkness political blog as ‘Seneca the Younger,’ and blogs under his own name at the aggressively non-political Explorations blog.
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30 Comments
1. heather:Hah!! I was at the Pentagon… the levitation thing was part of the whole march from that large pond in front of Lincoln (OK, I’m a Canadian); the crowd was huge. I remember that there was speeches about ‘peace’, but a fella (in the then trendy military fatigues) close by yelled, that NO, we want VIOLENCE. He had a patient, pregnant girlfriend sitting by him.
Then over the bridge, to the Pentagon. More and more people, a very crowded scene, the crowd started to sway back and forth, and then some love and peace hippies started to “ommmm”, and calmed things down (where I was) (maybe that was there they were trying to levitate the pentagon)… then over the balustrade came a man, with a split and bleading shin (he was holding a kitten, and was very shakey)…. then onward, to the front of the Pentagon, and people putting flowers into the guns of the soldiers lined up, and the soldiers looked as frightened as I was…
No one thought to put on masks. I guess this is a new fashion detail…
Aug 26, 2008 - 1:14 pm 2. heather:what we need is a cracker barrel, around which the veterans from the 60s and 70s can carry on about the good ol’ days when …
Aug 26, 2008 - 1:15 pm 3. Mary in LA:The cop smirked?!?!?!?
Aug 26, 2008 - 1:20 pm 4. Charlie (Colorado):Smirked. I’m actually pretty livid about it, after the fact.
Aug 26, 2008 - 1:32 pm 5. Chuck Pelto:TO: Charlie (Colorado)
RE: Smirkies
“He [the cop] smirked at me and asked if we needed an ambulance.” — Charlie (Colorado)
There’s more than one reason to wear the apparel I suggested.
You cannot necessarily trust the police to be able to differentiate between one un-uniformed civilian and another in the midst of an affray.
On the other hand, I’ve known some cops in riot situations that I wouldn’t trust to cover anyone but themselves. Some of them, indeed, tend to look down on all non-cops as lower-life-forms and they have no compunction against wading in and whaling about with a nightstick, given the opportunity; irregardless of whose side YOU might be on.
During DC ‘71, I heard some of Team BLUE bragging about how many heads they bashed.
So, cuidado, compadre.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Aug 26, 2008 - 2:02 pm 6. Chuck Pelto:P.S. If you want to file a complaint, I recommend you have the cell phone camcorder ready and be SURE to get the cop’s face and badge number, as well as the department he’s from; as it looks like you’ve got a LOT of other municipal departments participating in this romper-room-of-the-streets.
Aug 26, 2008 - 2:14 pm 7. Charlie (Colorado):We had quite a number of different departments, but we have lots of video.
By the way, I wanted to note here that I got a call from the PD; they’re not pleased. Whether with the behavior or with the fact that it’s up on you tube is less clear. I’ll have more to come shortly.
Aug 26, 2008 - 2:52 pm 8. Round Two, almost in time for Round Three | Explorations:[...] Day 2 of the DNC at PJM. [...]
Aug 26, 2008 - 3:08 pm 9. Frank:I got a chuckle at the comment you made:
“…I learned something interesting: anarchists don’t organize well.”
I presume this was tongue-in-cheek. Glad you got out okay.
Cheers,
Aug 26, 2008 - 3:17 pm 10. Gary Ogletree:Frank
It was the dreamy eyed West Coasters who thought they could levitate the Pentagon in the Glory Days of Demos. The cynical East Coast Yuppies’ forte was getting their photos into the media. The Weather Underground was all about rage and provoking tear gas responses, a no fun crowd. My favorite slogan was “2 4 6 8 smash the state!” Seemed like a good anytime anywhere type chant and it rhymed. Without the draft I doubt if many of us would have showed up in DC, Chicago, etc. We were the Generation of Useful Idiots, and still are to a large degree.
Aug 26, 2008 - 3:25 pm 11. Chuck Pelto:TO: Charlie (Colorado)
RE: Getting ‘the Call’
“I got a call from the PD; they’re not pleased.” — Charlie (Colorado)
Make a Memorandum For Record (MFR) of the date, time, who you talked to and the gist of the discussion of that call.
It might come in handy later on….
…one way or another.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Aug 26, 2008 - 3:30 pm 12. Chuck Pelto:P.S. In the future, try to make a recording of such phone calls. In Colorado, it’s not illegal to do such as long as someone involved in the conversation is aware it is being recorded.
P.P.S. And, whenever talking face-to-face with a government official ALWAYS have a witness you can trust present. I’ve found it ‘amazing’ how much government officials tend to forget what REALLY happened or was said.
Aug 26, 2008 - 3:31 pm 13. Iam Moody:And you call Alex Jones a girlyman? that is funny. yea it was a little intense but grow a pair fellow. This isn’t the 60’s.
Aug 26, 2008 - 3:38 pm 14. David:Keep a roll of quarters in your each pocket to load your fists. You can layout a girly man with one punch that way. When you get a second to back off, break open the rolls and all you have is a pocketful of quarters and no “weapons”.
Aug 26, 2008 - 3:53 pm 15. Charlie (Colorado):I presume this was tongue-in-cheek.
See, the problem with my sense of humor is that no one quite knows when to laugh.
Yes, that was meant as humor, and thnk you for the kind words.
Aug 26, 2008 - 5:40 pm 16. Charlie (Colorado):Make a Memorandum For Record (MFR) of the date, time, who you talked to and the gist of the discussion of that call.
Oh, I did. It’ll be up here in a bit; I’ve been run ragged this afternoon.
