Much talk about the Occupy movements that were sparked in NYC with OccupyWallSt has been over the mainstream media. Now whether or not the media is doing it's job by reporting objectively (and actually scouting for intelligent interviews that they actually care to air) is entirely up for debate, however, most people involved in the Occupy movement around the country, and around the globe will argue heartily, that the mainstream US Media is painting the worst possible picture of the Occupy movement as it can.
Whenever a news source makes any mention of "violence" on its program, they fail to mention the fact that the protestors remain peaceful, and only violence incited is by the private violence squads we like to call the city (insert your city here) Police Department. Whether you like to admit it or not, you are outsourcing violence with your tax dollars to the city in order to "maintain" the peace. In the case of the Occupy movements, the tax payers seem to be the only ones maintaing the peace while officers over exert their power in a heinous manner.
Just this last Tuesday night, (25 October 2011), the OccupyOakland encampment was raided by Oakland Police Department with the force in riot gear. Now, if anyone was actually paying attention to the movement in its entirety, one would do a little research to see that it is a "non-violent resistance movement." One of the core principals of the movement, is non-violence, the demonstrators are peaceably gathering to petition the redress of governmental grievances (FYI: you must say that to a police officer, you cannot mention that you are "peacefully protesting," "peacefully gathering," or "peacefully demonstrating" due to clauses in the Patriot Act which makes dissension an act of terrorism, thank you Dubya!) and are in no way attempting to insight a riot, just raise awareness and educate people who are standing on the sidelines. However, in regards to this last Tuesday night, the police in riot gear, shot an Iraq War Veteran, Scott Olsen, in the head with a rubber bullet and fractured his skull, the crowd scattered, once they learned that someone was down, they went back to help this poor man, and a flash grenade was thrown into the crowd where the incapacitated Scott Olsen lay bleeding from his head.
Now this begs the question, if these people are peaceably gathering to petition the redress of governmental grievances, why is there a need to aggress so harshly? Again, it goes back to the Patriot Act, which effectively dissolved all First Amendment rights (side note: The Constitution protects these rights for the citizens from the government, it does not endow these basic human rights upon anyone), and clauses that state that protesting and dissension in any shape or form, makes you a terrorist. The same way getting charged and convicted of a misdemeanor crime makes you a terrorist.
However, it is also important to note where the police in each city hold their allegiance. Typically, police officers in every city have some sort of duty to uphold the Constitution. However, when the Constitution which this country is so very fond of touting around to the world, is dismantled in DC, there are huge problems here. Not only that, but there are also issues surrounding the privatization of the police departments. JP Morgan-Chase states on their website, that since 2010 (no specific date) they have started donating $4.6 million to NYPD. Now, it would seem like the appropriate question to ask would be, why do big banks all of the sudden have rights to give giant lump sums of money to police departments? The following question would be, is it any wonder that the NYPD has been brutalizing peaceful demonstrators since the beginning of OccupyWallSt?
The video that sparked the boom in personal support for the Occupy movement is when Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna pepper sprayed four women who were kettled (new term describing how netting is used to enclose people as a crowd control technique) and unarmed in the face. The brutality continued as NYPD told around 1000 demonstrators to get on to the Brooklyn Bridge where they then corralled and arrested over 700 of them. Now the papers and media outlets will say that the protestors overtook the bridge, people who were arrested, actually say something very different. Is it truly any wonder why NYPD is acting in the manner that they are? They are protecting that giant lump sum from their master, JP Morgan Chase.
The question remains, why other city police departments are acting as brutally, I suppose it has something to do with the fact that their donors are not out and public with the inordinate amounts of money they put into the police departments. In the city of St. Louis, the Bank of America was barricaded by the SWAT team to keep people from closing their accounts that day. Later on, about 20 demonstrators in NYC were locked in the Citi Bank they were closing their accounts at, arrested, while it took 8 male officers to arrest a single woman outside of the bank waiting to go in to do the same thing. All in all, it sounds to me like there is some serious concern about the "livelihood" of the monsters that orchestrated the financial collapse of 2008 that was brewing since the 80s.
The thought I would leave with anyone, is really what are the police protecting now? It definitely does not appear that they are treating people with the dignity and respect they took an oath to do. It definitely does not appear that everyone is being treated justly. It definitely does not appear that they are serving, nor protecting the very people the should be. If there were truly any violence coming from the protestors, the media would be right to call that incident a riot. There has been no such report. There is nothing to go on. No property damage has been reported from any of the Occupy movements around the country, but the only damage done seems to be at the hands of the police departments supposedly protecting the person's right to carry out their First Amendment right. The demonstrators keep peaceful, and simply chant "Shame!" and "The whole world is watching!" even as they see their fellow human being, friends, and loved ones being shamelessly beaten by the police. In the name of? Justice? Corporate welfare? Job creation?
Time to wake up America, definitely not the land of the free anymore.
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