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Hi vergil,

Reading your article, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what you were protesting against. Care to enlighten me? It was a pretty well written piece, but if all you did was block traffic for no reason then you should have gone to jail. The same as any other group of people who seriously inconvenience a large group of other people, with malicious premedition, without just cause. Even if it was a lot of fun, really exciting, whatever. And regardless of whether you impressed any nappy chicks.

Don't get me wrong, civil disobedience is an important and useful tool (and I've participated in more than one "event" myself), but only if used properly. If no one knows why you are doing it then all they see is that they can't get to work, or that the windows of their favorite chinese restaurant are broken. When misapplied it becomes self-defeating and generally wasteful- especially in a democracy.

FYI the site is broken, the link to pages 4-9 or so (all but the first 3 and the last one) have to be manually adjusted in the url bar. For example if the "continue" link points to http://www.hackedtobits.com/100300/090300/dissent7 .htm, the actual url of the story is http://www.hackedtobits.com/100300/dissent7.htm

Neh

According to an article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, at least 6 state troopers were arrested at while blockading an intersection.

According to the article, the troopers and protesters were held on misdemeanor charges of obstructing the highway and conspiracy.
Assistant District Attorney Trevan Borum, who is one of the prosecutors in the cases, said the defense concerns about entrapment were groundless.
He said the troopers had not led any protests, but had responded to a request from demonstrators to join in the so-called "lock-downs" of an intersection.

I participated in several street blockades at R2K. I wasn't arrested (but was thrown in a paddy wagon for walking down a street the next day) Based on my experience, the troopers' claim that they "responded to a request" from protesters to join a blockade is specious. I seriously doubt that the 6 troopers simply plopped down in the street and linked arms with the demonstrators.

Each street blockade was composed of at least one "Affinity Group, (AG)" which had organized at least 24 hours prior to the actual sit-down. From my experience, no AG solicited recruits from passers-by during the blockades. Furthermore, each street blockade was planned through consensus of each of an AG's member. In other Words, they weren't spontaneous events as the Inquirer reporter seemed to assume.

So what probably occured was the troopers had infiltrated an AG, participated in planning meetings and strategy sessions and alongside "legitimate" protestors before the event. Hence, the entrapment argument proffered by defense attorneys representing the "real" protestors may have some merit.

Sincerely,
Vergil

- I wrote an article for Hackedtobits.com (the "Home of Irresponsible Journalism") about my personal experiences in Philly. A draft of this article was posted on Slashdot (Danger in the Big Blue Room). You can see the entire piece here

Sincerely,
Vergil

- I wrote an article for Hackedtobits.com (the "Home of Irresponsible Journalism") about my personal experiences in Philly. A draft of this article was posted on Slashdot (Danger in the Big Blue Room). You can see the entire piece here

Sincerely,
Vergil

For the most part, I agree. Government regulation, in my mind, is characterized by bureacratic ineptitude, and is typically intrusive, unnecessary and burdensome.

However, let's put generalities by the wayside and discuss the case at hand based on it's inherent (de)merits. We're not talking about the latest incarnation of the Clipper Chip.

According to the aforementioned article:

Business groups, who have said the rule is based on unsound science, plan to mount a legal challenge.

Sound vs. "unsound" science. Sound familiar? This is a specious hallmark of corporate-funded public relations. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, oil companies, auto manufacturers and other mass polluters denied the existence of global climate change, which was scapegoated as "unsound" science.

Perhaps the business groups have a point that ergonomic reforms may come at a prohibitive cost (then again, business coalitions mumble the same disingenuous mantra when calls go up for any type of change from the status quo -- environmental, social et al).

I'm really interested in seeing exactly how requiring manual laborers to use lumbar-support belts constitutes unsound science.

Sincerely,
Vergil

From what I gather from my talk with Virgil in the last few days he was in Philly as a journalist. Not as a protester.

2. his stream-of-consciousness writing style is better left to those who can actually execute it correctly.

Exactly what I told him last night on the phone. The article needs more detail and less asumption that the reader was there.

3. much of the detail he supplies comes off as total whining: your coffee was getting wet and someone called you a bad name? who cares?!

This is where I have to disagree. I don't see any whining. I still see stream of conciousness and a bit of sarcasm. This is what happened. There was water in my coffee. That's how hard it was raining. I think you're superimposing the feelings you would have in such rain onto his _description_.

4. he talks about the events of the weekend spinning away from the "journalistic ride in the park" that he expected as if all those events were totally out of his control

Ahh.... the idealism of youth. With a bit more prudence, I am sure that his weekend would have been a lot more fun.

if his writing is any indication of the normal fare on hackedtobits, then it's the home of poorly executed journalism.

Okay, now I get to be defensive. Have you read hackedtobits? More importantly, would you like to write for hackedtobits? Maybe you could bring our level of writing up a few notches? I would love, as I am sure our editor would, too, to see a counter-point to this article.

Hmm. hackedtobits.com, the site that was linked to in the story, proclaims itself as the home of irresponsible journalism. I always thought that was slashdot.