(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
In too many countries, power has been concentrated in the hands of the few.
The United States opposes the use of violence and repression against the people of the region.
80 Occupy Wall Street Protesters were arrested yesterday alone. There were numerous reports of brutality. This violent repression happened here, is still happening here. The region is New York, sir. Wall Street to be exact. Why are you not against violence to people of that region?
Our message is simple: if you take the risks that reform entails, you will have the full support of the United States.
The officer in the video responded on YouTube (misspellings intact):
“ATTENTION: My name is Officer Larson of the NYPD and I am the one you see in this video lawfully restraining that dissident, in response to his aggressive posturing.
If any of you have a problem with that, please send me a private message with your address, and I’ll go down to your house, and drop-kick you in your dumb, beligerent mouths.”
That is the full support of the United States for the risk of peaceful protest. Here, anyway. Which is to say, no support at all. In fact quite the opposite of support. GOVERNMENT OPPOSITION.
History shows that countries are more prosperous and peaceful when women are empowered.
Five women were corralled yesterday and maced while just standing there, doing NOTHING, then arrested.
This, in a country that values empowered women? Where women still cannot get an Equal Rights Amendment passed, where women are losing their hard-won right to their own reproductive health, where we still make 77 cents on the dollar to our male counter-parts, and where we are still far more likely to live in poverty than men. Gay men now have full rights in the military, but women still cannot be in combat position in ground troops. Not that the military is not an atrocity in and of itself; still a point in case, nonetheless.
The women and children of Code Pink are brutalized here every time they protest. What say ye to the empowerment of women here?
Sometimes, in the course of history, the actions of ordinary citizens spark movements for change because they speak to a longing for freedom that has built up for years.
One in four American children live in abject poverty. The real unemployment rate hovers at about one in five for able people who wish to work. Lenders filed a record 3.8 million foreclosures in 2010, up 2% from 2009 and an increase of 23% from 2008, according to RealtyTrac. But 2011 could be even worse. Q2 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report, which shows that sales of homes that were in some stage of foreclosure or bank owned accounted for 31 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the second quarter of 2011. That’s nearly one in three homes sold were because of foreclosure.
After all, politics alone has not put protesters into the streets. The tipping point for so many people is the more constant concern of putting food on the table and providing for a family.
Yes, some nations are blessed with wealth in oil and gas, and that has led to pockets of prosperity.
Prosperity also requires tearing down walls that stand in the way of progress – the corruption of elites who steal from their people
The Elites who steal from the People live and work on Wall Street, and much like the Marie Antoinette’s, the Marcos’ and the Mubarak’s of the World they chose to flaunt their excesses over the poor Friday. They showered champagne and disdain upon the protesting youths, extolling them to shower, and “get a job, hippies.” This was an event advertised on Facebook, misspellings intact, followed by a heinous comment by one of those Elites:
“These guys are so pathetic and it was awesome watching them get dragged around and whooped by cops. Hey dumb non tax paying hippies.. You are costing people who actually have jobs more money by making 400 extra police occupy lower manhattan for two weeks … Can’t wait to see you Guys tomorrow – I’ll be the guy handing out hippie muffins for free with laxatives baked in so after you shit yourselves uncontrollably we will spray you with champagne like we won a championship game. Only if you haven’t been arrested for being a duche before that.”
This was not unique. It is the same kind of humiliation that takes place every day in many parts of the world – the relentless tyranny of governments that deny their citizens dignity.
The US despises humiliation by tyrants, and the denial of dignity. This is why we are forced to stand, for all extensive purposes, basically naked to travel. This is why we have no right to privacy, and allow our every word to be recorded and every key stroke data mined. This is why our own people exercising their legal right to gather and protest are being treated like criminals.
This particular video shows how they brutalize citizens, including zip-tying their hands together so tightly that the sharp plastic slits their wrists. They bleed, the cops do not care. They have already stomped passive resisters into the cement.
It was raining that day, so they went to the area where the audio/video equipment was stored and stole the protective tarps off of them in order to cause damage and destroy the means of recording the event.
