I feel so much safer.

r

Ya know, the powers-that-be are taking notice, and they are not viewing the plight of average Americans as a joke. We live in interesting times.

Ditto what toritto said. R.

Turn towards Chicago for the protests at the NATO meeting.

Armored black dressed men lining up the take on the masses.

Watch for false flag operation. I hear there is a rumor of a nuclear threat.

I feel so safe. sarcasm. And safer by the day. Not!!

Because they had nothing better to do?... like patrol neighborhoods and keep people safe?

What a waste. While militia stood guarding an empty bridge to nowhere, we the people were fleeced from thugs on Capitol Hill. Who protects us from them?

Where are "Panch" and Jon?

I remember seeing a protester holding a sign that said "If we regulated banks the way we did park rules, we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with."

Our Governors and Legislators, Mayors and City Councils are more interested in enforcing park rules, than they are in promoting the well-being of our citizenry.

You really have to wonder what sort of mind conditioning those uniform-monkeys have been subjected to in order to get them out there making such asses of themselves in full public view.

;-p
.

Hardly anything new. Organizations including SDS had considered blocking bridges in NYC during the Vietnam era. They were so infiltrated by all sorts of law enforcement (I was at one meeting where I swear a quarter of the people there were cops) that of course, it was known and never happened. What good it would have accomplished, I don't know and it could have caused real harm to people.

As for the CHP, well, having lived all over the US, I've actually found they focused more on real safety than anything else. I've had numerous interactions with them and they were overall, better than other organizations like them around the country. They may give out more speeding tickets now that they can use radar (which required special situations when I lived in CA last time) but I'd say it would be a good thing if more police agencies mirrored their standards and that should be appreciated. I'm sure the guys standing there would rather be doing something more beneficial, they don't get to choose where they're assigned.

But on the bright side . . . if you want to keep up on all things Eric Estrada, there's this site:

http://www.topix.com/who/erik-estrada

He'll be appearing at a latino business and career expo in Kennewick, Washington. I'm going in full costume. Not a CHIPS uniform--a wayside hooker.

Rated.

The whole thing would make a great sitcom.

I feel so much safer knowing our corporate masters brought out the Praetorian Guard. If there is anything they truly fear, it is that we might organize against their hegemonic power and end their looting of our society.

This cannot be right! I do not see Erik Estrada anywhere in the picture.

What Jack said. R

Blocking the bridge would make for a whole lot of unhappy commuters. You'd get disruption and possibly safety issues and I'm not sure you'd target the right population.

And as has been pointed out, the cops don't decide where they're stationed.

If they started cracking heads, that's something else.

Occupy and MoveOn hosted protests across the country a couple of days ago including one in Las Vegas in which I participated, a protest held in conjunction with the shareholder's meeting in Charlotte, NC.

We had a preplanned meeting point in the parking adjacent to the BofA. As we began to gather in numbers, the one patrol car in the parking lot multiplied almost instantly to seven or eight. I thought we were certainly going to be forced to leave the parking lot (private property) and assemble on the sidewalk. To my astonishment, the Las Vegas Metropolitan PD officers were the most pleasant individuals in a police officer’s uniform I have ever encountered. Perhaps it was because of the age bracket most of us were in; I’m 60 and I was by far the youngest there. A protest of the geriatric crowd I guess : - ).

Anyway, they were extraordinarily polite and even inquisitive about the purpose of the protest, each of them taking our handouts and actually reading them. It suddenly occurred to me that, while they are the very people we always connect to the establishment, they are in fact among the 99%. I thought about that the entire time that we were in front of the BofA and after it was all finished and we were wrapping up, I decided to walk up to the sergeant who was obviously there to supervise the others and shook his hand, thanking him for watching over us rowdy old farts.

His smile and chuckle was one that I’ll not soon forget and I thought, for the first time in my life; as human beings, how conflicted they must feel when things go awry and they are placed into a no win scenario. Certainly there are some who are true assholes, but maybe not quite to the degree we, the 60s crowd, painted them to be and that thought lead to another and another.

I wonder; if it really came down to it, would the police, as human beings; would the soldiers as humans, blindly carry out the wishes of the elitists if it came to destroying the very people they, themselves are part of?

I don’t think they would. I think the humanity within them would be so severely conflicted that most would not.