Green Party announces convention speakers: Cam Gordon promises to be "interesting"

The Green Party has announced its national convention speakers.

Not sure what an Aussie Green has to offer, but the others could all be good, but are not guaranteed to be so.

And, that's one person in particular, per the header.

Let us look at him, and elements in his political background that make him very relevant to this year's convention, but also ... very problematic, unless there's been an official "repentance" of some sort, and I don't mean that in a Maoist way.

Cam Gordon as a Minneapolis councilcritter will hopefully have a lot to offer pre- and post-George Floyd issues, including just where the city is at on police defunding as of convention time, and offer all this from a Green perspective. OTOH, per the Wiki link, he's got a problem himself related to this.

Already on the council in 2008, he voted with the council majority to let the Minneapolis PD have authority to break up groups of 25 or more. This was just an extension of the anti-First Amendment, anti-freedom of assembly stance in Denver 2004. (I was there, at the end of a vacation, the day before the 2004 DNC started.) OTOH, the StarTrib says, that initially at least, he OPPOSED this. On the third hand, the Minnesota Post says he was a squish on other policing issues before the 2008 RNC, held in St. Paul. Dennis Loo (the link to another piece of his at Wiki is broken) extends MinnPost's squish link to say Gordon backed the limit, as well as other things, and that the council's Free Speech Committee as a whole was a squish and ... well, if Gordon wouldn't resign from it, he cosigned its squishiness. (He has a newsletter than he posts on the city council Ward 2 webpage. However, at the time I was writing this, the city's website was down for whatever reason. As of June 16, it remains down.)

I have, via Wiki, found his blog. For July 2008, he said he voted for no rubber bullets and other issues, EXCEPT that for both July AND August, he is silent about the assembly issue. How he squares that with Loo's LONG list of complaints, like shifting the last meeting time? We don't know, and per the old proverb???

"Silence gives assent."

(Update: I got his August 2008 official newsletter. Says NOTHING about the permit issue. It does, like his blog for July, talk about rubber bullets, etc., but NOTHING about the assembly permit issue. You're busted.)

Per Wiki, Loo, a sociology professor, included this in his book "Globalization and the Demolition of Society." Loo teaches at Cal Poly Pomona and even there, in addition to being a difficult prof to many, is apparently known as a leftist, per Rate my Professors. Wiki's link to Loo's book in Google Books is a 404 and other returns in Google Books don't give individual pages.

Question is: How many Greens know this, and since the convention is "virtual," how much grilling will he face over this?

UPDATE, June 27: Cam Gordon is MISSING IN ACTION on calling for defunding the Minneapolis PD, at least being vocal enough about it to draw threats that need a security detail, UNLIKE three fellow council members. AND, one of them is Hispanic, so even not being Black is not an excuse. Yes, he supports it, but ... in his seeming mild-mannered Green Minnesota Nice way.

I of course never want any elected or appointed official at any level of government to be threatened for any reason by residents or citizens of any political persuasion. Nonetheless, this has happened, to two Blacks AND one very light-complected Hispanic, and none of them are Cam Gordon.

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Ajamu Baraka, as an African-American as well as the party's 2016 Veep nominee, will hopefully offer his own thoughts on this and how ConservaDem mayors and state DAs like Amy Klobuchar have contributed to the #BlackLivesMatter need from the left hand of the duopoly. As, of course, as I recently blogged, have Democrat-nominated SCOTUS justices.

Robin Harris as co-chair of the Black Caucus is also a good choice.

Lisa (corrected) Savage as Senate candidate in Maine, which has ranked choice voting, will hopefully benefit from the profile boost.