Seen On the 16th Street Mall on Tuesday

by: rich

Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 08:30:00 AM EDT

The 16th Street Mall in Downtown Denver is a long street closed to traffic except for shuttle buses and police vehicles. It’s clean, neat, and has the usual cast of chain shops and restaurants found at many indoor and outdoor mall across the country: Johnny Rockets, Chili’s. etc. But every third store it seems is a souvenir shop.

While I was at the Civic Center Tuesday afternoon, I saw the Code Pink women gathering. One woman was riding a bike and wearing a sign.

Warning: violent images below the fold. (No, I'm not joking.)

She asked me if I was going to the Sheraton (which is located on the 16th Street Mall, and I said “no” because I had no idea what she was talking about. (Duh, I should’ve asked.) It was only a little while later when I was walking up the 16th street mall that I saw the Sheraton and the Code Pink women gathered in front.

But they were not the only protesters gathered in front of the Sheraton.

The sidewalk was lined for the length of the block with poster-sized photos of dead fetuses, courtesy of the Dead Fetus Brigade. I don't know what their real name is. I think my name is a more accurate name than whatever "pro-life" moniker they've adopted.

This group also featured a person with a bullhorn shouting at people, daring them to look at the dead fetus pictures.

This brave volunteer by the name of Brayden Portillo held a Pro-Choice sign in front of the Dead Fetus Brigade.

There was some back and forth between the anti-war Code Pink women and the anti-abortion people about what it means to respect life.

The Code Pink women were handing out stickers that said, “Make Out, Not War.” So I asked one of them if I could have two, one for me and one for my wife. She gave me the two stickers, but said I had to wear one, and I said no problem. I was still wearing it when I went to the Governor’s party.

I asked the woman what was going on inside the Sheraton and she said there was a Women’s Suffragette symposium featuring Michelle Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and that the Code Pink women were going to do their thing.

Later, this is how a member of the Denver Police department treated one of the members of Code Pink.

As of late yesterday, the woman was still in jail.

Late last night, there was a member of Code Pink on the bus I was riding back to Casa Frankenoid. I asked her if the Code Pink women had been successful at the Sheraton. She said no. (The Rocky Mountain News reported that they were escorted out of the hotel.) She also told me that the altercation with the police was the exception, and that they’ve been treated well by the police, even having some friendly interactions.

Bobble Obama likes Code Pink.

Postscript: While leaving the convention after Hillary’s speech, the same exact members of the Dead Fetus Brigade with the same exact pictures were waiting outside the perimeter. I overheard one woman coming out the convention ask another, “Are they protesting us?”