The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy

[Judi Lynn]

The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy
The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class's venality
Naomi Wolf guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 November 2011 12.25 EST

US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.

But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."

In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests.

To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Our system of government prohibits the creation of a federalised police force, and forbids federal or militarised involvement in municipal peacekeeping.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. It's not unparallelled police brutality.

It's actually pretty weak sauce.

Way over the line? Yes. Unparallelled? No.

[SixthSense]

4. the real brutality

mostly happens when they aren't aware of cameras rolling

[Poll_Blind]

2. K&R! Just got done with the article. Excellent piece.

PB

[bemildred]

3. The true face of power in the USA is what it is.

Anybody around in the 60s and 70s has seen this before, and worse.

[meow2u3]

5. OWS hits the fat cats where it hurts the most

Right in their bottom lines.

[Lorien]

11. They take everything we have and when we protest, they call it "whining"

we insist that they take a little less for their already fat and privileged selves and they squeal "CLASS WARFARE!!" and send their assault squads after us.

[bengalherder]

6. ....

[eggplant]

7. Those covers are amazing. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

8. Given the opportunity, you can always count on Time Magazine to screw the American People.

:puke:

[bemildred]

9. +1. nt

[Lorien]

10. Some here aren't going to like this. She calls out Obama:

from the article:

So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence. It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.

Sadly, Americans this week have come one step closer to being true brothers and sisters of the protesters in Tahrir Square. Like them, our own national leaders, who likely see their own personal wealth under threat from transparency and reform, are now making war upon us.

[Howler]

12. K&R

K&R

[Demeter]

13. PLEASE NOTE: We Have to Go to EUROPE to Find This Out

because other than our own posts, we have no local news in America.

[chill_wind]

14. K & R.