Denver Tea Party – After-Action Report

by T.L. James | 4:31 pm, April 15, 2009 | 11 Comments

Arrived at 10:00am, to find a crowd already gathered. To my eye, the crowd was already at that time larger than any of the protests I have been to in the past year except the Saturday anti-war rally before the DNC.

And it only got bigger from there.

Did not see any real “infiltrators”, and generally the attendees were on-message with the Tea Party movement. There were a couple of exceptions, specifically three signs embodying swastikas (one a placard whose carrier recent Sam Adams Award winner Ari Armstrong confronted on video, which I will upload later see below), and one other which was a large banner unfurled behind the speakers podium and taken down within about 2-3 minutes. I mention this to be honest about what was going on and blunt criticism of the Tea Party as [fill-in-the-blank]-ist: yes there were swastikas in evidence, and here are all three that I saw:

While swastikas are unacceptable in this context, none of the three signs I saw were gratuitously offensive (drawing a link between Obama administration policies and national socialism, rather than being intentionally incendiary as was the case at the pro-Hamas counter-rally back in January). The only opposition attendees I saw were a guy with a guitar and a peace-symbol t-shirt singing something that got him fingered by the crowd and ticketed by a cop, and of course, Michael “The” Huttner. [CORRECTION: in comments to this post, the "guy with a guitar and a peace-symbol t-shirt" explains that the disturbance in question involved someone else, and he was giving an eyewitness report to the policeman.]

The crowd continued to grow, and by the start of the event at a bit after 11:00am, it was more difficult to get through the crowd than at any rally I have attended. And the crowd was enthusiastic and positive. The first singing of the national anthem was drowned out by loud, passionate cheers from the attendees when the line “home of the free” came. After several rounds of the national anthem (by some great a-capella singers), and a variety of other live and recorded music (regrettably including the vastly overplayed and goofy “Proud to Be an American”), the speakers began.

The best speakers were Jon Caldara of the Independence Institute, who fired up the crowd early on, and (far and away the best) Lenina Close, mother and co-founder of the Gadsden Society of Colorado, who really, really fired up the crowd. She led off with the story of the Gadsden Flag, and what the symbolism of the rattlesnake means, and then told the story of Kitty Genovese. The lesson of the latter story was that citizens can no longer assume that “oh, someone else will take care of it”, because too often everyone else involved assumes the same thing and also does nothing.

Newcomer Matt Arnold of Clear The Bench Colorado (shown here before the rally), generated an enthusiastic response to his call to vote “NO” on retaining Colorado Supreme Court justices in 2010.

At several points during the rally, GOP lawmakers (sitting in session and hearings inside the Capitol Building) came out onto the balcony above the podium and greeted the crowd. Contrary to expectations, the crowd was not hostile to Republican lawmakers (though they enthusiastically agreed whenever the speakers placed responsibility on the GOP along with Democrat party). About halfway through the rally, however, the balcony was closed (by whom it isn’t clear, but I assume the Democrat majority) — can’t have the GOP members interacting with the rabble, I guess. (I ran into Shawn Mitchell after the rally was over – he was in a hearing that appeared to have been scheduled and then dragged on long enough to keep the GOP members of the committee from attending.)

Governor Ritter was not very popular with the crowd, which repeatedly chanted demands for him to appear (despite being told that he had bravely turned his tail and fled and gallantly chickened out to Colorado Springs to avoid the event altogether). Well, Guv, that’s what you get when you lie about unconstitutional property tax increases, unconstitutionally increase taxes under the guise of fees, hand state workers over to unions, and are generally arrogant and incompetent.

The Gadsden Flag was as common as the Stars and Stripes, and the chants from the crowd reflected the flags message of liberty.

While there were many placards blaming the Obama administration and the Reid/Pelosi mismanagement of the Congress for the past two years, there was a healthy dose of deserved blame heaped on irresponsible Republicans as well, both by speakers and placards. If there were any “infiltrators” present (“INCOGNITO!” or otherwise), I’m sure they were fairly disappointed by the lack of easy material with which to ridicule the event.

At the end, Brian turned the venue over to the crowd, encouraging the attendees to meet their new friends and to sign up with the activism organizations present at the rally (including, amusingly, PPC itself).

And this is where the nuttiness came in.

Mind you, this was AFTER the event, so it was not part of the Tea Party itself. Local Ron Paul activist and conspiracy connoisseur Joby Weeks brought out a bullhorn and started ranting (and continued ranting…on and on and on…without taking a breath…) about the Federal Reserve and North American Union and precious bodily fluids. This is the only point at which the kooks came out — thank goodness they waited until after everything was over.

Scenes from other Tea Parties are available on this good collector post at Michelle Malkin’s site and another collector over at Instapundit.

Keep checking back throughout the evening and into tomorrow for more updates at People’s Press Collective, and roundups of Tea Party rally coverage from around the country.

