If someone asked me to describe what Rage Against the Machine sound like, I would tell them they make music to start a riot to.
But contrary to that image, vocalist Zack de la Rocha told the crowd at the Target Center last night to be peaceful, and blamed the police for the violence in Minneapolis and Saint Paul the last several nights. About the police, he addressed the crowd saying, “When we leave here, let’s prove to them that we have more discipline than they do.” The crowd, which had just been shouting, “F*** you I won’t do what you tell me!” along with Zack during the end of “Killing in the Name”, the band’s set ending song, became almost completely silent.
But after leaving the show, concert goers found a ring of police surrounding the Target Center dressed in riot gear. An officer just across the street from the front door wore a bandolier of tear gas canisters.
Several demonstrators started pounding out a beat on a trash can, singing, and rapping. Others walked 1st Avenue with four mutilated American flags strung together. Others just mouthed off or confronted police. But for the most part the demonstrations were peaceful.
Interestingly, the demonstrations seemed more intended for the police than the press or other concert goers. If the police force has been more moderate outside the Target Center, might the crowd have dispersed within ten minutes?
According to MTV.com, over 100 people were arrested after the concert.
Police also attempted to bar the band from performing a night earlier at the Ripple Effect show in Saint Paul.
Across the Mississippi, a speaker quite different from Zack addressed another sizable crowd. Sarah Palin stood before the Republican National Committee and 37 million TV viewers to speak about John McCain’s patriotism and willingness to fight for our country.
If someone asked me to describe the Republican National Convention, I would tell them it’s been a show of force. A fight, either between people or parties. Or, in the words of Sarah Palin from her speech last night, “Though both Sen. Obama and Sen. Biden have been going on lately about how they are always, quote, "fighting for you," let us face the matter squarely. There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you ... in places where winning means survival and defeat means death ... and that man is John McCain.” (NPR)
My question, though, is about where the fight is: At the polls? Or in the streets?