Well, this is completely horrible...

[A Black Falcon]

There have been so MANY of these things. though... "free speech zones" which are cordoned off, barbed wire enclosed spaces far from convention or meeting sites, etc...

Of course it's a massive violation of civil rights, and I agree, people shouldn't just accept it. but after a while most people just people stop complaining, when things become 'normal'.

"I mean, it's not like they don't have free speech... they just have to do it in a way that follows the rules (even if those rules make it nearly impossible for their message to be heard)!" is the general thinking, I think. It's really too bad, but understandable.

It's oppression and violation of human rights, pure and simple. We judged China guilty of the same sorts of actions (done to a greater degree, admittedly) during the olympics and rightfully so. It's a shame how easily ideals are forgotten when you preach them in a building while they are broken outside it.

Degree does matter, and it matters a lot, but you are right... while it's just a little ways down that road, versus China where they have gone all the way and enforce that as strongly as they are able, it's still a very bad thing, no question about that. Just because China is almost immeasurably worse doesn't make it at all acceptable.