The White House Crowd Control Manual

quizzicus writes "The Washington Post writes today about a sensitive White House document detailing how to screen for, silence, and remove protesters who show up at the President's public appearances. Obtained by an ACLU subpoena in the Rank v. Jenkins case, the Presidential Advance Manual (PDF) is dated October 2002. It lays out strategies such as searching audience members at the door for hidden protest material, strategically placing 'rally squads' throughout the crowd to intercept and shout down hecklers, and forcefully removing dissenters who cannot be squelched. The manual advises, however, that staff should 'decide if the solution would cause more negative publicity than if the demonstrators were simply left alone.'"

Comments

Slashdot = News for Political Activists

[Alexpkeaton1010]

Where is the tech in this article? Are they zapping the protestors to the Alien mothership?

Re:What's really entertaining

[Mr. Slippery]

If you read the link you pointed to, you'd see that the alleged assailants were members of a Teamster's local that supported Republicans:

Judge Meehan is the son of the man who headed the Republican Party in Philadelphia for at least the last 30 years until his death several years ago. Judge Meehan's brother now heads the party. Organized Labor has supported Meehan and the Republicans through campaign contributions and other donations and in return Meehan and the Republicans has supported organized labor. The strongest of all labor leaders in this city is, you guessed it, John Morris, President of Teamsters Local 115.

So taking their (alleged) actions as evidence that Democrats beat the crap out of people, is problematic.

But yes, there are nutjobs on all sides who have no respect for free speech.

Personally, I usually feel heartened by right-wing counterprotestors. As much as I appreciate the fact than an argument is not responsible for those who believe it, the frothing-at-the-mouth nutjobs who make up most of the turnout for pro-war counter-rallys at anti-war marches make a strong gut-check that I'm on the right side.