We support a set of universal rights. Those rights include free speech; the freedom of peaceful assembly; freedom of religion; equality for men and women under the rule of law; and the right to choose your own leaders –
Through our efforts we must support those basic rights to speak your mind and access information. We will support open access to the Internet, and the right of journalists to be heard – whether it’s a big news organization or a blogger.
“On at least two occasions, Saturday September 17th and again on Thursday night, Twitter blocked #OccupyWallStreet from being featured as a top trending topic on their homepage. On both occasions, #OccupyWallStreet tweets were coming in more frequently than other top trending topics that they were featuring on their homepage. It still is not a trending topic.
This is blatant political censorship on the part of a company that has recently received a $400 million investment from JP Morgan Chase.”
Yahoo admitted on Monday that it unintentionally blocked some emails pertaining to the “Occupy Wall Street” protest that began this weekend. The company issued an apology on Twitter, saying that the blockage was “not intentional,” and blamed its spam filters for stopping delivery of emails that contained the anti-Wall Street campaign website OccupyWallStreet.org.
Some Facebook users have complained that their posts about Occupy Wall Street have been removed, though the parent page remains. Yesterday several posters wrote that their posts on the subject were removed or they were unable to post them. FB responded that their process usually is due to requested removal, and that many of the requests were in fact coming from the Washington DC area. I have been unable to substantiate that, and with FB’s new feed cannot go far enough back in time to find those posts.
Revolutionary, anti-establishment famous blogs The Greanville Post and Cyrano’s Journal were also attacked overnight.
The Media Blackout on this event is so widespread as to be evidence of a willful conspiracy to not allow anti-establishment views to be seen by the propaganda arm of that establishment: The Mainstream Media.
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets, then thousands. And in the face of batons and sometimes bullets, they refused to go home – day after day, week after week
But the events of the past six months show us that strategies of repression and diversion won’t work anymore.
And yet? Where else is racial division, religious division and class division used more than in the United States?
Look to our disproportionate imprisonment of people of color, look further into the “final solution” we use on our own black men, guilty or INNOCENT.
And through the moral force of non-violence, the people of the region have achieved more change in six months than terrorists have accomplished in decades.
We can only hope that is so, sir. In the People we hope.
There must be no doubt that the United States of America welcomes change that advances self-determination and opportunity.
We are waiting for you to welcome us.
What we will oppose is an attempt by any group to restrict the rights of others, and to hold power through coercion – not consent.
Is this coercion or consent?
Where is the popular consent for having our economy stolen by the few, having 1% holding hostage the wealth of our nation, and having our officers who are suppose to protect and serve us being an interim Army at the Elite’s disposal?
Which Nation were you speaking of, Mr President, when you said these words in your May 19th Speech? These quotes above, and when you uttered these other phrases interspersed throughout your speech:
….regime has chosen the path of murder and the mass arrests of its citizens…..where the government brutalized women and men, and threw innocent people into jail….must stop shooting demonstrators and allow peaceful protests; release political prisoners and stop unjust arrests….
Which side are you on, Mr. President?
I know where I stand. A hero.
Where I stand is not with the Democracy Crushing Regime.
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and get the word out.
Permission granted in full to repost this essay in full or part anywhere the hell you want 🙂
you ain’t no uncle of mine no more.
Media blackout for sure.
If the guy didn’t have extra-judicial powers then it might be interesting to take him on in cage fight or something. I’m a bit out of shape and maybe too old but my hands are still pretty quick for my age. People who you know are cowards aren’t that hard to fight or spook.
Great info. And yes, I think what they did is basically torture.
A couple of things– I thought the twitter thing was debunked, but maybe not?
Facebook scares me- I just downloaded facebook disconnect so they can’t track what I do outside of fb.
But I just logged in and my wall or whatever they call it was full of posts about the wall street protests.
It scares me that all our communication with each other goes thru these few corporate outlets. Yesterday, huffpo reported that google has been donating to right wing cause like mad.
And we already knew that yahoo, fb, do. I didn’t know anything about twitter, so thanks for that. We know that DK will censor like mad, so can’t use that. Tiny places like this could be DoSed in 10 seconds. Something to think about/ fer sure
…I hope it does get reposted everywhere. Eff DKos–they will either sensor it or let the Bots drown it. Why not post it on FDL?