Where will Tent State be without tents?

A couple weeks ago, the students behind Tent State University were hoping to lobby Denver’s mayor for permission to camp overnight in a city park for the DNC. They had been given until August to show they could meet seven conditional requirements, but now the mayor has decided to tell them no. So where will Tent State be without tents? TSU was one of the ARD groups which splintered from Recreate-68, hoping to curry favorable treatment from the city. TSU leader Adam Jung even suggested the Denver City Park encampment would enable authorities to “retain control over the entire event.”

The Democratic convention protesters of 1968, who wound up on the truncheon end of the Chicago police riots, had been camped overnight by the simple result of their continuous protestation of having no representation at the DNC. No one asked permission. In 2008, by breaking off from the R-68 organizers and asking to be sanctioned by the city, TSU has allowed the Denver Police to preempt spontaneous demonstrations. Certainly in the eyes of the public and the residents of Denver. Now anyone who sticks around after curfew has been forewarned of the consequence.