It will be interesting to see if our increasingly far-left leaning city council passes these ordinances, especially the ones prohibiting protests in some places and camping out, given that they will end the Occupy movement here.
Here’s the key parts that at least assure me that the city is getting how dangerous these hard core protesters are.
The city contacted police departments nationwide to prepare for the DNC and the expected crowds of protesters.
They better. And then some. As I’ve pointed out before, this movement will freak if they sense that Obama, and thus their agenda, is in trouble by convention time. Socialist radicals are already organizing for the 2012 DNC protests under the banner “Recreate 68” in reference to the Chicago 1968 riots at that DNC convention. As I explained here, the dry-run for the 1968 riots were Occupy-like protests in … New York the year before. It’s history repeating itself.
And Charlotte has a repeat history of losing control of large crowds uptown, as it has done three times since 2005, with bloody and even deadly consequences.
And with this going on around the world, any sort of economic downturn could spur protests like this on a level that hasn’t been seen in this country, much less in this city.
This is the good news:
The city probably will have a designated protest area and will allow groups to protest along a specific route. The city said it probably will accept applications for protest permits this spring, and could decide who is awarded permits by lottery.
That’s a step toward containing it, but they need to do more. Then again, the economy could improve and Obama could be putting the hurt on his rival by convention time.
