Air and Space Museum closes after guards clash with protesters

[pintobean]

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum on the Mall was abruptly closed Saturday afternoon after a “large group of protesters” tried to push past security guards and enter the museum, a spokeswoman said.

At least one demonstrator was pepper-sprayed by a museum guard in the confrontation, said Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas. Several witnesses said that more than a dozen people were affected by the spray.

The museum was closed at about 3:15 p.m., St. Thomas said.

Some of the protesters were affiliated with the Occupy DC demonstration that had sprung up at McPherson Square last week as an offshoot of the larger Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City, said Cody Steele, 21, an American University senior who participated in the march to the museum.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post_now/post/air-and-space-museum-closes-after-guards-clash-with-protesters/2011/10/08/gIQAx0x2VL_blog.html?hpid=z2

[catabryna]

1. Such an awesome way to demonstrate...

Let's go after the Kitty Hawk! Yeah, that's the ticket! :sarcasm:

eta: Seriously... couldn't we have found a better way to take out our frustrations?

[pintobean]

2. Yeah, I think this was a really bad move

I understand why they did it, though:
"An exhibit of military unmanned aerial vehicles is currently on view at the museum."

[FSogol]

6. I agree. Bad move. n/t

[justiceischeap]

4. "An exhibit of military unmanned aerial vehicles is currently on view"

I'm guessing they weren't going after the Kitty Hawk but you'd actually have to read the article to know that.

[catabryna]

5. I read the article this morning...

note the sarcasm thingy.

[bluestate10]

29. I read the article and still think the protesters move was stupid.

While the pepper spraying of contained demonstrators in NYC was barbaric and unwarranted, the DC security guard appears to have used pepper spray in a way that it should be used.

[A HERETIC I AM]

10. "the Kitty Hawk"?

To what are you referring, exactly?


Kitty Hawk is a place in North Carolina

Or the USS Kitty Hawk, which is a now decommissioned Aircraft Carrier, sitting in Bremerton Washington.


Perhaps you meant simply "The Wright Flyer" as the famous airplanes flown at Kitty Hawk, NC are known.

[catabryna]

11. Oh please....

you know exactly what I mean. :)

eta: First in Flight, North Carolina License Plate? :P

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[taterguy]

41. The famous planes were flown at Kill Devil Hills, not Kitty Hawk

:eyes:

[A HERETIC I AM]

47. Sorry. I was off by 4 miles.

FOUR FUCKING MILES!

Wow. My apologies. You're right, however. The flights didn't take place in Kitty Hawk proper.

That is of course, why they named the Aircraft Carrier the "USS Kill Devil Hills".


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Hawk,_North_Carolina

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Huh, caused by the "October 11" group. This is why it's important to stay peaceful.

Bad press, and they're champing at the bit to present it, isn't on our side.

[bluestate10]

30. FOX news is going to be all over this one. Plus, the assholes bailed out Cantor.

Cantor made a fucking insane statement on Friday. A good tactic would have been to let the bastard stew in that statement's juices. But along come some undisciplined jackasses to bail Cantor out. Now the focus will be off the slime-ball.

[ChandlerJr]

7. You have to break a few eggs to make an Omlete

sometimes whatever it takes.

[pintobean]

8. Really? I thought we wanted the American people on our side.

Fucking with their treasures isn't a good way to accomplish that.

[ChandlerJr]

9. I suppose it depends on who you mean by "we"

The political parties already in power or the #OWS movement.

A little civil disobedience and a few arrests might just convince people that it's not #OccupySesameStreet.

[whistler162]

12. Darjeeling or Earl Grey at your party!

[EFerrari]

14. Rob from OEN was there and one of his colleagues got some film of it.

It looks like the guards overreacted. The crowd was not violent. They sprayed people just inside and then ran outside and sprayed people outside of the building.

[bluestate10]

33. Show the video. nt

[EFerrari]

43. It's been up at OEN since yesterday. n/t

[Silent3]

23. The protesters in Egypt threw out Mubarak, while being smart enough...

...not to ransack their country's museums. In the one case I know of where some looting did occur, the vast majority of the protesters moved quickly to help protect their country's heritage.

You don't have to be a stupid, senseless, reckless thug to accomplish big things.

[Puregonzo1188]

26. Do we really know it was their intention to "ransack" the museum?

From what I understand there have been protests of the drone exhibit, including in the museum, and I don't recall any ransacking.

[Silent3]

28. Whether some of them intended to damage anything or not...

...if a crowd of protesters is trying to push into a museum full of irreplaceable historic artifacts you don't sit back and wait for something to get damaged, by intent or by accident, before you react. I'm all for giving these people plenty of latitude -- I've been to Washington twice for protest rallies myself so far -- but that doesn't go as far as putting national treasures at risk.

