RNC 2008: Choppers Were The Background Noise To Thousands Exercising Freedom Of Speech

Photo By John Hoff, September 1

I noticed if I pointed my camera up at the police (or media?) helicopters and took a picture, I could see the rotor blades "freeze" in the digital image. It was pretty cool. I was like a kid with a toy.

For the purpose of fairness and accuracy, I should point out most of the time the helicopter was very far up, and this picture was taken with a digital telephoto function. But sometimes the choppers were pretty close, and you could barely hear the person next to you. Helicopter activity was the most intense on September 4, during un-permitted (but peaceful) marches which were all broken up with arrests and tear gas. At times, St. Paul sounded like a war zone.

Freedom of speech? Yeah, for helicopter blades and percussion grenades. You could hear THOSE things very clearly.

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