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Delegates to protest the protest pen
BY SAM PFEIFLE
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WEDNESDAY, July 28, 2004 -- Even covering the convention, which means walking back and forth from the FleetCenter to the Boston Phoenix offices (well, taking the T), I haven't seen more than maybe five minutes of protestors. Once, walking from Government Center, a stream of them came by, flowing around me like water rolling over a rock on the sidewalk while 10 to 15 cops on bicycles rode beside them. There were probably four protestors per cop, maybe three. They walked up the stairs, just to taunt the cops on bikes, but they seemed unperturbed. But, really, that five minutes is all I've seen, and I've been all over the place. So, imagine the delegates, being bused basically straight from their hotels in Copley Square (in the case of the Maine delegation). They probably haven't seen a single protestor -- unless, of course, they felt some sympathies toward/with them and sought them out. That's exactly what they're doing today Wednesday at 3 p.m.: Maine's progressive delegates, along with many others who feel the First Amendment rights of the protestors are being trampled, are traveling to the "pen" to hold a press conference announcing their sympathies and complaining about the fact the protestors are basically not allowed to move freely, and are not able to express themselves freely. "We're going to go out there," said Maine Kucinich delegate Lu Bauer on Tuesday night at the convention, "we're going to show that we don't approve of the way their free speech is being restricted." Progressive delegates are just as worried that the protesters won't see them as the protesters are that the delegates won't see the protests. Posts on sites like boston.indymedia have claimed that "no critique of the protest pit has been raised inside the FleetCenter." Bauer and others hope that their show of solidarity will help to mitigate such sentiments.
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