Tent Staters plan nightly march from 'Camp City Park'
By Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published August 6, 2008 at 11:18 p.m.
Updated August 7, 2008 at 1:33 a.m.
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Photo by Ken Papaleo © The Rocky
Karen McGuire plays American heritage music for a news conference Wednesday at the Pepsi Center. Tent State University organizers announced that when the 11 p.m. curfew falls at City Park during the Democratic National Convention, they will march to the protest area at the Pepsi Center.
The Tent State University organizers say they believe they have resolved questions about what to do once the curfew strikes at 11 p.m. at City Park: Pack their belongings and tents and march every night to the Pepsi Center's protest zone.
While at the Pepsi Center's demonstration site, organizers said during a news conference Wednesday, they plan to continue to demonstrate against the Iraq war and then feign sleeping as part of their act of protest. The protest zone will be open 24 hours.
Adam Jung, an organizer for Tent State University, mocked the city's allocation of the protest zone for demonstrators at the southeast corner of the arena's parking lot, near Seventh Street and the Aurora Parkway. Nonetheless, he said, the demonstration site would be the location in which hundreds - or thousands - of protesters would converge on once they're booted out of City Park and they begin the more-than-two-mile trek to the Pepsi Center.
"We have felt that the city's stance on this issue was based on their desire to suppress the demonstrations and any message that exposes the Democratic Party's refusal to end the war," Jung said as another protester, Karen McGuire, in full Revolutionary War regalia, played The Battle Hymn of the Republic on a fife.
"But we were not seeing the big picture. The city of Denver does not oppose free speech. They love free speech so much they just want to protect and secure it with razor wire and caging. Because of their passion for the First Amendment the city has provided one place for demonstrators to be overnight - the freedom cage. Each night demonstrators will take the freedom cage and transform it into the 'Freedomville Shantytown.' "
By morning protesters plan to pack up their gear and head back to City Park where they will set up their camps, continue their anti-war messages and be entertained by music and speeches.
Jung, clad in an Old Glory scarf, said his group has spoken with Denver police representatives but has not talked to Mayor John Hickenlooper about the plans to walk every night to the Pepsi Center.
The demonstrators plan to occupy City Park's southwest corner, along East 17th Avenue, from Aug. 24-27. They say they expect about 50,000 people to be at the park during the four days.
One of the protesters will be Jared Hood, 25, who served in the Army and was stationed in Kuwait in 2004. "To see protestors that want to have peaceful demonstrations be shamed by the city I live in, I think that's despicable," Hood said.
Sue Cobb, the mayor's spokeswoman, said structures, including tents, would be banned at the Pepsi Center's demonstration zone because of "security considerations and the need to ensure everyone's right to free expression." However, Cobb said that demonstrators wouldn't be violating any laws if they bring in tents into the public demonstration zone but don't erect them.
Cobb reiterated that city officials have met with Tent State University organizers and will continue to do so.
"We will continue to work with Tent State University organizers to identify other alternatives for accommodating the camping needs of their participants," she said.
The Denver Parks and Recreation Department has given Tent State University representatives a conditional permit for the demonstration at City Park. Organizers have until Friday to meet conditions imposed on them by the parks department. The group's permit could be revoked if it doesn't meet those conditions.
Staff writer Abigail Curtis contributed to this story.
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August 7, 2008
1:11 a.m.
Suggest removal
paperboy_80110 writes:
This is too idiotic to believe. The permit should be revoked now, giving these crybabies ample notice not to show up.
Security and traffic problems associated with a twice daily trek of fifty-thousand people through a residential neighborhood and downtown Denver are entirely separate from the permit issued.
There isn't room for fifteen, let alone fifty-thousand people in the designated part of the park.
It was a tactical blunder to issue even a provisional permit to these guys. At this point, people will likely show up no matter what.
If there aren't violence and mass arrests insigated by this moronic, ill-conceived and increasingly delusional event, it'll be a miracle.
August 7, 2008
5:54 a.m.
Suggest removal
dilligaf writes:
paperboy_80110
I got a great idea since Bush has trampled all over our bill of rights and allows the government to tap our phones and read our e-mail maybe you could get him to take away our right to assemble away. For god sake we all know that our government is not corrupt and there is absolutely no reason for the peasants to protest. They need to just stay at home, keep their mouth shut, and open their wallets and give them as much money as they need to build the industrial war machine that good citizens like you do.
