For years now, whether it be peaceful protests at national conventions, ecologically aimed protests, or the current protests, police have been using strong arm tactics to disperse or in many cases pre-empt protest, entirely.
The first ammendment reads: The First Amendment prohibits government from abridging "the right of the people peaceably to assemble."
http://www.lincoln.edu/criminaljustice/hr/Assembly.htm
Furthermore,in the case of the NYC protests, the abridgment of these Constitutional rights have been partially funded by those whom the protests are aimed at:
"Here’s what we know:
"JPMorgan gave a massive gift of $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation in the form of money, patrol car laptops, “security monitoring software,” and other tech resources.
“This gift is especially disturbing to us because it creates the appearance that there is an entrenched dynamic of the police protecting corporate interests rather than protecting the First Amendment rights of the people,” says Heidi Boghosian of the National Lawyers Guild, which has had legal observers posted at the major Occupy Wall Street marches. “They’ve essentially turned the financial district into a militarized zone.”
As I reported this week, the police presence at the union solidarity march in support of Occupy Wall St included many hundreds of officers, scores of cruisers, vans, and buses, at least one mobile surveillance tower, and at least three helicopters."
http://politics.salon.com/2011/10/07/the_nypd_now_sponsored_by_wall_street/
Attempted police crackdown on Wall Street — in pictures
By Jérôme E. Roos On September 25, 2011
A week since the occupation started, the protests on Wall Street are only growing stronger. Thousands marched on Saturday. The authorities went berserk.
Dear reader: the unprecedented interest in this article has swamped our servers. We’ve unfortunately been forced to remove the pictures from the website in order to prevent further crashes. Luckily, you can still find the pictures on Paul Weiskel’s Flickr profile. Thank you for your interest and sorry for the inconvenience!
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET keeps on growing. Today marked the largest protest since the start of the movement, exactly a week ago. Signs are mounting that the authorities are starting to get increasingly anxious about the potential of the protests to spin “out of control” and go viral.
And so today, just days after Mayor Bloomberg assured protesters they would be “free to express their opinion”, the NYPD went into Mubarak mode, attacking peaceful protesters and making mass arrests of law-abiding citizens for the sole purpose of repressing political dissent. Undoubtedly, as happened in Barcelonabefore, the police repression will only further reinvigorate the protests.
Organizers claim that at least 80 were arrested and multiple people maced and kettled by police, including innocent bystanders, a number of photographers and also protest organizers — in direct violation of the constitutional right to the freedom of the press, of popular assembly and of political protest.
Once more, the real face of American democracy is revealed through these powerful images by Paul Weiskel. Not a single banker has been arrested for crashing the world economy in 2008, but by now, dozens of law-abiding citizens are in locked up in police stations around New York simply for expressing their inconvenient opinion.
PICTURES OF THE PEACEFUL PROTEST AND POLICE CRACKDOWN HERE.
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Comments
The actions depicted by the police in the pictures above make it clear that, they deserve the moniker "pigs."
apisa's defense of these actions indicate that he, too, deserves such a appellation.
But then again, we are talking about a passive-aggressive psychopath who admittedly loves to argue and is proud to have been banned from three sites.
The man is still confused by the similarity between the words "Constitution" and "constipation."
:-) / R
Thanks for being the first to stop by Toritto. It is unsurprising that You would be the first to comment and rate, and for that, I am VERY grateful.
Toritto, I was remiss in not thanking You for contributing the news about Tampa. Thank You for that.
Don't let the unintelligent gnats run you off.
One thing I think we all ought to remember, cops are people just like the rest of us - they're not all the enemy. I no longer have a 'temperature' of this mess for having read stories about police brutality as well as stories of police 'looking the other way'. I suspect these various protest actions are like so much else, it's six of one and half a dozen of the other, no tale completely right, nor any completely wrong.
Birth is not an easy process, pain is to be expected..
Rated in spite of my irritation, because the piece *is* good :).
Welcome back. Thanks for the commentary and pix. libby
I think apisa is irrelevant in the context of not having a clue as to what end is up.
I think he is relevant in the sense of endlessly hectoring those who disagree with him.
Furthermore, he has hectored several OS writers to such an extent that they have left the site.
Many have asked hi to please stay off their blog sites, yet he returns and continues to harassment.
Furthermore he has revealed the real-life identity of an OS member, which is an unwritten shibboleth, here. When confronted with such an unconscionable activity, rather than apologize, he compounded the matter, by two days later taking the revealed member to task for deleting some of his comments, and further, referred to the member by his real name.
Much of what he writes is downright lies, and he refuses to answer anyone who calls him out on them.
The guy is a blight upon the site and deserves the scorn of all.
As pertains to this particular blog post, it is absurd and astounding, to put in understatement, that he should write a blog post defending the police who have been perpetrating unnecessary and, likely, unconstitutional assaults upon what is widely agreed to be PEACEFUL demonstrators.
Thanks for visiting, and thanks for raising this issue, l'Heure Bleue.
I think Your comment about going viral is especially cogent, as,
roaming around the internet, I see commentary in the foreign press about where does america get the gall and impudence to be lecturing other countries about human rights, with these sorts of pictures and commentary going viral.
Thanks for visiting and thanks for Your all-important comments, Donegal Descendant.
As for Your comment concerning "six of one and half a dozen of the other, no tale completely right, nor any completely wrong," I disagree.
