Quincy, IL calls out the riot police on … grandma
This is toooo much and a sign that the overbearing nanny state doesn’t just push the idea that the Tea Party is a bunch of mobsters … they actually believe it.
A tea party crowd of about 200 gathered in Quincy before President Obama’s staged campaign style rally, small but emphatic in it’s message. They wanted the President to know they did not like his overbearing, overspending style of government. When they were asked to step back from the curb, the Quincy Mayor called in the riot police. Take a look at who the Quincy police were afraid of.
From Jim Hoft pictures and video:
Here’s what the Quincy paper had to say about the swat team swarm. Heh! (Bold is my emphasis)
“We’ve always been respectful and acted with dignity,” McQueen said. “We are out to make our case and make it peacefully.”
There were a few tense moments when the crowd moved west down York toward Third Street after the president’s motorcade arrived. A Secret Service agent asked the crowd to move back across the street to the north side.
When the crowd didn’t move and began singing “God Bless, America” and the national anthem, Quincy Deputy Police Chief Ron Dreyer called for members of the Mobile Field Force to walk up the street.
The officers, mainly from Metro East departments near St. Louis and dressed in full body armor, marched from the east and stood on the south side of York facing the protesters.
There was no physical contact, and the officers did not come close to the crowd, but there were catcalls and more than a few upset tea party members, including a woman who shouted, “This is communism!”
There are more pics at Jim’s site … but here’s the video.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Pk0Jygu4I
Reminds of the caller yesterday who said Connecticut State Representative Chris Wright from Bristol called the Tea Party people members of the KKK.
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Having para-military police squads confront radical, elderly protestors is hopey AND changey.
The liberal socialists worried about Bush's "police state" and worry that Arizona's new law will bring on a police state, but look at when the troopers are called out! What were they expecting, Tiannenman Square? Were they expecting to turn the water cannons on those nice ladies in the picture above? Is body armor the prescribed approach to potential attacks with a loaded pocketbook, or worse, and umbrella! For crying out loud! They don't even litter!
The old saying "don't bring a knife to a gunfight" could be adapted to apply here as "don't bring in the heavy artillery to a ladies social picnic". It makes you look like an ass.
On the other side of the coin, this could have been called by an administration with popularity numbers in the toilet, and were afraid that the Tea Party people were going to act like, well, liberal Democrat socialist anarchists do.
Sorry to disappoint. It is a tacit admission that they know how deeply unpopular they are, and how afraid. Also how quick they are to adopt methods that they accuse other of using.
Now who would be afraid of three little old ladies? Strange.
Riot police can put away their gear: death panels w/ new health care bill! We won't have to worry about these formidable, elderly malcontents in the near future.
Wherever the president goes, there will be extra security and law enforcement on the rooftops with binoculars. In my opinion, all the police needed to do was ask the people to move, they seemed quite willing to do so. I was not there, but the police chief says they were asked to move and did not move.
That said, the marching left-right-left-right-left-right-left-right was somewhat amusing and may have been over-the-top. Police agencies across the country are realizing it is not necessary to boost up LEO presence in a dramatic fashion for TEA Parties, but this was not just a TEA Party, it was a POTUS event.
Jim Hoft notes the Quincy PD press release which he calls a fabrication.
In my opinion, this is a distraction … but a slightly amusing one.