Aug 26, 2008 - 5:41 pm 17. Carolyn:That looked pretty intense to me. I would say everyone was lucky to get out unhurt. Alex in particular looks like he believes his own raving.
What cracks me up is that when I saw you two weeks ago, you told me that you were going to cover the convention and you hoped you wouldn’t end up in any major 1968-style mob scenes. I’ll bet you never imagined that when it happened, it would be like this.
Take care, okay?
Aug 26, 2008 - 11:06 pm 18. Suzi:I’ve seen so many videos of that altercation…I can not believe they didn’t swoop in an haul that raving lunatic away. All those uniforms and NO ONE did a thing? I’m thinkin’ Michelle needs to start carrying pepper spray. She had every reason to let that buffoon have it. Oh, and calling him a ‘girlyman’ is an insult to real girlymen.
Aug 27, 2008 - 4:23 am 19. Chris:He was just grotesque.
Oh, yeah.
Alex Jones. To call him a girly man is to grant him more cojones than he actually owns.
In fact it’s an insult to girls.
Okay. Alex Jones. The lesser invertebrate.
Aug 27, 2008 - 4:39 am 20. George Seaton:“From this crowd I learned something interesting: anarchists don’t organize well.” Oh my… Smiling…
Aug 27, 2008 - 6:05 am 21. Charlie (Colorado):Okay. Alex Jones. The lesser invertebrate.
Heh. Alex Jones is a consummate ass.
Aug 27, 2008 - 7:43 am 22. Tonya:How about just…Alex Jones, hypocrite? He’s worse than the God-fish-eating-the-Darwin-fish car decal people. I don’t particularly agree with Michelle Malkin, but that’s kind of the point of free speech, isn’t it? How short-sighted can you be? She comes out of the whole thing looking BETTER and with MORE CREDIBILITY, making her arguments that much stronger. He just marginalized anyone who might agree with him and turned them all into crazy spittle-spewing madmen in the public’s eye. Way to go, Alex.
Aug 27, 2008 - 7:52 am 23. Ben:I’m also very disappointed with Alex Jones, and more so than most! Because I have been supporting him and appreciated what he was doing. But the way he has been behaving of late with all this anger, and the way he behaved yesterday was too much and out of order! I don’t agree with anything Michelle Malkin says,but she responded civilly to him and he went ballistic like a mad man. I was hoping he would come clean today and say he was wrong and he lost his head. But the spin of lies arrived so that did not happen, and when I posted today on infowars.com stating this in a fashion that could be read without vulgarity threats or fowl language my posts were removed, and most of the positive posts that are still up are written by morons with an IQ of a pea brain!
Aug 27, 2008 - 10:59 am 24. Rubicon:I am not at the convention. Nor will I attend the Republican convention. Can’t afford to go to either.
Aug 27, 2008 - 3:46 pm 25. Pajamas Media » Live from DNC: Is Opposition to Obama in Denver Due to Racism?(Day 3):Still, I watched the video & was appalled. How can anyone expect to garner public support for their position when they spew hateful comments like “kill ’so & so’”? Whoever was with the Jones guy screaming this (since I assume Jones was not), was acting totally irrational. Then again, screaming out loud complaining about what Malkin supposedly wrote in a book isn’t exactly rational either. She may have written this. However, I doubt she did. I get the feeling her words were taken out of context.
There was no possibility of taking Mr. Jones out of context, nor the gut with him who was shoving a camera into peoples’ faces. What’s with camera people lately? Do they think a camera one inch from someones face is getting the story? Just plain rude & infringing on another personal space with an apparent malicious intention to provoke.
Either way, the Jones guy loses any credibility his positions may have ever had by his over the top actions.
Malkin’s articles tend to be thought out, reasoned, and reflect her love of this country. Apparently in some circles, that is a crime. Her positions sometimes are somewhat more militant than what others would take, but, at no time has she ever uttered an unreasonable word that I know of or have ever read!
All told, Green gets kudos for his humor segment. It was terrific. He also gets kudos for trying to present the facts as they unfolded. I have seen way too much from the biased media that is nothing more than propaganda for their favored candidate &/or political party, &/or position. Most of America tires of the partisanship the media now conveys with almost every story they report. We learn more when we examine the stories they ignore or downplay. (Think the Edward’s fiasco)
So, Malkin looks good, Green looks good, the anti crowd looks like a bunch of loons needing huge doses of Thorazine.
The video reveals all for who they really are & what they really represent!
[...] Read Day 2 of Charlie’s Diary here. [...]
Aug 27, 2008 - 3:55 pm 26. Dark Helmet:And once more, actions speak louder than words
Aug 28, 2008 - 3:53 am 27. David:Charlie, in the PJM film I noted a woman in red appearing to spit at Michelle around 8:13, did you or Michelle notice that, she could have sneezed however.
Aug 28, 2008 - 8:09 am 28. Cletus:If I was Malkin I would have kicked him square in the pills.
Aug 28, 2008 - 2:09 pm 29. heather:So, Charlie in Colorado, what happened to your reports today? I LOOKED for them, and couldna’ find anything.
Aug 28, 2008 - 9:31 pm 30. DJ BALL:Although Alex came off as aggressive and rude to some i commend him for calling out Malkin.
Sep 6, 2008 - 4:34 pmShe is a disgusting subhuman that does nothing but spin/lie.
Her warmongering has directly resulted in dead Americans.
The guy yelling Kill Malkin was also calling Jones a corporate stooge.
When the war crime tribunals come around hopefully trash like Malkin and O’Lielly will be included.