Denver cops watch convention protest web sites

By Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 23, 2008 at 7:22 p.m.

Text size  

• 3 Comments
• Email
• Print

Photo by Javier Manzano / The Rocky

City Council member Judy Montero, left, Denver City Attorney David Fine and mayoral aide Katherine Archuleta discuss convention security during a meeting at the City and County Building.

Photo by Javier Manzano / The Rocky

Michael Battista, deputy chief of operations for Denver police, talks to City Council President Jeanne Robb at the meeting on security.

The Internet is giving Denver police a glimpse into the lengths that protesters will go to wreak havoc during the Democratic National Convention next month.

The disruptive and even dangerous tactics being advertised online make it necessary for the city to enact a new law banning people from carrying certain items, Police Chief Gerry Whitman told City Council members Wednesday while lobbying for the proposed ordinance.

On one Web site, Whitman said, a local protest group is urging "anarchists and anti-authoritarians" to engage in a broad range of tactics to disrupt fund-raising events and stop delegates from getting to the Pepsi Center to vote.

Their targets include hotels, street intersections and transportation systems, he said.

"All tactics are and would be encouraged," the chief said, reading material that was found online.

Council members passed the proposal out of committee, but Glenn Spagnuolo, an organizer with the Re-create 68 Alliance protest group, said the city is overreacting.

The ordinance would make it illegal to carry items such as chains, padlocks and noxious substances, such as "feces bombs," if the intent is to use them to obstruct streets, sidewalks, buildings or emergency equipment, or hinder crowd control measures.

"It's a way of demonizing what's actually occurring," Spagnuolo said.

"I'm in touch with pretty much almost every group that's coming here," he said. "I don't represent every group that's coming here, but nobody is planning anything remotely close to that."

Safety Manager Al LaCabe said the city is preparing for the worst. The law would enable police "to act rather than react after something has happened," he said.

"It is not to give the police some unbridled power to interfere with someone's rights," LaCabe said. "It (would be applied) in particular kinds of situations."

Whitman agreed. "This ordinance will give the officers the discretion to be proactive by seizing those tools and instruments that are obviously going to be used to disrupt the public gathering, inhibit free speech or endanger officer safety or the public," he said.

• July 24, 2008

  11:06 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  timeandagain writes:

  Glenn Spangnuolo lives in Highlands Ranch!! He should be protesting the rise of suburban sprawl in Colorado!! Or at least keeping his whining down in Douglas County... not the big city of Denver!

• July 25, 2008

  9:23 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  GetReal writes:

  What, these Fascist bastards wont let me exercise my God given right to attend a protest with an assortment of feces bombs in my backpack?

  What is this once great country coming to?

  /

• July 29, 2008

  12:59 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  chunga writes:

  You guys censor the left don't you, bigots?

Featured

• Rocky Multimedia

  

  The news comes alive in our videos and slide shows. Catch up on what's happening today.

• Holiday Lights

  

  Is your house the jolliest on the block? Submit your holiday lights display.

• Holiday Gift Guide

  

  Looking to get a jump-start on the holiday shopping season?

• Mount Crushmore

  

  Which four Broncos greats should be immortalized on Mount Crushmore? Vote here.

• Bronco Dean's rant

  

  Listen to Bronco Dean's midweek rant on the Chiefs.

• Broncos Video

  

  Get the latest from Dove Valley as the Broncos prepare for Sunday's matchup.

• Calendar wallpaper

  

  Download this month's desktop wallpaper calendar

• Sam Adams' Open Mic

  

  Open Mic: Stirrin' the Soup with Matt Iseman

• The Rocky @ 150 Years

  

  Read the Rocky's coverage of Colorado's cannibal, Alfred Packer, in 1886.