The Rising American Police-State

Surely not in America. No! But here it is, and we have overwhelming evidence. The police all over the nation are being portrayed as pepper-spraying beaters of old ladies and pregnant women. They come out in riot gear to attack people exercising their First Amendment Right. We have civil disobedience, and as always, our ever-militant police forces are up in arms.

I no longer trust the police to keep me safe. I no longer trust the police to enforce the law. I no longer trust the law.

Listed below are examples of excessive police force, the cover-ups, and attempts to sabotage the movement, not necessarily in chronological order. I have included the publishing dates.

• US cops tried to erase online evidence of brutality - 26 Oct, 2011
• Occupy movement: police reaction in pictures - 11 Nov, 2011
• ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Update: Alleged Police Brutality Caught In Pepper-Spray Video - 25 Sept, 2011
• Severe police brutality at Occupy Oakland - 26 Oct, 2011
• Occupy Wall Street: NYPD Resorts to Violence, Arrests Outside Zuccotti Park - 15 Nov, 2011
• 84-year-old: subdued with pepper spray, overwhelmed by attention - 17 Nov, 2011
• New Footage of Citibank Arrests: Undercover Cop Shoves Elderly Woman, Protesters Dragged Inside - 24 Oct, 2011
• Occupy Wall Street Protesters Rally Around Injured Iraq Vet - 27 Oct, 2011

So those are a few examples. The sad thing is that when I looked at business-related websites for a few articles, every last one of them tried to discredit the movement, a few even telling where in the article one could find a rebuttal/dismissal. It was disheartening.

Here's one last article from The Guardian, a UK news source. This is required reading for everyone, I feel, because it really gets to the heart of the matter of why the police are retaliating so harshly, why businesses are raising lobbyists to discredit the movement, and why news sources that receive corporate funding are portraying the protesters as not having a clear message. Their message is very clear to anyone who will listen.

• The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy - 25 Nov, 2011

The mainstream media was declaring continually "OWS has no message". Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online "What is it you want?" answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.

The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.

No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.

When I saw this list – and especially the last agenda item – the scales fell from my eyes. Of course, these unarmed people would be having the shit kicked out of them.

That sums it up.

J