Face The State Staff Report
On midnight Tuesday, all protest permits for Civic Center Park expired to make way for Denver's annual Taste of Colorado food festival. Activists were relegated to a small patch of grass on the southwest corner of park, as well as a free speech zone closer to the convention. As of 1 p.m. Wednesday, however, there were few takers on either location.
The difficult to find free speech zone, dubbed by protesters as a "freedom cage" and located in a heavily fenced portion of the Pepsi Center parking lot, was completely empty all morning, aside from spectators looking for protesters. A mic stand and platform were empty and a speaking timetable hung there from Monday.
For the previous three days, Center Civic Park had been the epicenter of demonstrations protesting the war, capitalism, immigration policy, abortion, the communist government in China, and just about anything else even remotely political.
Where did all the protesters go?
Many activists may have forgone a day of protesting, favoring rocking out at The Rage Against the Machine anti-war free concert at the Denver Coliseum.
After the show, many concert goers joined anti-war protesters, including uniformed veterans, in a march to the Pepsi Center. Most of the crowd dispersed however, when they were greeted by police in riot gear. The remaining persevered and we're able to deliver a letter penned to presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama asking for an immediate end to the war in Iraq.
Stay tuned to Face the State for DNC-protest related information.