For state Rep. Helen Miller, the first day of the Democratic National Convention was a whirlwind of noisy protesters and heavily armed police.
''It's just crazy,'' the Democrat from Fort Dodge said Monday afternoon.
Miller, who endorsed Sen. Barack Obama before the January Iowa caucuses, is serving as a national convention delegate for the second time. She was also a delegate at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.
Speaking by phone from Denver's Hard Rock Cafe, she described an almost chaotic scene on the streets of the Mile High City before convention business started.
She said she saw ''big groups of protesters.'' Some of them, she said, were protesting the war in Iraq. She added that in many cases they were banging drums, and that noise drowned out whatever the people were yelling or chanting.
''There's an incredible amount of security,'' Miller said.
She said there are police officers, including some in SWAT-style uniforms carrying automatic rifles ''on every corner and everywhere you go.''
Miller said the security is tighter than it was during the 2004 convention.
Contact Bill Shea at (515) 573-2141 or bshea@messengernews.net