UPDATE: Here’s the video of Ari confronting the Swastika Sign guy:

Category: Colorado, Economics, Liberty, Rallies, Small Government
Tags: citizen journalism > denver tea party > Grassroots > stimulus > tea party

Comments

Todd Shepherd
April 15th, 2009 @ 5:14 pm

precious bodily fluids….nice!
Peter Saint-Andre
April 15th, 2009 @ 6:40 pm

Thanks for the photos. I was there and took some pictures, too. BTW, I’ve also added your blog to Planet Colorado, see http://planetcolorado.org/
Chris Maj
April 16th, 2009 @ 10:53 am

Speaking of bodily fluids, please quit pissing on your fellow supporters of limited government. There were plenty of signs there to “End The Fed” and many of those targeting the Federal Reserve System were young people who are just as comfortable protesting the welfare state as they are the warfare state. Obama? Bush? Same result: bigger government. This bridge of economic and civil liberty stands as perhaps the strongest argument against those claiming the event was neo-con astroturfing, and the PPC’s selective ignorance of this point only feeds the progressives’ side of the story.
rockthrower
April 16th, 2009 @ 11:52 am

‘Pelosi: Tax Protest Is AstroTurf, Not Grass Roots’

(Roll Call) — Roll Call newspaper reports that House Democratic leaders on Wednesday “shrugged off” efforts to turn April 15 into a day of “nationwide ‘tea parties’ aimed at protesting tax hikes and wasteful spending.”

In an interview on FOX TV in San Francisco, “Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) chalked up the GOP grass-roots effort as ‘AstroTurf.’ … ‘This initiative is funded by the high end; we call it AstroTurf, it’s not really a grass-roots movement.”

The story goes on to report that one senior Democratic aide “has been circulating a document to the media that debunks the effort as one driven by corporate lobbyists and attended by neo-Nazis.”

The tea parties are “‘not really all about average citizens,’ the document continues, saying neo-Nazis, militias, secessionists and racists are attending them.”

Funny – I was at the Tax Day Tea Party in Denver, and didn’t observe a single Neo-Nazi, militia member, secessionist or racist. Maybe they were stealthily infiltrating the crowd while disguising their true identity and affiliation?

Oh, wait – that was the Leftists! My bad…
Steven M Nielson
April 16th, 2009 @ 2:10 pm

I am the gentleman pictured with the “Hope/Change/Obey” image in this story – and want to take a moment to address the use of the swastika in the image. The Swastika was the symbol of a political party/movement in Germany, that of the Nationalist-Socialist movement… The use of the symbol merely identifies the political movement of the individual associated with “Hope” for Germany in the 1930s. Simialrly, the Hammer and Sickel represented a political party/movement in Russia. Obama-ites use their symbol for political purposes – and history will judge the future use of that symbol.

To compare Obama (or Bush, for that matter) to Hitler or Lenin is not to directly relate to their historical fame (i.e. mass genocide), rather to the threat of such similarities in policy. When our political leaders push for totalitarianism, history shows the consequences. I am not blaming Bush or Obama for genocide – rather warning that all cases of Social Collectivism and Totalitarianism have led to historically grim results. We need to stay aware of historical trends… which is precisely in line with the theme of the Tea Party – that large government, intrusive government, and government aimed at targetting political dissidents is dangerous.

I shared these same concerns with anyone questioning my sign – though those photographing from a distance were free and likely to draw their own preconceived notions about the intent of such propganda at a rally. My opinion, perfectly in place. Thoughts?
Steve
April 16th, 2009 @ 3:35 pm

I’m the guitar player. I’m on your side. I was a witness to an earlier incident of a man throwing a screwdriver and hitting a woman in the arm. I was being asked to fill out a witness statement in the picture.
T.L. James
April 16th, 2009 @ 9:54 pm

Okay, thanks, I added a correction above.
T.L. James
April 16th, 2009 @ 10:08 pm

Steve, while I found your use of the symbol the least objectionable of the three, and I follow your reasoning regarding the use of cult symbols, it was still inappropriate precisely because of the kind of conclusions others drew from the use of a swastika at the anti-stimulus rally. It makes it too easy for the left-leaning media to seize on it as an “expression of hate” and obscure the real message of the event.

And while I too could give a hoot about the manufactured outrage of the Michael Huttners of the world, that kind of negative coverage poisons the well against the real message of the Tea Parties (fiscal responsibility and small government) for those who are open to these ideas but are hesitant for now to get involved.

Such casual use of the symbol tends, in my opinion, to trivialize the evils which it ultimately came to symbolize…and I think much the same thing about casual use of the hammer-and-sickle.
T.L. James
April 16th, 2009 @ 10:16 pm

“please quit pissing on your fellow supporters of limited government”
I wasn’t. I was referring specifically to an individual who has a habit of hijacking the events and resources of other groups to blather on about conspiracy theories.
Ikonoclast
April 16th, 2009 @ 11:28 pm

This post – the superb photojournalism accompanied by accurate and descriptive commentary – demonstrates the real power of alternative media in contrast to the dinosaurs of print and broadcast.

Even the error made in describing the situation with “the guitar player” highlights both the superiority of the medium AND the messenger – note that TL James NOT ONLY commented on the response by the individual involved, but acted quickly to correct the mistake IN THE ARTICLE itself.

Try that with a newspaper or television broadcast – if you can even reach the reporter at all, and if he/she cares to do anything about it, you MIGHT get a correction buried on page A17 or a 10-second blurb on the lunchtime broadcast…

If you’re getting your news from print or TV – you’re not getting the news.
PPC – for the informed, interactive consumer of information
Liberty on the Rocks » Blog Archive » Now what?
April 18th, 2009 @ 9:42 am

[...] citizen to express how they feel about government tax and spend policies. (Read about the Denver protest at Peoples Press Collective, where you will also find plenty of photos and video of the event). [...]

Denver Tea Party – After-Action Report

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