Police state: bored

Posted by CODEPINK Staff

Yesterday's arrest of CODEPINKer Alicia Forrest has stirred up many questions among reporters covering the convention protests. Are the police brutal? Their numbers disproportionately great? Do Forrest, or any other protester, do anything to provoke them? Linda Milazzo, of Huffington Post, asks, "Is this really what democracy looks like?"

Even though Denver feels increasingly like a police state, and certainly becomes one every time we stage any sort of demonstration (like making out in a park?) and we're surrounded by dozens, police have been relatively permissive (as they should be) and almost indifferent to us. Most of their behavior seems routine, as if they're just doing their job, and frankly, officers are bored. (Two yesterday stationed by the Sheraton Hotel in full body armor said they'd wear a "Make Out Not War" sticker but couldn't be caught taking one from me while on the job. "And I wouldn't match my outfit," one quipped). Denver officials trained them to respond to far much more than pink sashes, singing in the streets and umbrella-clad bicycles, so it seems anytime there's even a hint of demonstrator unrest, they overreact. If and when officers slow down and consider their behavior, the morality or even legality of it, they leave us alone. The officer who struck Alicia will wish he did so.