What a bunch of propagandist nonsense this mockumentary was.
Any true documentary style film talks to participants on both side of an issue - this film portayed interviewing establishment figures repeatedly, letting them tell their tales of the security threat created by people practising their democratic right to free speech and demonstration. All the way through up to Bush actually getting shot we hear of how certain 'ringleaders' have information about the President's movements and how anti-war demonstrators were putting people at risk. Only when one of the demonstrators becomes a suspect and is arrested do we hear anything from the other point of view, and even then it's only that the suspect wasn't the man they were after.
It was very subtle, but the message was clear - protest and dissent puts lives at risk, so don't protest. This backs up the general establishment trend towards isolating and removing voices of protest from public discourse both in the US (with fenced-off 'protest zones' miles from the event they're turning up to protest at) and in the UK (with the 1 mile exclusion zone around Parliament).
In the film there's also the repeated suggestion that there's a new breed of protestor out there. What they fail to mention is that the new breed of protestor isn't your average 'crusty' type, but members of the general public from every age group and social demographic. They also repeatedly reinforce the idea that the police show huge restraint, which is a damn lie, especially in the US where we've seen repeated cases of protestors being shot in the head by riot squads using baton rounds, beanbags and tear gas (see The Miami Model from IndyMedia for a good example of US police reaction to protest).
So remember kids - if you protest, a world leader may get harmed. Weyhey... get your banners out, let's cause mayhem!!!
