Why are American police harassing peaceful protesters?

I've read stories in recent years of police showing up at liberal protest events, such as the one mentioned in the link below. In this case the police showed up in riot gear. Sounds like Libya and not America. And I've never heard of the police showing up at tea party or conservative protest events. At the 2008 GOP convention, police were unusually brutal and even arrested many liberal journalists in an attempt to keep them from covering later police efforts to quell protests.

Now I am not commenting on the politics, right or wrong, of the reasons for the protests.

I just want to hilite that IMO police seem to have a predilection to harass liberal protests but not conservative protests. Can anyone show a link where police showed up in large numbers or in riot gear or made large numbers of arrests at any conservative protest in recent decades ?

www.washingtonpost.com

reply to post by Lomillialor


The incident itself was peaceful, as the article you link states. When the 28 protesters decided to sit down in the middle of a public right of way, in this case a highway according to the article, they were arrested and removed.

28 people out of 400+ protesters. Also, Quantico Virginia is the Marine base where manning is held, which is Military property, and as such restricted. The request to place flowers at the Marine memorial was allowed, under tight police presence for obvious reasons, and was eventually changed, with the police asking protestors to toss the flowers through the gate.

They were there to protest for pvt. manning, and they were allowed to do that. What we dont want to see happen is a few people to take advantage of the protest to incite violence, or use the protest in an attempt to free manning etc.

Yes. that is a worst case scenario, which is how it works...

Plan for the worst and hope for the best. The protestors were allowed to protest, albeit not where they wanted.

As with other standards, the protestors who refused to comply with the law, were arrsted one at a time.


On a general topic of protests -
There needs to be a balance between protestors and public safety, and for the most part protests take place almost everyday on whatever reason, with no issues. Just because 400 people dont agree with something, does not give them the right to protest in such a manner that prevents others from going about their daily lives who dont have an opinion.

That's why we have Copwatch Atlanta:

atlantacopwatch.org

A judge ruled recently that citizens are allowed to film police actions in public, and these folks are putting that freedom to the test.

Originally posted by KZ6090
That's why we have Copwatch Atlanta:

atlantacopwatch.org

A judge ruled recently that citizens are allowed to film police actions in public, and these folks are putting that freedom to the test.

edit on 21-3-2011 by KZ6090 because: Not enough info.

As a cop, I am all for this... People need to be intelligent about it however, and jsut so people dont get the wrong idea, if you are the target of law enforcement contact, you dont have a right to record, although asking the officer never hurts, and you might be surprised on the answer. When in doubt, ask and dont assume.

reply to post by Xcathdra


Good advice. There were a couple of unfortunate incidents here, one of which was a home raid gone wrong. Filming officers is a good way to spot the bad apples and ferret them out of the force, if possible, to restore faith in APD around here.
Be safe out there!

reply to post by Xcathdra


we do have a right to record, if we dont have citizens recording the police thing can get real bad. you can never stop us from recording their are a million ways to record police activity without their knowledge.

With protesting in america, as for right know we have some-sort of rights to protest, however I think that right is slowly being illiminated. when the economy goes belly-up because this government is taking out the middle class, and doing rel harm to the poor, and we stand in the streets in protest as a whole it will be then martial law will be implimented.

reply to post by Xcathdra


If a judge rules that they are allowed to film polie officers in public, the ordinary citizen does not need a police officers permission to do so. The police force is there to enforce the law. They are not there to decide who can film them and who cannot. That is what the courts are there for.

Because, it messes up the elites plans on a low profile and since the government was bought out buy huge corporations so are the cops.

Originally posted by Lomillialor
I just want to hilite that IMO police seem to have a predilection to harass liberal protests but not conservative protests. Can anyone show a link where police showed up in large numbers or in riot gear or made large numbers of arrests at any conservative protest in recent decades ?

I have an answer that is rather mundane (no conspiracy theory involved) but also happens to be correct...

It's all about the kinds of people who attend the events. A leftist protest tends to gather a lot of anarchists and other radicals who do not value private property. You end up with busted windows, beat-up cars, stolen merchandise, etc. Not everyone at a leftist event does this, but this element is always there to an extent. At a rightist protest the most radical people you'll find are libertarians who, by the way, hold the concept of private property in high regard.

