[Sactown]

So the Ministerial Conference on Agricultural Science and Technology is in town. Of course, these things always draw the professional protestors or as I call them Freakniks. The police were out in force ready for anything. There seemed to be only small scuffles. I saw on the news that one officer got to use his tazer. I was watching him on the news and it looked like the officer had discharged his tazer but was waving the thing around like he had another shot. Are there tazer models that fire more than once before you have to reload? Some of the officers also had shotguns with green buttstocks, i assume these where loaded with the less lethal ammunition. I work downtown, but missed Mondays larger demonstrations, but I was able to see the police organizing themselves at a potential demonstration point for the Freakniks today. All the officers had on the riot gear and there were CHP motorbike patrols throughout the area. I had to walk past some of the Freakniks to go home from work and noticed one guy with gawd awful BO and ripped up clothes carrying what looked like a pretty expensive camera. I think they were hoping to catch the cops doing something. Anyhow as a walk away from the Freakniks I notice a line of police vehicles parked out of sight in an alley, I guesss these were to be used in case trouble started somewhere else. As I was driving through downtown, I turned one corner and saw probably two platoons of officers in riot gear sitting in the shade about a block from demonstration area out of sight but easily within walking distance (I think these were the backup, in case the officers in the open needed help). It was a pretty impressive sight, they were all wearing full riot gear and sitting against the building in the shade trying to stay cool. It was around 90 today. I applaud the officers who showed great restraint in their handling of the Freakniks. Any sign of trouble and the officers were there in force ready to arrest people.

The most ironic thing about these Freakniks is seeing the interview with the ag minister from Uganda wondering why these people were protesting when all she was trying to do was find way to keep her people from starving to death or the minister who said all he was concerned with was the survival of his people.

I guess I'll be reading about the Freakniks at another conference in a coupla months.

[Drjones]

I was positively livid when I heard the news of these filthy scumbags coming to my town.

A thought occurred to me the other night; why do you think there were so many police out in full riot gear?

Answer: They know just as well as any sane person that these protestors do not care about anything but themselves. They will use ANY issue as an excuse to get out and cause a lot of trouble and get violent. As one person interviewed on TV said; "its sad that they chose to excercise their first amendment rights by interfering with the lives of other people."

They of course disrupted quite a few things downtown for a couple days. I would bet money that the police recieved threats of violence, rioting, etc. hence the rather large police presence. The cops don't make such a presence without reason.

Case in point: Did you see a single cop in riot gear at any pro-troop, pro-America rally? Of course not.

Why? Because everyone knows that most all people at such events want to say what they have to say peacefully and will not use violence or other confrontational tactics to get their "message" across, unlike lesser forms of life.

The protestors are like little children; they know no one cares about them nor what they say, so they have to resort to violence and other disturbance tactics to get attention. They are throwing tantrums, if you will.

Morons.