13. May, 2002 - Here and there
- We'll start with a long entry from Jim. I started it by pointing him at coverage of some protests in Ireland which he hadn't heard about. He took it from there. The link that started it and Jim's commentary:
- I think the term "anti-globalization" is a misnomer, but it's widely used to expaling protests like the ones that recently happened in Dublin's "Reclaim the Streets" demos.
- Billy Bragg attempted to sum up the aims of this movement in his song "NPWA" - No Power without Accountability.
- The Irish Independent has lots of info on what happened and the resulting investigation.
- I actually have some respect for the Irish Gardai - simply because it's a police force that made a conscious decision to be an unarmed force. That in and of itself isn't significant except that they made that decision in the middle of a bloody civil war (both sides agreed that the Gardai would not be targets).
- Not being armed with guns doesn't justify abusing truncheons, however, and the reports (even in mainstream media) clearly show abuse.
- It's also worth checking out IndyMedia Ireland for ongoing coverage (and more pictures and video)

- Man claims police abuse. Sounds pretty bad if true. But the Minneapolis police have had this sort of problem before.
- Three alarm fire destroys auto body shop just 7 blocks from me. [strib]
- Restrictions don't confine priests to abbey; several continue to travel, but only for business purposes. There's also updates about other parts of the story. [strib]
- Legislature bypasses bill to extend lawsuit rights for sex abuse victims this time, but the bill will be back. The change? Allowing civil suits for sexual abuse of a minor until the victim reaches age 35, rather than the current standard of age 24.
Copyright 2008, Dave Polaschek.
Last updated on Sat, 18 May 2002 10:00:20.