August 7, 2008
7:10 a.m.
Suggest removal
Mike_In_Hartsel writes:
dilligaf - why don't you and the voices in your head stay on subject?
These protesters will one night decide not to leave the park and then the fun begins. Who's going to make them leave without a show of force? Not the Denver police. Seattle still hangs in recent history. Hick and friends will come out as being weak and indecisive or as bullies. They can't win.
August 7, 2008
7:13 a.m.
Suggest removal
pwern writes:
dilligaf = Bush Derangment Syndrome sufferer.
Can you Leftist whackos explain again what exactly Bush has to do with this? This is the DEMOCRATIC National Convention, it's organized by DEMOCRATS, administered by DEMOCRATS, and being held in a city that has a Mayor and Governor who are both DEMOCRATS, as well as a Legislature and Senate controlled by DEMOCRATS. All Bush is doing is sitting back and laughing as the liberals who control this event continue to botch every aspect of it.
Wait until downtown Denver turns into another Seattle (circa the 1999 WTO roits), and there is smoke rising from our city. After the DEMOCRATS have to call out the National Guard in order to protect our citizenry from these filthy hippies, I'm sure dilligaf will still come up with some Leftist platitude that places all the blame on Bush.
August 7, 2008
7:43 a.m.
Suggest removal
peter303 writes:
Poeple are planning to camp in other city parks like Washington Park due to the hassles of City Park if you look at the protestor websites. They are counting on the police presence to be too focused on downtown.
August 7, 2008
10:57 a.m.
Suggest removal
wow writes:
This harebrained scheme has been nothing but an accident waiting to happen. They are going to carry around tents, that they won't be allowed to erect at night, any place in the city. They are going to stay awake all week, and merely "feign sleep" at the Pepsi Center. They are going to pack up and relocate every night, being respectful of my privacy, and my yard, oh and the quiet of a week night after 11 pm. Pigs will fly.
Why the heck didn't the organizer work out the lodging details months ago?
Why, oh why, should I respect or acknowledge the opinions of 50,000 people who are this freaking stupid?
This has not one blessed thing to do with free speech.
Tent State is a joke. And it isn't a funny one.
August 7, 2008
11:11 a.m.
Suggest removal
wow writes:
Oh, and while I'm at it---
Dill--- Do you live near the park? I doubt it. Do you use it, ever? I doubt it. Does the government read your email? I doubt it. Are your phones tapped? I doubt it.
Do any of the supposed 50,000 tourist squatters who will inevitably, and unavoidably trash my park and my neighborhood, (to say nothing of the stress they will cause the animals at the zoo,) have any of the above mentioned issues?
I really, really doubt it.
So, pipe down, bone head. If these people were at all the conscientous members of society they'd have us believe they are, they'd have booked lodgings for this event many moons ago.
The rules are the rules. You don't get to pick and chose which ones you follow, and cry "foul" when they won't be changed to suit your desires.
August 7, 2008
12:06 p.m.
Suggest removal
JustSayin writes:
I know the figure of 50,000 has been thrown out again and again, but I'm curious as to where it came from (The cops inflating a number in order to sow fear? The organizers throwing it out in a attempt to legitimize themselves?). It will be interesting to see how many actually show up given the logistical nightmare that's unfolding.
August 7, 2008
3:12 p.m.
Suggest removal
dummas writes:
they have no intentions of leaving the park at night. this is just a spin to pacify any "concerns" and to get their permit. does anyone honestly think that 50,000 college kids are going to march 4 miles twice a day to prove a point? they know just as well as everyone else in this city that they can squat in that park all night with no repercussions. there is talk of turning the sprinklers on. remember all the mud at woodstock? pictures of muddy naked college kids running will make the front page of this paper every morning. and all the liberals will breathe a breath of nostalgia over there morning coffee and the delegates will still careless. do you really think the city wants to have pictures of cops clubbing these poor college kids show up during their beloved convention? these kids are a lot smarter then that. get ready to loose control of the city for a few days. because that is exactly what is going to happen. and hick will be quoted as saying "just go drink some lemonade and go play in the mud with your kids. this is colorado and this is what happens here."