Each August, Kitty Koch takes a “learning trip” with her grandson.
They rode Amtrak cross-country during his train phase at age 6 and searched for bugs in the Olympic Peninsula the next summer.
Eleven-year-old Finn learned about far weightier matters last week in Denver.
Grandma and grandson watched demonstrators holler about American imperialism. Koch traded kettle corn for Finn’s patience each evening inside the Democratic National Convention, to which a friend gave her two passes.
Finn asked about the differences between Democrats and Republicans. He wanted to know about the war he saw teenagers protesting. And he was curious about the men waving pictures of fetuses.
After the speeches each night, Koch and Finn ate ice cream on 16th Street, watching people rant for Ron Paul and hula-hoop for world harmony.
“Finn’s had his jaw dropped the entire time,” she said of the kid from a New Jersey suburb.
She was delighted to answer his questions.
Except the one that came up most: “Why are there so many police?”
It was a reasonable query, given the minions of cops posted in their hotel and most everywhere else they went around town. What kid wouldn’t be struck by the Darth Vader riot masks and clusters of plastic handcuffs.
Mayor John Hickenlooper defends the overwhelming police presence even after 21,000 fewer protesters took to the streets than anticipated.
“You all have no idea how much bad stuff” police prevented from happening, mayoral spokeswoman Lindy Eichenbaum Lent told me Thursday. She wouldn’t say what kind of “bad stuff” she meant.
It’s noteworthy that the bottle of feces police mind-readers claim a college student was “getting ready to throw” may actually have been a container of iced coffee with soy milk. You have to wonder whether the caches of human waste were meant as ammunition or were merely left by protesters opting not to use indoor plumbing.
With the help of $50 million in federal security payouts, it’s no doubt Denver gained the tactical advantage over protesters who Hickenlooper feared would break windows and throw excrement. City brass argue the 3,300-officer presence helped protect visitors like Koch and her grandson from unspecified disaster.
“You can’t measure prevention,” said police spokesman Sonny Jackson.
Still, the city overblew the threat of disruption, even to the point of dishonesty.
Jackson — the man paid to provide accurate information — told me Tuesday that officers were getting “spit on” by protesters. Three days later he acknowledged he “couldn’t verify” any spit “for certain.”
“It may have been just a rumor,” he admits.
In the end, last week’s police state only perpetuated the culture of fear that Barack Obama talked about ending. In a week when Denver finally managed to galvanize Americans around something more important than football or baseball, our city left an 11-year-old kid equating the sight of a billy stick with political expression.
Before leaving town, Koch lamented that visions of riot police on horses and SWAT trucks left a deeper impression on her grandson than Obama’s acceptance speech.
“It’s not the memory I was hoping he’d have,” she said.
Susan Greene writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-1989 or greene@denverpost.com.
