COPA
The Coalition on Political Assassinations, which has gathered on the grassy knoll in some form or fashion every Nov. 22 since 1964, was also banned from the site this year by the city of Dallas.
"They know the world press is coming and they want to do an event that controls the message entirely," COPA director Judge said. "They want us to be invisible to the press and the crowds."
Although COPA backed down from their threatened civil rights lawsuit over access to the plaza, they did manage to gain some important concessions from the city. COPA was allowed to hold their annual moment of silence at 12:30 p.m. (the moment the president was shot) outside Dealey Plaza. Dallas officials also agreed to re-open the park to them at 2:30 p.m., after the official ceremony had ended. In return, COPA agreed they would be good little boys and girls.
A handful of COPA members, however, managed to obtain tickets to the city-sponsored official ceremonies in Dealey Plaza. Positioning themselves in front of the news cameras, COPA protesters said not a word to disrupt the proceedings but instead silently pointed to the grassy knoll. They all wore t-shirts bearing the late president's image with the words "50 years in denial is enough."
CTKA
Most of the assassination researchers (they hate the term "conspiracy theorists") I spoke to that day still harbored hurt feelings and bitterness over their exclusion from Dealey Plaza, understandably.
"The 50th anniversary will really be one of the last opportunities to really get this out into the public domain," said James DiEugenio, co-founder of the Citizens for Truth About the Kennedy Assassination.
"I really and truly believe that the Kennedy assassination was quite epochal; it had reverberations down to present day," he says. "What has happened over time is that cynicism and skepticism have seeped down into the public at large. It has caused a lot of serious problems about peoples' belief in government and has splintered our society."
JFK LANCER
Over at the nearby Adolphus hotel, about 400 assassination researchers from around the country had gathered for the annual convention of their group, JFK Lancer.
This year's convention was a biggie; featuring the most eminent of JFK scholars lecturing on everything from how the late Ted Sorensen Saved the World (Really!) to the allegedly sinister connection betwixt presidential patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy, Jack Ruby, and his defense lawyer Melvin Belli.
Dick Russell gave an outstanding presentation about Richard Case Nagell (the man who knew too much?); Kennedy family friend Joan Mellen conducted a focus group on the Jim Garrison case against Clay Shaw, and Russ Baker brought to light new information that wasn't included in his original "Family of Secrets" book about the Bush dynasty --- including startling evidence pointing to George H.W. Bush's alleged involvement in the Kennedy assassination.
JFK Conspiracy theories aren't just for left-wingers anymore. Oh, no. After 50 years, this is no longer a partisan issue. When even Dick Morris comes to the same conclusion today as Mark Lane did in 1966 -- that Kennedy was murdered by a conspiratorial cabal -- it's time to put personal politics aside and face the facts of the case with an open mind.
ALEX JONES
Meanwhile, back on the mean streets of downtown Dallas, conservative radio talk show host Alex Jones and his army of followers marched to the barricades surrounding Dealey Plaza. For Dallas native Jones --- who was born at Parkland hospital (where JFK and Oswald both died) -- -the Kennedy assassination is an intensely personal mission.
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