I understand that this is a less than fully developed diary at this point, and for the most part I am writing this stream of consciousness, but I was recently confronted with some startling imagery. Internment after the bump.
I am far from an alarmist troll and consider myself a fairly even-tempered individual, so my complaints about the following I hope will be as grounded as I believe.
These are the detainment cages that the Denver police department has set up in order to store those seized in mass arrests. The claim is that there will be an expected spillover from their usual prisons and that they will need this makeshift detention center in order to hold protesters.
First, I believe that there is a possibility that protests will get violent. The Anarchists of Unconventional Action have already anticipated that the police or other agents may be placed solely to stir up violence in order to snag their members as they did in NYC. They have attempted to counter this by suggesting the organization of peaceful activities to counter the DNC event, but this only takes care of the Anarchists themselves who are dialed in, not others who are there spoiling for a fight with no preparation.
The primary problem is that the DNC has also decided that the only safe protest is a protest from behind chicken wire. Unwittingly, the optics of these two obstructions alone, an internment camp and a chicken wire cage, will likely be more than enough to inspire louder protests, and as a result more successful prodding of individuals into violence. Throw in an army of police in riot gear with tasers and guess what: we suddenly become The Man.
Chicken wire will not stop a bullet or a grenade, so I can only wonder what the DNC, if it is responsible for this (and it likely must give approval), expects this to do other than provide a convenient optical narrative to turn the convention on its ear and destroy any chance they had of providing the better political face -- optics.
I would not want to go so far as to say this is stupid, but at the very least this at least feels unacceptable at the Democratic National Convention. What is the DNC trying to accomplish here?