This could get very ugly. Heritage's Lachlan Markay has the exclusive:
The “Occupy DC” protest group is planning to disrupt the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference using a range of potentially illegal tactics that could even include violence against participants, Scribe has learned. During a Thursday meeting at McPherson Square, until Saturday the epicenter of the protests, Occupiers brainstormed tactics for shutting down or disrupting the conference, according to a source who was present at the meeting. The protesters suggested pulling fire alarms in the hotel where the conference will take place, screaming “fire” during conference activities, “glitter-bombing” participants, cutting electrical power, and barricading entrances to the hotel, according to the source, who requested anonymity.
That covers the "distruption" bit, but what about the whispers of violence?
“Speakers will be physically assaulted, not just verbally confronted,” the source told Scribe in an email. Two Occupiers, who the source also identified as members of the New Black Panther Party, “said they would be disappointed if they didn’t get arrested and planned to ‘make it count.’” The source quoted another protester as saying, “Mitt [Romney] has Secret Service now, but [Newt] Gingrich and [Andrew] Breitbart don’t,” seemingly suggesting that the latter two would not be as heavily guarded.
Yeah, why not "make it count?" Eric Holder might summarily drop the charges, after all. Seriously, those are chilling quotes -- regardless of whether they're declarations of real intent or just chest-puffery. CPAC organizers say they're beefing up security for the weekend, but it may be tough to head-off chaos generated by embedded infiltrators:
An attendee of the Thursday meeting, who claimed to handle relations with labor organizations, said the AFL-CIO had booked rooms for Occupiers at the Marriott hotel, with the intention of allowing them to bypass security measures at the door. Contacted by Scribe, an AFL-CIO spokesman insisted the Occupiers’ claims were untrue. The AFL-CIO has aided Occupy DC before, most recently in storing Occupiers’ belongings at its headquarters in advance of the National Park Service’s enforcement actions.
But Occupiers are apparently planning other means of infiltration. Representatives from the American University and George Washington University “Occupy” groups said they intended to actually register their members for CPAC. Student passes are heavily discounted, and allow full access to the conference. They also said they would produce counterfeit credentials and hand them out to non-students who still wished to enter the protest. “In order to avoid having to shower and dress in business attire to blend in,” Scribe’s source said, “they plan to wear Ron Paul 2012 gear because they believe Paul supporters ‘generally look like hippies.’”
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The AFL-CIO can deny, deny, deny, but as Kevin posted over the weekend, unions have been planning some CPAC subterfuge of their own. In any case, the Occupiers are getting pretty excited about the opportunity to wreak havoc. Via its website, here's a taste the movement's "official" description of the nation's largest annual conservative conference -- which Allahpundit accurately describes as "unparodyable:"
On February 9th through February 11th, a who’s who of dastardly politicians will be holding the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Marriot Wardman Park Hotel at 2660 Woodley Road, NW. Similar to the Alfalfa Club dinner, this event is another gathering of bigots, media mouthpieces, corrupt politicians, and their 1 percent elite puppet masters. CPAC will parade and attempt to perpetuate the radical right wing’s imperialist ideologies with keynote speakers, movies and banquets dedicated to pursuing its racist, sexist, patriarchal and exploitative agenda.
Remember, though: Republicans, Tea Partiers, and conservatives are the dangerous, terroristic violence-mongers. Townhall is again a major sponsor of CPAC this year, and we'll have our full editorial team on hand to cover the conference from wire to wire (hopefully without turning black and blue).
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