Anonymous discussion about protest permits and police response at a China-related event

side streets, and | thought they were talking about the Olympics in China, but then | realized that they were actually talking about the protesters at our conventions. TRACK: It’ s not the same. China is a Commie dictatorship--and here there were seventy-seven applications to speak--but not one single protester was given permission, and all those who applied were arrested before the games began. Way to go. WILLOW: | heard that in St. Paul, even a m/me got a permit to speak. And the people who did speak couldn’ t be heard. | mean, what about the First Amendment? We learned about that in school. TRACK: Yeah, well, it doesn’ t apply to those anarchists on the opening day, with black cloth covering their faces, a few hundred of them, running around the streets, setting fires, throwing rocks, breaking windows, blocking traffic. It was the duty of the riot squad and the National Guard to stop those actions. Tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades, whatever it took. WILLOW: But what about the peacefu/ demonstrators? TRACK: There were ten thousand demonstrators who were peaceful, and they were allowed to march against the war. All they had to do was follow the rules. When their permit expired at 5 p.m., they still tried to HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015159