CNN reveals new top-secret weapons that officials plan to use to “protect our political conventions” this year. Congress has given St. Paul and Denver, the hosts of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, respectively, $60 million each for safety. These new weapons, called ‘crowd disbursement’ methods include a Goo Gun, which shoots a gelatinous mass that will effectively render a human immobile if hit; and a microwave device makes your skin feel as though it’s on fire, upon contact.

How far should officials and officers be allowed to go to to keep protesters and activists away from the immediate action at political conventions? Do these ‘crowd disbursement’ methods take away individual rights or do they reinforce order and security?

The 2004 RNC convention in New York City, which saw over 500,000 protesters, was famous for developing a huge exclusion zone. Protesters were confined to an area of Central Park several miles from the convention. Preemptive arrests involving the use of group nets and other tactical crowd control devices, were carried out when protesters (or people who looked like protesters) got anywhere near the convention hall. According to Democracy Now, “…the police arrested 19 people in separate incidents, bringing the total of those detained so far during seven days of relentless convention-related protests to more than 1,760–a record for a political convention.

Hundreds of people protested the conditions under which those arrested are being held before going to court saying the site was contaminated with oil and asbestos. Pier 57 is a three-story, block-long pier that has been converted to a holding pen. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has denied the city was operating what some called “Guantanamo-on-the-Hudson.”

The 2008 conventions, are set to draw the largest crowds in history. Political and Secret Service officials are planning heavy constraints on protesters, including what has now been coined a first-ever “Freedom Cage” by an activist group called Recreate68. According to the Associated Press, “a 50,000-square-foot demonstration zone that will have two layers of chain-link fences wrapped around it during the Democratic National Convention, has been deemed the “freedom cage” by the leader of a group planning to march during the four-day event.

“We plan to go in that zone once only to protest its existence,” said Mark Cohen, co-founder and organizer of advocacy group Recreate 68. “When the media presents images of demonstrators in the demonstration zones in relationship to the Pepsi Center, the public will see what could look like prisoners.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado and more than a dozen advocacy groups argue in the suit that the parade route and demonstration zone keep protesters from being seen or heard by delegates entering the Pepsi Center, where the convention begins Aug. 25. Denver and the Secret Service are named as defendants.

See how the police reacted to the protesters in Seattle in this interview with Victor Menotti.

The activist movement has grown steadily as more and more people perceive the corruptive influence of private monies in public policy-making. This movement exploded during the 1999 Seattle protests, called the Battle in Seattle, when over 50,000 protesters caused the collapse of the WTO talks. The events of those 5 tumultuous days depicted in the upcoming film by Stuart Townsend’s called, Battle in Seattle.