Searching high . . .
Tampa expected 15,000 protesters for the Republican National Convention. So far, the city has seen no more than “a couple thousand,” Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor told reporters this morning. “There aren’t nearly the number of demonstrators we expected,” Castor said. One reason could be Hurricane Isaac, which forced some bus companies to cancel planned charters of protesters into Tampa Bay..
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How little impact are the protests at the Republican convention making? Well, let’s put it this way, yesterday the Tampa chief of police cancelled a scheduled afternoon press conference because there wasn’t enough to report. The Examiner reported Monday that the crowds were sparse at the protests and they haven’t gotten any larger since then. Reportedly, the largest crowd at any protest was 300 people at one at Ybor City, which is about three miles from the convention center.
Searching everywhere they know . . .
There were several protests Wednesday, but none of them were what city officials had feared. The largest was sponsored by Planned Parenthood at Julian Lane Park about a mile north of the Tampa Bay Times Forum. It featured speeches and chants like ” Ho ho, hey hey, Planned Parenthood is here to stay.”
At midday, there was a protest at speech featuring former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. During the speech when Rice was talking about the compassionate Bush administration, a Code Pink protester, former Army Colonel Ann Wright, stood up and said, “You can’t be compassionate and kill people!” However, no one was arrested and for the most part, everything has been extremely calm.
Asking the cops wherever they go . . .
Have you seen dignity?