I read the following on a Usenet group, and have permission of the author to repost the whole thing. It was part of a general discussion about protesters, if you want that context; I've cleaned it up from Usenet, and left out the last names of the author and other private citizens mentioned, but left in everything else.
Read on about Vance and Wackenhut. One of the scariest things I've heard in the last couple of years--which, as you all know, is saying a lot. It's completely freaking chilling.
From: "Bill Xxxxxxxx"
> > > They lied about how long people were held.
> > > They lied about everything. And this
> > > behavior (lying) is exactly what the majority
> > > of people in this country are looking for in a
> > > leader.
> > I guess they didn't have enough fun spitting on
> > and physically attacking delegates.
Funny. That you would mention that ...
> > I know if the roles were reversed, and it were
> > Bush supporters spitting on and hitting
> > Democratic delegates during the Democratic
> > convention, we would see people being charged
> > with hate crimes.
That would be, Michael, what is commonly referred to ... as, at best a lie ... at worse ... a gross distortion of the truth.
Bush was in Erie, Pennsylvania last Saturday. A young man (in an area "legally" designated for protesters) was holding up a black flag. Two of his cousins were killed in Iraq. One in 2003 and one this year (one of his cousins, Donald Oaks, was the first person from Erie, County to lose their life in Bush's war for oil). The young man was peacefully and legally protesting a war which the present administration used the lives of his relatives for their own personal gain.
A woman walked up to him and struck him in the forehead with the palm of her hand. As he fell backwards ... he flailed out. He didn't touch her. She started screaming that he had attacked her. SWAT police were on him before you could blink. They beat him to the
ground and arrested him.
Earlier in the week ... a woman, Cherrie Nelson, went to Bush headquarters in Erie, County for four tickets to see him. The tickets were free. The Bush rally took place at (ironically) Erie Veterans Memorial Stadium. EVMS belongs to the Erie City School District. Cherrie Nelson picked up her four tickets ... after going through the ID screen, etc. ... and drove away. She pulled out on to a very busy Peach Street ... when the people at Bush headquarters noticed two bumper stickers on her car. One was a "W" with a / through it ... and the other one said "Defend America: Defeat Bush." The two people from Bush headquarters, on foot, chased her through traffic ... When they caught up to her at a light ... they demanded she return her tickets. She refused.
John Mizner, the head of the Republican party in Erie, County ... went on television, gave her name ... and told the local NBC, ABC and FOX viewers ... her tickets would not be honored (they were all numbered with person's initials on the back). He stated, "This is a private party." Ignoring, of course, this "private party" was being held on public (taxpayer) property ... and at least partially secured with local police and fire personnel (every single police and fire person were on OT duty for the Bush rally).¹
http://www.wjettv.com/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=4614> You didn't read what I wrote. You didn't read the
> article. The vast majority of people didn't come
> near delegates. Your precious delegates were safe
> and sound thanks to the strong-arm tactics of the
> RNC, Vance International (President Bush's
> PRIVATE security force (who do you think throws
> Democrats out of Republican rallies, the secret
> service?)
On Tuesday of last week ... I was driving over 26th Street in Erie ... I see an old friend ... from high school. One of my closest friends. He is a high ranking member of the Erie Police Department. Not normally in uniform ... he was on this night. There were men in jeans and in running suits on top of buildings across from the stadium. I asked my friend: "What the fuck is going on? The Secret Service is here already?" He said, "No, these are Bush's private security people." There were two Army helicopters overhead ... commandeered from a local National Guard unit. Vance International ... using chops our tax dollars paid for.
http://www.vancesecurity.com/enter.cfm> ... and the NYC Police Department under the
> auspices of our Republican mayor.
> The point is this. People were protesting, for sure.
> Many were stopped from holding signs up on the
> sidewalk. Crime? No. They were also coming out
> of restaurants when they were arrested. Walking
> down the street minding their own business and
> they were arrested. In the wrong place at the
> wrong time. In the right place at the right time.
> That isn't even the point that article was making.
> Or that I was making.
So, the day of the Bush rally ... I have four tickets ... My youngest son and I were going to go ... and he gave the other tickets to two of his friends. My son got seats on the ten-yard line ... just to Bush's left. His friends got seats on the ten-yard line ... just to Bush's right. I wasn't allowed in.
When I got to the entrance ... I was pointed out as a Democrat/protester (my wife has held political office in Erie ... and I am pretty vocal, locally) ... to another man ... who came over and told me I wasn't welcome at the rally. I asked him who he was ... he wouldn't answer. I asked him if he was Secret Service ... He refused to answer me. I said: "Show me ID ... or get the fuck out of my way." Erie police intervened. They were ... polite ... but insisted I leave. The police chief had a pained look on his face. One that read ... "Please Go! Please go ... because I have no control over these people."
I didn't want to go ... because I didn't want to leave my son unprotected with these assholes ... but when the cop I wrote about earlier in this post came over, he promised if I left without incident ... he'd make sure my son was okay. I called my son on his cell; got his location ... and told my buddy where he was. Then I left. Went down with a group of protesters I knew.
