Protesters made their last stand Thursday night on day four of the Democratic National Convention, showing restraint outside the arena as they avoided taking their anger to a more violent and destructive level. Inside, angry Bernie Sanders delegates staged a massive walkout that the mainstream media covering Hillary Clinton’s address ignored.
Earlier in the day, weather threatened to scuttle outdoor demonstrations, as thunderstorms were predicted for Philadelphia and expected to last from mid-afternoon throughout the evening. However, after some rain around four in the afternoon managed to take the temperature down, the conditions were actually favorable for the protesters by the time the convention entered “primetime” at around 8 o’clock.
There was a party atmosphere, with music playing and a group of people hanging out under an overpass on the approach to the fenced-off area near the convention center as the sun went down and a group of more than 1,000 protesters began to converge.
The previous night’s protesting had seen internal squabbles between two groups of protesters. On one hand, the group Democracy Spring – which grew out of the Occupy Wall Street movement – wanted to maintain a peaceful protest, largely involving a citizens arrest. On the other hand, more angry socialist and anarchists factions were urging for direct, violent action, and rebuked Democracy Spring, saying they were accomplishing nothing.
Some of that tension also existed on Thursday night, but after a fence was breached Wednesday, Philadelphia police showed more force on the final day of the convention.
The moment of truth for the demonstrators came as Hillary Clinton took the stage inside the convention center. At that point, a large contingent of Bernie Sanders-supporting delegates staged a walkout. However, mainstream media viewers saw none of this; the cameras ignored the walkout and proceeded to solely cover Clinton’s coronation as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Outside, protesters began a push towards the fence but were confronted with the law enforcement presence that at some points was seven layers deep. Other demonstrators yelled to keep things peaceful as a standoff began with the police.
Meanwhile, police detained the Bernie Sanders delegates inside and did not allow them to leave and join the other demonstrators.
After the balloons fell and the Democratic National Convention wrapped up, the Sanders delegates were allowed to join the protesters, but police kept at least one reporter from covering the protest.
The demonstrations continued until about 1:30 in the morning, with groups marching back and forth between the fenced area outside the Wells Fargo Center and to a nearby park.
Given the recent information revealed by the WikiLeaks dump of internal emails showing how the Democratic National Committee conspired against Bernie Sanders, the leftist activists actually had a legitimate grievance in this case. The entire situation reveals the collusion between establishment Democrats and the media, who wanted the scripted convention to go on as planned, and, therefore, avoided the messy drama of protesters.
However, new media sites and a new generation of citizen journalists were able to bring discerning viewers the truth that those simply watching on television did not see.
The challenge for Hillary Clinton’s presidential rivals, Donald Trump, Jill Stein, and Gary Johnson, will be to break through this layer of media protection surrounding the Democratic nominee by Election Day in November.