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1 Optimizer  Sun, Nov 9, 2008 1:44:04pm

McCain/Palin? Lock him up!... Soviet flag? No problem!

2 dmh0667  Sun, Nov 9, 2008 2:04:03pm

re: #1 Optimizer

McCain/Palin? Lock him up!... Burning a Soviet flag? No problem! Lock him up!

FIFY - The obvious next step during the reign of the One.

3 GregInSeattle  Sun, Nov 9, 2008 6:07:54pm

We don't know what happened before the police showed up. The guy could have been shouting racial slurs. That being said, I loved how the frenzied crowd chanted "Obama!" Nice tolerance, libs!

4 ParanoidPyro  Sun, Nov 9, 2008 8:50:57pm

That is the only time in our lives you will see a mob in Philly cheering FOR the police.

5 EE  Mon, Nov 10, 2008 3:28:03am

The job of the police is to maintain order. Whenever there is the potential for violence, a basic rule of the police is to separate the sides. This guy refused to obey the police instructions to separate himself from the mob on the other side of the issue. The police were only doing what they have to do to maintain order.

6 Boxy_brown  Mon, Nov 10, 2008 10:18:59am
The police were only doing what they have to do to maintain order.


I was at a couple of McCain rallies and I can assure you that there was no need to have anyone maintain order. Had someone walked through to get to their car wearing an Obama teeshirt the worst they would have gotten was a finger wagging from a miffed grandma.

And no, the job of the police is to enforce the law. This fellow wasn't breaking it and he was arrested because others might.

7 EE  Mon, Nov 10, 2008 6:00:05pm

If this guy wanted to counterdemonstrate in a face-off against some tens of thousands of crazed Obama fans, he could have notified the police and they would have set up an area for him, with a police guard. The police just follow their rules of keeping opponents physically separated when they judge that there is the potential for violence.

There are two things that could have happened. The mob could have done violence to this counterdemonstrator. Or the mob could have gone on a rioting spree. Neither event would have been what the police wanted to contend with.

This guy was asked to move away, and he refused. Refusing a police order is what got him into trouble, not anything else.

If a riot had erupted, the police would have been blamed for not foreseeing it, and for not removing this guy whose apparent mission was to be a provocateur. Why else was he videotaped? The police would be blamed no matter what they did or didn't do.

The police are the thin blue line that keeps disorder from happening. It doesn't make any sense to blame them for doing their duty.

The counterdemonstrator should have notified the police in advance, and made arrangements for his counterdemonstration.

Yes, there is freedom of speech, but that doesn't cover yelling fire in a crowded theater. Nor does it cover being a lone counterdemonstrator in the midst of tens of thousands of crazed opponents who could easily have gone into riot mode.

8 Boxy_Brown  Mon, Nov 10, 2008 8:08:28pm
"If this guy wanted to counterdemonstrate in a face-off against some tens of thousands of crazed Obama fans, he could have notified the police and they would have set up an area for him, with a police guard."

What if he just wanted to walk to his car?

There are two things that could have happened. The mob could have done violence to this counterdemonstrator. Or the mob could have gone on a rioting spree.

That doesn't speak well for the "mob" and who labeled him a "counterdemonstrator"? Looked to me like he was just a guy with a McCain teeshirt on who wanted to get to his car.

Neither event would have been what the police wanted to contend with.

So better to arrest someone preemptively?

This guy was asked to move away, and he refused. Refusing a police order is what got him into trouble, not anything else.

The idea that all authority is inherently correct has been used to legitimize actions from double parking to death camps. IMHO, the guy had a right to walk on a public street while wearing a teeshirt that did not contain any profanity or wasn't even particularly controversial. Indeed, it is a constitutional right and the police are supposed to enforce the law which comes from the constitution. It is up to others to respect that right and if they don't they are the ones who are at fault.

"Yes, there is freedom of speech, but that doesn't cover yelling fire in a crowded theater."

Wearing a teeshirt isn't shouting fire in a crowded theater.

9 No Dhummi  Tue, Nov 11, 2008 6:03:38am

From another Youtube video (looks like the same cameraman, who seems to have come to the rally separately), you can tell he had a fake sword stuffed in the back of his shirt (before this video started, an Obama supporter stole it from him.) Sure, it's not exactly a deadly weapon, but you'd come off as an innocent bystander better if you don't carry fake swords into streets filled with crazed and intoxicated Obama supporters.


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