The Northern Utah news media are all over yesterday's Keep the Peace rally, which began at the Ogden Municipal Building and wound up at the Weber County Center:
- Father of injured cop shows up at Matthew Stewart protest rally
- Family, friends of accused killer Matthew Stewart rally
- Protest in Ogden in support of accused police shooter
There's no apparent word yet on whether rally organizers will be labeling the rally a success.
12 comments:
In re: "attendance surprisingly meager"
That might suggest that support for the demands of the protesters [eliminate strike force/support Steward] is significantly smaller among the general public than the shrill on-line comments of a few claim. Or that linking the two protest goals -- end the strike force, and support for Stewart -- was a tactical error, since some who might want to support reining in the strike force absolutely do not want to be seen as supporting Stewart and so stayed away.
Uh, or maybe it was just pouring torrential rain until about 20 minutes before the scheduled start.
Could be. I was just questioning the assumption in the first post that the low turnout was "surprising" and suggesting a reason or two why it might not have been surprising at all.
Aside from the rain, I think the biggest reason it's not surprising is the media has labelled this man an "accused cop killer" about a million times and it takes quite a bit of chutzpah and bravery for anyone to oppose the social pressure of conformity on such a charged issue. There are other measures of support and engagement that have been quite stunning. Have you checked out the donation thermometer at HelpMatthewStewart.org lately? Over $25,000 raised. All of use receive notices from people all over the country. We're only now beginning outreach to national groups to try to spread word of this case outside our immediate community. We'll snowball, for sure, because a critical mass of people can see this situation for what it is: needless violence instigated by police that is all too common in virtually every community in this country.
Also, this is OGDEN. Many people fear being targeted by police for standing up for a so-called "accused cop killer." I think most people's worries are overblown in that area, but there is certainly something to this for people who have already had run-ins with OPD.
Interesting article in the Standard about communities being able to make available to residents the locations of crimes in thier nieghborhoods....apparently Ogden opted out saying the Crime Center has it covered....as if residents can just pop in and see whats going on....why not let residents see whats going on easily?...what's there to hide?
It was a rainy day, so people who might have intended to attend stayed away.
Thanks for the savvy analysis, Bob. You've certainly outlined several explanatory possibilities.
And here's one more:
There's a local demographic of people like your humble blogmeister, who will "go to the wall" to make sure Matthew Stewart gets a fair trial, and yet don't want to see the real issues in his defense case overrun by other relatively "silly" political issues.
Jesse:
Are you purely freelancing now? Or do you still have a gig @ City Weekly?
Please talk to me, son!
I'm gonna have to agree with you. Even though I support everything the group mentions, I believe its being done in the wrong way and really endless up being a negative.
*ended up being a negative.
Protesting rarely changes anything, unless you have an army, and I think now it just became much harder for
Thanks for the savvy analysis, Bob. You've certainly outlined several explanatory possibilities.
And here's one more:
There's a local demographic of people like your humble blogmeister, who will "go to the wall" to make sure Matthew Stewart gets a fair trial, and yet don't want to see the real issues in his defense case overrun by other relatively "silly" and legally irrelevant political issues.
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