Groups Protest Police Warehouse "Processing Center" In Denver

DENVER -- Free speech advocates have been arguing for weeks against the Denver city government's plan to use so-called protest zones to control protest during the Democratic National Convention, but locals here this past weekend staged a protest at the warehouse dentention facility discovered by area bloggers and reporters, Westword newspaper writer Jared Jacang Maher and KCNC CBS affiliate reporter Rick Sallinger, last week. The warehouse has been converted by officials into a series of holding cells made of chain link fence topped with barbed wire. There are signs already in place inside warning would-be prisoners of stun-gun use. Investigators peering through the windows of the locked facility saw no bathrooms or phone banks where detainees might consult with family or lawyers. The warehouse appears to be a single-purpose facility, built specifically in preparation for the convention and looks to contain cell-space for up to 400 people.

Video of the protest comes courtesy of The Colorado Independent. Click on the photo.

The Denver sheriff's department has explained to the community where the warehouse is located that detainees will not be released into the immediate neighborhood even if they are able to post bail. They will be bused instead to the Denver County Jail at Smith Road and Havana Street to be released.

Recreate 68, one of the protest groups planning protests for the convention, once vowed to create actions that made the 1968 clashes with police in Chicago "look like a small get-together." The group has since backed away from that fiery rhetoric, but the change has lead to divisions within the group, leaving their plans unclear in the eys of some observers, even though group spokespeople have recently re-articulated its commitment to non-violence.

One group, Unconventional Denver, issued this statement of compromise, a deal authorities are likely not to take seriously and that some have likened to blackmail:

If the Democrats and their allies in the city government of Denver can show their good faith ... can show they are immediately working for real positive change by using their 50 million dollar federal grant for something better than crushing democracy then we will change our plans. If they are willing to do this, then Unconventional Denver and hundreds of anarchists coming to town will sit this one out. We Anarchists are willing to call off all of our protests, if the democrats are willing to call off their occupation of Denver and re-invest their police budget toward real community security.

Another group, Unconventional Action, has suggested it will disrupt activities throughout the convention by in part following convention participants to activities being held around the city, beyond the convention centers.

To what extent protesters plan to use the caged "protest zones" being set up by the city is uncertain.

Comments

[JennyJay]

And so on - and so on - and so on - and so on. I love these comments, gave me a great laugh.
What a terribly talented bunch of commentors ya all are.

[NCOak]

"But I want a NICE jail. WAAAH!"

[gotborked]

Protesters protesting the dention facility for protesters.

This is a great country.

[bigbingtheory]

As long as the protesters protesting the protester detention center aren't put into detention for merely protesting.

[meanguy]

if they put those who protest the detention of protesters for the act of protest into detention for protesting this dentention of protesters, i would certainly protest