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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

No Razor Wire For DNC Jail

Work crews are covering the makeshift holding pens that could house protesters who run afoul of the law at next week's Democratic National Convention with chain-link fence today.

City officials had topped the holding areas with razor wire to keep those arrested from climbing out but reconsidered because of community concerns, said Denver County Undersheriff Bill Lovinger.

The temporary arrestee-processing center, which is housed in a low-slung warehouse on Steele Street and East 38th Avenue, will be open for a week starting Sunday.

The building was once used to store the city's voting machines.

Leaders of groups that plan to demonstrate during the convention have decried the use of the building, calling it "Gitmo on the

Sixty people an hour can be processed at the building, where cameras are set up to take mug shots alongside computerized fingerprinting stations.

A table holds six telephones, and two portable air-conditioning units each the size of a small truck pump cool air into the building.

Each cell will contain 20 chairs. A sign posted on a steel column warns: "Electric stun devices used in this facility."

"This is just a processing center; nobody will sleep here," Lovinger said during a media tour of the facility.

Demonstrators won't be the only ones held in the makeshift cells. Anyone arrested during the convention on the east side of the city will be processed there.

Four hundred people can be held at the warehouse. Those who post bail will be taken to the Denver jail and released


The Denver Post

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A spokesperson made the coment that Denvers Gitmo meets all constitutional concerns??? My question is how would a cop, a city spokesperson know this??? The use of a stun gun alone is unconstitutional. You need to remember all citizens are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law!! I remind those leaders in charge of government, the more you provoke the citizenry with threats of stun guns, security searches at government buildings, airport security searches, your all one day closer to a possible revolution!! You do all of the above to your own citizens yet you havent closed the borders nor our ports. You do not arrest illegals yet you impose all the restrictions on your own citizenry.Who is protecting who??? Who's rights are being violated??? Sure not the cop, Judge or government employee!!!djw