By Elaine Brower
The events
of police repression over the last 2 weeks, from the Denver Democratic National
Convention to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Republican National Convention should
not come as a surprise to anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the
past 8 years.
When you
arm and equip local and out-of-state police departments with $50 million worth
of high-tech equipment, ranging from concussion grenades, tear gas, microwave
machine guns, gas bombs and wooden bats, what do you expect? When you call in hundreds of National Guard
members to work alongside the police, what do you expect? These are YOUR tax dollars at work, a continuation of “Shock and Awe” in the homeland.
The
American people know what is happening in this Country, and are allowing
it. It is total crap when the media
cries that the police are being “brutal.”
The police live for this stuff.
They call it “awesome,” as Amy Goodman announced the
other morning after she was detained.
While I was
protesting in Denver,
the fear and intimidation tactics were more than evident. Cops
were walking around in gangs, armed to the teeth, chomping at the bit for
action. In fact, they all had disposable
cameras asking young people, who didn’t know any better, to pose for a picture,
with me screaming at them to stop it.
They took dozens of photos of the tables setup in the parks, where
permits had been arranged a year before.
Permitted marches and rallies were all videotaped ad nausea.
Troop
transports covered all the streets in the City of Denver, where fully armed and battle ready
police road around looking for any type of “disturbance.” I saw families who live there totally
appalled at the site, but said nothing.
Peaceful protesters were gassed and sprayed, and rounded up like they
were taking part in mass murder of the local population. The ones who are there to “protect and serve”
caused the “us against them” mentality from the get go.
The same in Minneapolis,
although the tactics we have been seeing the past 5 days leave even me
speechless. We are living in a fascist
state, get used to it. It shouldn’t be a
surprise to anyone. We have allowed
ourselves to be spied on, lied to, and terrorized by our own government all in
the name of “national security.” We have
been told that torture is acceptable and no one has done anything about
it. Our newly elected democratic-led Congress
has gone along with funding the war, rubber stamping the FISA bill, passed the
“Protect America Act”, “Military Commissions Act,” and the “Patriot Act”
amongst other horrendous acts of treason against the people who live here. Are they not complicit?
Why is
everyone in the “peace movement” acting so dumbfounded now that the gloves are
off and the cops are showing their true colors?
I think it is about time we saw what it is like to live under this
Regime. What it’s like to be a “Good German.”
Why is the press whining that they shouldn’t be arrested? This kind of stuff goes on everyday in the
ghettos around our Country, now you can relate to it.
George
Carlin, my favorite comedian and life coach, once said: “The
people who live in this country don’t have rights. We don’t have a Bill of Rights, we have privileges. And when the ruling class decides your privileges
need to be revoked, don’t cry about it.
Just ask the Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor
about their rights!”
The whole
fascist trajectory of this Country is almost complete. Do you think that Barack Obama is going to
stop this? And you couldn’t possibly
think that John McCain will. The people
must follow them, they have both made that abundantly clear in their messages,
but no one is listening. And people ARE
following them, like sheep to the slaughter.
The
anarchists have it right, fight the power, and don’t stop there. Malcolm X had it right, not Dr. King. We must rise up and take on that power, or we
will have nothing. The time is getting
late, folks. It started right here in my
own backyard in 2004 with the New York City RNC.
They got
rough, tackled people with nets, but didn’t have the high-tech gear they have
now. New York City lost millions over law suits,
which haven’t ended yet. But that’s not
their problem, it’s my problem. I PAY
TAXES so financial settlements don’t have an impact on Mayor Bloomberg or
Commissioner Ray Kelly, and they won’t have an impact on Minneapolis
or Denver
governmental officials. The citizens
suffer. Why are you allowing it?
This
government is out of control, the Bush Program is symptomatic of the underlying
root problem. Don’t think America can be
fixed by one election. You are fooling
yourselves once again. The governmental
structure is beyond repair, must be torn down, and rebuilt, but only “we the
people” can do that once again. Refresh
that tree of liberty, don’t allow that money to go to suppress our freedom of
speech, or our rights to be on the streets.
We cannot
sit back and shake our heads in amazement at what we are seeing at the
RNC. We should all be OUTRAGED, finally. Expect repression, and much more of it. In Hitler’s Germany it got worse and worse, and
they will come for all of us. There are
detention centers all over this Country, and there is a Presidential Directive #51 that basically states at any time the President deems
necessary, martial law can be invoked, especially when a “state of national
emergency” is declared.
Ask Barack
Obama or John McCain if they plan on revoking that privilege?
Stop the militarization and criminalization of our young! They deserve better than the army and prison! Give them a chance in life and don\’t ruin them just because they don\’t fit into the conservative mold.
Will you protect the rights of every American citizen? Will you spy on us and continue Bush’s campaign of privacy infractions and police state tactics? I would really like to know what your stand is on this issue.
It is truly sad for an \”outsider\” who once lived in and used to love America to see what your country has become over the past 12 years since the clintons and bush. It is a different country to the one I knew and loved living in. I got out just after bush got in \’cos I saw what was coming and when you need to move with your family that can take a whole year to organise and effect in an efficient manner – otherwise one has to flee. And that\’s going to be difficult to to for many citizens and non-citizens now.As matters are now, I understand that most Americans travelling abroad, especially on business, are being asked about the purpose of their trip and what their \”arrangements\” are. There are many many good organisations such as yours and many many blogs but that\’s not going to be enough to get a groundswell going. You need a central organisation which all the groups should agree between them. That has to be controlled and hosted outside America or it will be quickly dismantled by the authorities – in fact it has to be outside in a place that they have no influence whatsoever – Venezuela would be a good location, for example. This won\’t happen overnight – it will take maybe 10 – 30 years to effect but you have to start somewhere and it has to be a secret movement quietly gathering many supporters and activists. You Tube, My Space, Bebo and Facebook will be good hunting grounds provided they are not shut down. Even so, the way bush and cheney have organised your legislation means that it is now like living in China if you are an American citizen – except they have a culture and a history in China which you don\’t of course have in America. But that\’s a by the way. This legislation under the various new acts of congress means that even thinking about initiating any action (material means)can make a citizen liable to be incarcerated and prosecuted, all in the name of this phoney war on \”terror\”. And that\’s an interesting word. The Oxford English Dictionary defines terror as \”government by intimidation\” -sound like your government ?? You need to start educating your kids TODAY not to mindlessly obey authority; you need to help them gain an inquiring mind; help them to question everything. And you need to stop reading any newspapers (the stuff they print is only garbage and controlled by the jews and the government – Thomas Edison once famously said that the man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers – how true). The jewish semites among you have the media and banking world completely under control. Don\’t forget that. So you need to get ORGANISED centrally and not stay splintered into lots of little groups good and all as they are. In time if you gain momentum, you have the ability to bring the administration down by targeting the banking system – its ironic that your government has done this very thing on a global scale through the greed and corruption of their Wall Street cronies, bringing the worlds financial markets to the brink of meltdown. Thanks for that. But, if you can organise at some future date an American Banking Week and have all your supporters go to their banks at the same time to withdraw their money in cash and stop using cheques and credit cards – you will cause chaos. You will have the support of all decent people in the world who are thoroughly sick of America poking its bullying nose into every country it decides is fair game for it\’s terror tactics. And just as you have brought us to the brink of financial disaster your government – in the name of the American people – by it\’s terrorist tactics in the Middle East, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Georgia, Pakistan and Turkey – has brought the world to the brink of nuclear war – a war you will not win against Iran, China and Russia. Think carefully about what I have written and good luck with the good work – you have the support of all decent people in the free world.