Occupy protests can get rough.
Charlotte, North Carolina, the host city for the Democratic National
Convention next year to renominate President Obama, has announced
that it will not tolerate planned Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.
Rather, the city council enacted a series of restrictions on the allowed
locations in which protesters can demonstrate and the outright ban on
overnight stays. New York Magazine reports: “The North Carolina
city, sometimes called the "Wall Street of the South," is not taking any
occupying downtown spaces with tents a "public nuisance," in addition
to banning "noxious substances," padlocks, and other camping equipment.
The fact that it would knock out the city's current
overnight demonstrators is an added bonus. ”The constitutionality of
the ruling is already being challenged by the National Lawyers Guild, which
has been providing the Occupy movement with
free legal services and counsel. Immediately, comparisons between this year and the
ill-fated 1968 Democratic convention have begun to be made. In that year,
anti-Vietnam War demonstrators descended on the city of Chicago during the
Democratic nominating convention which was to replace
President Lyndon Johnson, who had declined to run for a second full term in office.
Earlier in the year, Sen. Robert Kennedy had been assassinated, who was the favorite
of the youthful protesters. His likely successor, Sen. Eugene McCarthy, was challenged
by Sen. Edmund Muskie – neither of whom received the nomination. The party bosses
chose Hubert Humphrey to face former Vice President Richard Nixon in the fall, and
violence soon broke out. What follows is a truly shameful
moment in American history when police, protesters, journalist and politicians
engaged in violent clashes:
The result of 1968 was the total reformation of the primary process to what
we know today. The elimination of the “smoke filled rooms,” in which the
party and not the voters selected the presidential nominees, was the
primary goal. Will we see similar unrest at next year’s convention? Most
certainly hope not,but the possibility is quite real. Many who demand further
radical electoral and economic reform may even see 1968-like violence as
a vehicle for reform.
We hope the city of Charlotte reconsiders.
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