BrainStream: DNC (In)Security Update

It seems that I am behind the times with various security updates. Cryptome is beating the pants off me in getting Jim Atkinson's (JMA) reports posted.

They have updated their DNC Insecurity report to include comments from yesterday's visit by JMA. Perhaps the most disturbing part of the information is just how poorly-constructed the "Free Speech Pen" is.

The "Free Speech Zone" is a joke, and it nothing more than a way to intimidate protesters and to keep them locked up and out of site in what is best referred to as "an Ashcoft Monkey Cage". The "zone" is poorly designed, poorly built, and serves no legitimate purpose from a security perspective. The fence posts are not anchored into the Jersey Barriers, and the fence fabric is so poorly attached to the poles that it can be easily torn off. Also, the fence posts can be very simply broken free of the fence fabric due to the small number of poorly installed soft aluminum staples/wires. This would give the protester a very heavy steel pole that can be used as a lethal weapon, a battering ram, and to cause a huge amount of damage. If protesters are not allowed to protest they tend to become violent, and go on a riot, with the Fleet Center being the likely focal point of any riot.

A cursory look around the Web shows that dissent & protest organizing is happening fast. JMA sez that the Free Speech Pen is going to cause problems -

...what people are missing here is that neither the Boston Police Department, the City of Boston, the Mayor, the Pope, etc have the authority or power to stop the protestors, from protesting. Now that the judge in the case made the comments about the condition of the "Pen" you can expect the protestors to get violent.

If the government is stupid enough to try crowd control by caging the protestors they will be most upset when a few cops get stomped on when the protesters use force to protect their right to free speech.

Not only is the security of the DNCC being handled improperly, but the muzzling of dissent is going to seriously back fire, likely in a violent way.

By conservative estimates there are going to be over 10,000 coming in to protest the DNC, plus 15-20,000 locals, the size of any protesting group could likely be 25 to 30 thousand people.

If the protestors are well organized (they are), and they launch parallel actions across the city only a very small number of them (200-300) could sufficiently paralyze the security forces around the convention site, and thus take control of the location.

I found out today that a number of Doctors and Medical Staff at Shriners, MGH, MEEI, and Spaulding announced that they are refusing to work next week as they feel their safety is at risk, and that as a result the hospitals were calling patients all day today cancelling appointments.

And here's some pretty thorough pictures of what the Pen looks like as of yesterday.

An acquaintance of mine made a very good point about said zone. The protesters told the judge that the pen was unsafe for the expected 4,000. The judge said he's only allow 1,000 to be sure it's safe. What's the problem here? We have a convention in a country of 250m citizens and only 1,000 are allowed to protest?

What I'd like to know is just how much of this is DNC mandated and supported & how much is from our Republican Presidential administration & Republican Governor's office? It's almost like they're setting up the convention for HUGE amounts of protests - and violent ones at that.

Cryptome also posted their own look at the "Protest Pen" along with a transcript of the original security discussions surrounding planning for the DNC and a recent announcement from the Coast Guard regarding their security measures.

As I write this, Reuters reports the FBI Boston Office is investigating a "group's" possible plans of igniting explosive or incendiary devices against media vehicles at the Convention.

Next week is going to be one hell of a week.

[BrainStream]
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