Strange thing about the conversation I had with this cop ... He called me ... "Bill." We've been good friends since I was in the ninth grade. Since I was 10-years-old ... my closest friends have always referred to me by a nickname. In over forty-years ... he has called me "Bill" ... maybe a half dozen times. When he was really, *really* trying to get through to me. When it was most important to him. He said:
"Bill, these people ... are not like us."
Vance International. Wackenhut. $194,000,000.00 in no-bid contracts in Iraq. Wackenhut/Vance International of Abu Ghurayb ... *fame* ... These were the "private security" people who ordered the abuse at Abu Ghurayb. George W. Bush's private security.
http://www.iht.com/articles/533784.htm> They were swept up, thrown in a jail created
> ESPECIALLY for protesters, one ill-equipped on
> purpose to expedite a speedy trip through the
> system.. And the key was thrown away. 81%
> eventually given disorderly conduct tickets
> (whether deserved or not) and kept in prison for
> up to two solid days. Their lawyers couldn't find
> them. Couldn't get information. Just like the
> people in Bush-made jails. No access to legal
> representation or the courts. I've just been put
> in that position.
After the Bush rally ... I talked with the cop who looked after my son ... He told me the woman who struck the kid with the black flag ... was a DEA officer. Tonight he called me to tell me that she was actually part of Bush's "private security." He never knew the name of Bush's "security."
Vance International.
http://www.decision-strategies.com/enter.htmTwenty minutes before Bush appeared in the stadium, my sons two other friends, in their seats, were talking about three-million jobs lost since Bush became president. They were not loud or rude but they are not Bush supporters. A man approached them and told them they would have to leave. Paul and Elyssa
brother and sister. Teenagers. When Paul asked why they had to leave he was forcibly removed. When his sister asked the man to take his hands off her brother she was removed from the stadium by her hair.
When my son felt Bush was lying ... he yelled at Bush: "Stop lying" or "Bullshit. Stop your lying." No one bothered him.
Vance International (founded by Chuck Vance, former Secret Service and former son-in-law of Jerry Ford)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/3/20/185433/933
Anyone familiar with the history
of the class struggle in America
over the last quarter century will
recognize Vance International. The
company is synonymous with the
violence employed by corporate
America during its union-busting
crusade of the 1980s and 1990s. The
company, which regularly advertised
for recruits in the pages of Soldier of
Fortune and Gung-Ho magazines,
hired ex-military and fascistic types
to break strikes by Detroit and Seattle
newspaper workers, Pittston coal
miners, Greyhound bus drivers,
Caterpillar and Bridgestone workers
and scores of others.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/may2004/vanc-m07_prn.shtml
> Now how would you feel if you were put in that
> position. Or your child. Or if you were protesting
> or even window-shopping and that happened to
> you?
> That was the point. And then I pointed out that
> they LIED at their press conference about what they
> did and how they did it.
> But that's this administration. What a role model.
Vance International. Bushs private security. His own police force. They seem to have jurisdiction over our local police and over our military.
Three private security snipers on the roof of a public school. The Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy. Two on the Brandel Building. Two on Raven Sound² (a recording studio). Two on top of Lyons Transportation Building. Probably more. Snipers. Hired assassins (with no *legal* jurisdiction) with their weapons aimed at your fellow citizens. Safeties off. Trained on America ... and her children. Assassins ... who answered an ad in Soldier of Fortune ... and Gung Ho magazines.
And, Michael ... you were worried about a delegate who may or may not have been spit upon?
Anyway, I leave the Bush rally and meet up with a group of protesters I know. There were several different groups. Some closer to the rally than others. Protesters from local unions, the Green Party, anti-war protesters, Benedictine nuns, high school students and students from local colleges. And the group I was with.
A woman in an Envoy (SUV) drives past us. She makes the international sign of the "luzzer," the "L" in front of her forehead ... as she said to her kids, "Look at the losers." And, I suppose, she was right. At least as far as the Bush administration is concerned; based on how they have vilified, degraded, dehumanized and *SPIT* on us. Who knows, maybe it is because we were all too stupid ... or too poor to join the Air National Guard ... and then run away.
I was standing with Vietnam Veterans for John Kerry.
---
> Lying scumbags, every one of them.
Heh ... Two Clear Channel television stations and the right-wing rag, The Erie Times-News reported 22,000 people were at the stadium to see Bush. One other station reported 12,000 were in attendance. I was there. I guessed 8-10,000. Here's the problem with the 22,000 number ... The stadium seats 5,200. You can pack 10,000 in ... if you fill, what is referred to as ... the "top of the horseshoe." There was no one but *Vance International* at the top of the horseshoe (for security reasons, I'm sure), otherwise, it was empty.
Erie Veterans Memorial Stadium is not an oval. It is a horseshoe. Bush stood on a makeshift stage in the south goal ... in the cup of the horseshoe. No one was closer than the forty-yard line. Unless you believe there were 15,000 people between the forty-yard line and the north goal ... these scumbags will even lie about the little things ...
http://www.35wsee.com/newsarchive.cfmmore=6584&category=1&view=3&month=September
¹ $30,000.00 cost in overtime ... paid for with our tax dollars.
² Raven Sound refused permission for the use their building for snipers. Vance International just pushed them out of the way.
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