Yesterday at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), delegates chose violence when peaceful protesters held up a sign which read ‘stop arming Israel‘:
Nonviolent protest met with violence at the DNC.
A man hitting a woman in a hijab and he wasn’t thrown out. https://t.co/qYvWbQl7eT— Charles Preston (@_CharlesPreston) August 20, 2024
DNC: silencing minority voices
In the video, a man hits a woman wearing a hijab over the head with a stick. Meanwhile, conference officials instructed delegates in front of the banner to stand up, in an attempt to cover it. Another delegate than attempts to pull the banner down several times, eventually succeeding.
The video provided on the Drop Site News website also makes it clear that the delegates were aware of the person filming and were doing everything in their power to prevent them from doing so.
What happened to the right to peaceful protest? This seems to be a coordinated attempt to silence minority voices by both event officials and delegates:
Audience members at the DNC in Chicago unfurl banner that says “Stop arming Israel.”
After audience sees the banner, they begin chanting “We love Joe.”
Man tries to rip banner away.
Stadium lights over this spot then dimmed and banner was ripped away. pic.twitter.com/3RfK1aUSV4
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) August 20, 2024
Several minutes later you hear Biden banging on about honesty and dignity. Alright Genocidal Joe, calm down:
The party that insists the other guy will be worse. While enthusiastically cheering genocidaires https://t.co/uz6I1CyOYH
— Sunny Singh (@ProfSunnySingh) August 20, 2024
Meanwhile, event officials allowed the man who we saw hitting a woman over the head with a stick to remain in the arena:
He should have been thrown out. No excuse for that kinda behavior. DNC and whatever state party he was repping should address it. We can endure a lil nonviolent (and non-disruptive!) protest. https://t.co/suVSTlWxdG
— Katy Tur’nt (@lindabighand) August 20, 2024
Hopefully the people who hit them will be charged and tried for assault.
As Dems always proudly say, political violence is never acceptable, right?
…right?
— pudding representative 🇵🇸🇺🇦🐝 (@ramthebladeship) August 20, 2024
Here’s the sign we made. We penetrated their tightly controlled, hermetically sealed Hollywood coronation show, despite them delisting and intimidating ceasefire delegates. pic.twitter.com/ly7wTuuoD6
— The Robust Opposition – FREE PALESTINE (@Lauren_Steiner) August 20, 2024
Freedom of press
It was also noted that the guy blocking press access in filming the protest was Marcus Dixon, former executive director of the Florida Democratic Party.
Interestingly, he is currently the founder/managing director of Elevation Strategy Group. The company describes itself as experts in “event management & experience curation” – lofty words for organising events like the DNC.
We can only presume he didn’t want the press to see what was going on at the event he helped curate?
That’s Marcus Dixon. He was the former political director for SEIU Florida and then became the executive director for the Florida Dems until he was fired by @NikkiFried. Here is blocking press access. #CEASEFIRENOW pic.twitter.com/P8SUScAH0K
— Carolina – Progress and Justice 4ALL – #1u (@1md_c) August 20, 2024
People on X were quick to point out that peaceful protesters were in fact not doing any harm:
No need to touch them. They’re quiet and peacefully protesting. All good. This is a democracy. https://t.co/MeGtIOjcdl
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) August 20, 2024
this is heartbreaking…that elected leaders of the @DNC can’t acknowledge that they are contributing to the deaths of Palestinians and kia’i for peace have to point out the obvious, is just horrendous👇🏽 https://t.co/BbpcazrZfl
— Ilima De Costa🦋 (@kbaygirl) August 20, 2024
People have held up signs and banners at previous DNC conventions without too much trouble. What could possibly be the difference this time?
I don’t recall DNC conventions banning signs or banners held up by delegates. This was in 2016: https://t.co/n9yUduJtu1 pic.twitter.com/AW1OJ8m1zf
— Paul Surovell (@paulsurovell) August 20, 2024
The Democrats could secure this election by simply condemning Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. As the Canary reported last week, a recent poll showed that Harris could earn more votes by supporting an arms embargo on Israel, than on opposing it:
The Democratic Party risks losing an election that they could win because they won’t stop funding genocide. https://t.co/TwSA9iTrwA
— Josh Dubnau 🇵🇸 (@joshdubnau) August 20, 2024
If this is how DNC delegates treat peaceful Palestine protesters before even getting elected, its a sure sign of the genocide apologism and violence which is to come.
Feature image via Ryan Grim – Drop Site News/X