[bluestate10]

34. They were trying to bring in signs.

Museums historically don't allow signs inside. They would have been more effective if they had protested outside, but cleared a path for people coming into and going out of the museum.

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. If anyone is calling those drones treasures I'm embarrassed for them

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bluestate10]

35. Anything that saves one innocent american life is a treasure in my book. nt

[minavasht]

25. Right

Care to explain how busting into a museum equals an omelet?

[bluestate10]

31. Clueless.

Attempting to push past security guards that have to protect property and likely make little more than minimum wage is not the way to gain sympathy for your cause. Why didn't the protesters simply sit outside, allow other people through, and protest? Some of the people going into the museum would have despised them anyway, but many would have gained respect for them and may be start to feel that the cause the protesters represented was worth taking a deeper look into.

[MrScorpio]

15. The National Air and Space Museum?

I'm not getting this.

[EFerrari]

16. They have drones on display right now.

[hatrack]

17. That's "Freedom Drones" to you, bucko!

:hi:

[EFerrari]

19. Like the Love Boat with no on board comedians.

Drones of Love & Democracy. We Bomb in Peace. :)

[MrScorpio]

18. Yeah, but not all drones have killed people

My next to last unit before I retired flew unarmed drones in the Middle East…

Back then no one cared about them, because they weren't killing people. It was the CIA who decided the arm them first.

I'm still not seeing it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. Drones don't kill people. People kill people...

Oops wrong weapon.

[minavasht]

20. I can kinda understand protesting in front of the museum

Going inside on the other hand...

[bluestate10]

36. I agree, they would have accomplished more by staying outside. nt

[lynne]

27. That will win friends and influence people . . . NOT -

- it does, however, send a very mixed message. Not the thing to do, IMO.

[bluestate10]

37. They bailed the dumb-ass Cantor out.

Just when the bastard was starting to stew in his hate speech made Friday. How fucking more clueless could the protesters have been?

[Hutzpa]

55. And your point is???

:shrug:

[bluedigger]

32. This was misguided.

You don't occupy a museum. If you have a problem with it, go ahead and picket it, but stay outside.

Or better yet, if you want to get arrested, go occupy something that matters, like the US Chamber of Commerce or the Supreme Court.

[bluestate10]

38. I agree, it was misguided, totally misguided.

But given some of what I read on DU and often fight against, I can see how the protesters would have thought that such a poorly thought-out action would accomplish something meaningful. Good causes don't prevail because people go about shooting from their asses.

[KharmaTrain]

39. Focus...

Wanna get rid of the killing drones? Making at scene at the Air & Space Museum that gives the corporate media ammo to paint stereotypes is stupid. It has ZERO to do with OSW...ZERO.

The way to disarm those killers along with a much needed deep cut into the Pentago and the MIC starts with electing more anti-war and Progressive/Liberal Democrats to retake the House and build a stronger majority in the Senate. While I detest the teabaggers, their ability to put the pressure on their politicians is how things get done...not scaring the shit out of a bunch of visitors to a museum.

The winning argument right now is how the banksters and corporates have screwed up this country's economy...keep the focus there!

[CJCRANE]

40. Conservative Magazine Brags of its Agent Provacateur's Role in Provoking Police Action in D.C.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2084473

[pintobean]

44. Yeah, I saw that.

I read the Spectator article. The Kos article overplays the guy's role.

[CJCRANE]

45. Well, Howley (the infiltrator) pointed out that he was the only protester inside the museum.

Seems like he was the ringleader (or one of them).

[Generic Other]

48. cointelpro

or its cheap Brietbartish equivalent

[bluestate10]

54. No. Just by getting other people that should have known better to rush the gate.

He got exactly what he was looking for. He had tricked people that he hates into doing the type of action that he wanted to see from them. He could have just stood off to the side eating a hotdog after that, the damage was done. The right-winger seems to have really wanted to trash the place and maybe get some of the people looking through the displays hurt, then he would have dealt a potentially fatal blow.

Many on DU are not properly blaming the left leaning protesters for letting an avowed right-winger who hate their cause and likely them, lead them astray. In the end, there is no way but to own up to that reality.

[Hutzpa]

49. How did the Kos article overplays it?

they took it from the pricks own blog bragging about it, so how did D.Kos overplayed
a protest the individual bragged about.

[pintobean]

50. .

[Hutzpa]

53. umm ok, I take it we're blank on this one. n/t

[girl gone mad]

51. I don't think so.

[Harmony Blue]

46. Not surprised

they are trying to slow down the movement.

[bluestate10]

52. The author found a group of willing people that were not thinking.

And took advantage of them. His act was morally corrupt, but following his actions can only be defined as blindly stupid. Movements grow and make change when the people in those movements set one basic principle, non-violence in this case, and stick to that principle, even when provoked.

[SidDithers]

42. recommended...nt

Sid