The conference is being reported by peace groups to be or to include groups that advocate a thrid US war, to be fought against Iran. Signs at the event included "Who would Jesus bomb" and "No War on Iran."

Unlike at AIPAC events, protesters were permitted by MPD to use the sidewalk in from of the Convention Center itself, but private "event security" guards (by their badges) chose to create confrontations, presumably hoping to trick cops into making wrongful arrests. This has happens before in DC-and a LOT in the last year or so.

Anyway,one particularily aggressive security guard lunged towards me when I photgraphed him over his objection(on a public sidewalk). He was trying to stop someone from using a megaphone when I tried to snap the photo and he lunged-forcing me yank the camera out of reach, take one step back and prepare to fight.

I backed out of reach and warned him that he would be resisted by force if he persisted in attempting to rob me. Two cops rushed up-and I got on the bike and rode maybe 30 feet away, then circled back. The cops backed off and for a while so did the security guard.

In about ten minutes the guard started hassling people again-and seemed very upset that I took more photos(the ones published here). He tried to approach, but I refused to let him get closer than about 15 feet. I told him to hold his distance and speak from where he was, but he persisted in trying to close to grabbing distance. Had I permitted this, an ugly physical fight would have erupted at a peace rally, so I kept my distance at 15 feet.

He whined that it was illegal to "threaten someone," so I reminded him that it is legal to use reasonable physical force to resist a robbery-which his attempt to steal my camera could constitute(strong arm robbery to be exact). He then threatened to have me "committed to DC General" forgetting or being unaware that DC General has been closed since 2001, no thanks to our previous mayor.

As he continued to harass me and others, DC police officers refused to back him up. As he pursued and I backed away at the same pace, DC police refused to intervene after that first incident. Given the police attitude towards protesters and especially protest media, this implies that the Christian Zionists' security was quite out of line legally!

Among the arguments used by this goon(from 15-20 feet out) was that it was illegal to photograph someone in a public place withop8ut their consent! OOOOHHHH how I wish that was true-as it would mean all those security cameras would be illegal and have to come down. In fact, the legal argument used here and elsewhere for "crime cameras" is that people have "no reasonable expectation of privacy" in a public place and therefore anyone(cops included, and media as well) may photograph anyone or everyone.

It seems that the "event security" private guards at this event are unfamiliar with DC if they think they can threaten activists and journalists with commitment to a facility that has been closed for seven years! I checked Google, and among the vast volumes of testimony about the closure of DC General were complaints about losing the Pysch ward, so it seems that is not among the few services still provided out of the mostly abandoned DC General facility.

At any rally other than a pacifist one, the assorted attacks and harassment by this security guard could have incited a riot. Given the nature of this event, he could probably beat that charge by saying that peace protesters are not an "imminent danger" of erupting into a riot, but that would be no defense against charges of attempted robbery.

(Note to the warrant-hungry: NO unencrypted copies of any unpublished material have been saved. All were shredded after being copied into media protected with military-grade encryption!)