Celebrate (or Protest) Somewhere Else

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The Boston Globe reports that the Democratic National Convention Host Committee's message has changed over the past month, from "Celebrate Boston" to "Let's Work Around It." "The desire to make the convention a community celebration is rubbing up against security precautions ordered for the first political convention since the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks," the Globe writes. Protest restrictions at both the Boston Democratic and New York Republican conventions are raising concerns. An American Civil Liberties Union senior staff counsel remarked, "It's a false premise to say protest equals terrorists or a security risk." But security - and the desire "to avoid the sort of image fallout sustained from riots at Chicago's 1968 Democratic convention and from the activist free-for-all at Seattle's 1999 World Trade Organization meeting" - is driving the restrictions.