Much A-DooDoo About Nothing

The pre-Convention press coverage here in Boston made it sound like
The Mongol Hordes led by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were about
to descend on our fair city.  We were told to expect gridlocked
traffic, body-cavity searches on random street corners and daily mass
street protest that would have blood running in the streets.

Understandably, locals mad
plans to leave the city in droves, for the Cape, down Maine way, even
to the relative peace and tranquility of New York City. It reminded us
of the Weatherperson-fueled panic whenever a Nor’easter is moving up
the coast, causing panicked people to flock to the hardware store to
stock up on batteries, drinking water and shotgun shells. Usually the
storm
turns into a dud, and people either go "Huh?" or "Whew".

They must have pulled this one a hundred times over the past few years,
and people fall for it every time. Once again, the warnings of impending
doom were slightly exaggerated; in reality, the city has been more like
a ghost town, anywhere away from the Fleet
Center.

The forces or order cleared out 3,000 jail cells in anticipation of
the massive civil disobedience. Total protest-related arrests so far
(after 3 days) – ONE.

"The real question for me is why Boston was manipulated into believing
that hordes of protesters would descend on the city," Tom Hayden,
who led protests at the infamous Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968,
wrote
in an e-mail to the Globe. "It plays into the politics of fear,
suppresses civil liberties, and becomes a blank check for police overtime
and the
procurement of bone-crushing gadgets."

from the Boston Globe