You have the right to remain silent
Good old Miranda Rights aren't what they used to be and neither, apparently is this one.
In Portland, Oregon, a 15 year old kid gets hit in the face with a "riot stick" or as we used to call them back in the day, a billy club.
The Portland cop that struck him was dressed like this.
Seriously. What have we come to when ordinary citizens peacefully protesting on a public street are attacked by LEOs dressed like Darth Vader stormtroopers? The civilian police are supposed to keep order, and prevent violence. When did it become okay for them to instigate violence against orderly crowds?
And is this riot cop without a riot the new norm in New York City?
A black rifle at the ready. Really? I'm told he's far from Zucotti Park. He's armed for an at war, military style shoot out. Granted I haven't been to the big city in the last ten years or so, but I still know a lot of people there. I'm pretty sure there's not Kabul level chaos on the streets of Manhattan. Not at Zucotti Park either.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.Granted, despite the current rumors in some circles about federal co-ordination, these explosive responses to the Occupy demonstrations are vested in local ordinances. Nonetheless, this stuff surely feels like a violation of the spirit of our First Amendment.
In Portland, Oregon, a 15 year old kid gets hit in the face with a "riot stick" or as we used to call them back in the day, a billy club.
The Portland cop that struck him was dressed like this.
Seriously. What have we come to when ordinary citizens peacefully protesting on a public street are attacked by LEOs dressed like Darth Vader stormtroopers? The civilian police are supposed to keep order, and prevent violence. When did it become okay for them to instigate violence against orderly crowds?
And is this riot cop without a riot the new norm in New York City?
A black rifle at the ready. Really? I'm told he's far from Zucotti Park. He's armed for an at war, military style shoot out. Granted I haven't been to the big city in the last ten years or so, but I still know a lot of people there. I'm pretty sure there's not Kabul level chaos on the streets of Manhattan. Not at Zucotti Park either.
Labels: Activism, Civil Rights, First Amendment, police state
posted by Libby Spencer at 7:20 PM
8 Comments:
When I lived in Paris during the 1990s, a period of Algerian terrorist bombings, there were gendarmes everywhere toting automatic weapons. One can understand a strenuous response to terrorist bombings that killed scores of civilians, but I cannot understand such a response against unarmed citizens ostensibly exercising rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
With each passing day, this country no longer feels like a democracy but a dictatorship of the privileged few.
Feels like a damn police state to me. On the bright side, the low info crowd is starting to notice the militarization of our civilian police.
I saw cops in Barcelona with machine guns in 1979, and before that in
Germany
Feels like a damn police state to me as well and the bill, now in congress to allow them to imprison one indefinitely without charges is like the cherry on top of the shit sunday.
After 9/11 I saw cops with these rifles AND dogs roaming around Bradley airport in Hartford. Hardly a hotspot for terrorist activity. And of course I remember photos of cops armed like that patrolling NOLA after Katrina. At least one of those cops was convicted of murdering an innocent bystander. Been warning for years about the militarization of civilian LEOs.
It's not just the cops, I just read about the TSA goons making an 84 year old disabled woman with an ostomy bag strip naked - and another woman who they wouldn't let on a plane because her purse had a picture of a gun on it.
Power corrupts and the bastards who keep screaming about less government keep giving people that power to the point where they now want to allow the president to suspend Habeas and lock up someone accused of "terrorism"
Except for right wing white "christian" terrorists. For some strange damn reason they aren't terrorists.
And according to Rush, Black African Christian terrorists aren't terrorists either. Apparently Rush will forgive anything, just like Jesus, but no repentance required.
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