We have, likely, no less than a half dozen OS eye witness reports on the unwarranted police brutality. We have NONE disputing this fact, from OSers.
As for my disdain and public displeasure with frank, I think the operative imperative, here, is that "Silence is complicity."
I will NOT be complicit in frank's lies.
He has his own group of devoted sycophants, and I have NO delusions about changing their minds, however, there are others who are unaware of the shady nature of frank's past and present depraved behavior - it is to them that I hope the message affects.
One last thing that I'd like to mention is that I almost always source my material, oft times double or triple sourcing to assure the veracity of my positions. franks seldom if ever sources his belligerent rants.
Thanks for visiting, Seer, and I hope that You will see fit to visit whenever the urge arises.
Thanks for that observation, ONL.
franks blog post of September sixth DEMANDING that we vote for obama or else was so fascistic in tone, that I felt that I could no longer participate here. It felt like a total self-debasement of myself and all the things I hold dear to be on the same site with such a hideous cretin, however, when I saw his latest post in defense of indefensible actions, I knew that if no-one else was willing to speak up against such a conniving passive-aggresive post, than I had to.
As quoted in Chauncey DeVega's superb post (If You've not read it, I think You will find his eloquence and elegance in speaking truth to injustice inspiring), someone mentioned a favorite of mine by Pastor Reverand Niemoller, a clergymen during the third reich:
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
I knew that I had to end my self-imposed silence.
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for providing further info on the situation as it unfolds.
I hvae been waiting for the protests to begin for a few years now. I can't believe that they started in NY and on Wall Street. Though the violence of the Police is unfortunate, it has helped ignite a movement which may be the answer our Nation needs.
The Cops always represent and protect the wealthy and the establishment from the rest of us. What they don't realize is the the rest of us are the 99% of the population and when things get rough the cops lose big time.
The cops ignite problems which end up burning them.
Rated!
As noted above, the drivel spewing from apisa's mouth has kept me mostly on the sidelines for nearly a month now, but I will be back countering his delusions with reality on a more regular basis now and hope you'll visit with frequency.
I'm not making a point about the justification of police conduct - it isn't justifiable. I'm making a point about where exactly blame lies.
Having re-read both posts, it seems quite clear to me that we the idiot and I are talking about the same cops.
I am talking about cops who exercise premeditated brutality and suppression of Constitutionally guaranteed rights of peaceful assembly and condemning the police state which has developed.
frank is making a false case that PEACEFUL demonstrations MUST inevitably result in police brutality, while I am condemning the further erosion of first amendment rights.
Why You would even attempt to offer ANY defense of the consensus biggest troll on OS is beyond me!
The cops, as is frank DO deserve to be called pigs.
G'mar V'Chasima Tova
This is no coincidence, but an (unofficial, perhaps) attempt to stifle dissent in america.
By the way, the only reason I checked out this post of his at all is because you were talking about it. Are you sure you want to send readers his way? Given your opinion about him, I'm a little surprised.
My comment to him:
"This leaves me with a question:
"On one hand, I get that the cops who bust heads are following orders and that directions as how to handle protests, particularly high-profile protests (like Wall Street), come from Upstairs. On the other hand, when non-violent protesters are handled violently, a case in which the legality of police conduct is questionable at best, do we hold street cops responsible for in essence breaking the law, which those they're arresting may not be doing at all? The 'I was only following orders' defense doesn't exactly have a history of holding water in all cases.
"Pigs? No, that's silly. I find that demonization is usually a counterproductive exercise unless you find a party so consistently over the top in the wrong direction that they actually deserve it. However, responsibility is responsibility, and these are guys sworn to uphold the law.
"So, where do you suggest drawing the line? "
B. Of course, I DO want to drive readers to his blog. The more people who see what a horse's as* he is the better.
C. Don't expect ANY substantive answers from Your comment on his blog. He is well known for being fact-averse, and responding to questions with slogans rather than substance.
Thanks for stopping by, again, Kosh.
I've had a few run ins with bad cops, enough that I don't really trust any of them. Yes, they protect and serve and when I need somebody beat up, they do a fine job if I call them and say, Mary O'Reily called them pigs and well....TEEHEEHEE!!
Anyways, that one cop in the photo is getting a nice feel of boobs!! One of the benefits I guess, and you can mace em and hit em with flashlights and batons, get put on YouTube and you get to keep your job!
Tell me, anyone, what job in the world allows you to do that freely?
Cause trust me, it ain't working at a Casino in their IT department, they frowned upon that!! Unless you were a pit boss who caught a card counter, then, HELLO HAMMER TO YOUR HAND!! :D
I rated Frank, I'll rate Mark, and the day they walk down the aisle together to do something, wedded bliss, is the day I know WE HAVE PEACE AT LAST, PEACE AT LAST, THANK GOD ALLLLL MIGHTY, PEACE AT LAST!!!!
:D
(Loves ya both, like the crazy uncles who sit on each side of the table at Thanksgiving shaking their fists at each other!!!! ;D)
As for apisa and I walking down the aisle, I'm afraid that ain't gonna happen anytime soon.
The word on the street is that it is gonna' be babs and apisa, a wedding made in hell.
On the other hand, I have more times than I care to recall been on the receiving end of police brutality for exercising my constitutional right of peaceable assembly, so I understand quite well the duality You bring up.
As regards frank opening his fetid mouth at the wrong time in front of the wrong person, the sooner the better.
Thanks for stopping by.
So far, Frank hasn't replied.