As for your allegation that riot police don't show up at conservative protests, I'd suggest you perform even the sloppiest, precursory use of Google, Yahoo, Bing, or the search engine of your choice to find that you are completely wrong. Here's two sources:

HuffPo

BeforeItsNews

reply to post by Lomillialor


You know, I keep hearing this, but last year I attended a Tea Party Event, here in southern Ohio, where I live. There were many who were openly carrying guns, mostly pistols in holsters, but there were a few rifles and shotguns, slung over the shoulder. Ohio is an open carry State, by the way. There were tow local cops, and three deputy's there, they were standing by their cars, relaxed. I heard no yelling, no anger at all. There were no arrests, no police trying to stop anything, it was a peaceful event. I think a lot of the film we are seeing on Tea Party events is staged. The Old Guard is deathly afraid of the Tea Party, and for good reason. Their life-time jobs are at stake. And friend, we need a change up on Capital Hill, don't you agree?

Originally posted by wlmgsmn
reply to post by Xcathdra

 

we do have a right to record, if we dont have citizens recording the police thing can get real bad. you can never stop us from recording their are a million ways to record police activity without their knowledge.

With protesting in america, as for right know we have some-sort of rights to protest, however I think that right is slowly being illiminated. when the economy goes belly-up because this government is taking out the middle class, and doing rel harm to the poor, and we stand in the streets in protest as a whole it will be then martial law will be implimented.

A citizen who observes the police has a right to record of course. A person who is say the target of a traffic stop, or some other law enforcement contact does not, and the reason for this is the person is seized under the 4th amendment, which curtails their freedom of movement durin the contact.

A person who is pulled over by the police, does not have an absolute right to record the encounter, for the simple fact they are "seized". As I said above, ask / communicate witht he police and you might be surprised.

The reason though your movement is curtailed is because the Officer is responsible for your safety. It doesnt matter what your thoughts on that may be, the officer is resonsible for your safety.

Originally posted by Laurauk
reply to post by Xcathdra

 

If a judge rules that they are allowed to film polie officers in public, the ordinary citizen does not need a police officers permission to do so. The police force is there to enforce the law. They are not there to decide who can film them and who cannot. That is what the courts are there for.

See my response above. I am talking about citizens who are the subject of Officer contact (traffic stop etc). The rulings you guys are talking about deal with 3rd party rulings, with the exception of Maryland and the helmet cam.

The incident in Illinois is still making its way through their jacked up legal system.

That's just not true. Even if you are the target of the officers actions you have every right by law to record it.

Originally posted by PsykoOps
That's just not true. Even if you are the target of the officers actions you have every right by law to record it.

Since you are sezied under the 4th amendment, you do not have freedom of movement / freedom of actions. As I said before, ask and dont assume.

I have an answer that is rather mundane (no conspiracy theory involved) but also happens to be correct...

It's all about the kinds of people who attend the events. A leftist protest tends to gather a lot of anarchists and other radicals who do not value private property. You end up with busted windows, beat-up cars, stolen merchandise, etc. Not everyone at a leftist event does this, but this element is always there to an extent.

Agreed that most "leftists" do not engage in such criminal behavior. But cops utilize a well-documented technique known as being "agents provocateur" -- dressing as protesters and themselves committing acts of violence. It's a type of preemptive strike: "let's start the s#!t the young protesters were likely to in advance, so we can stop this protest before it turns violent." An unwarranted and unjustifiable action, imho.

Police officers are taught to use techniques like being provocateurs, and "kettling" to box protesters in to corners. Many in my family are cops and sheriffs, and two of them espouse such tactics as necessary - because that's what they are told by superiors.

It saddens me to no end that some of those police don't look deeply into their own pension funds, to see where their retirement money has been invested. Soon they will have no retirement funds to speak of.

We The People are not the enemy. The banksters are. Throughout history they have funded both (or more) sides of war.
But whatever.
Let the flames roll.

Originally posted by KZ6090

I have an answer that is rather mundane (no conspiracy theory involved) but also happens to be correct...

It's all about the kinds of people who attend the events. A leftist protest tends to gather a lot of anarchists and other radicals who do not value private property. You end up with busted windows, beat-up cars, stolen merchandise, etc. Not everyone at a leftist event does this, but this element is always there to an extent.

Agreed that most "leftists" do not engage in such criminal behavior. But cops utilize a well-documented technique known as being "agents provocateur" -- dressing as protesters and themselves committing acts of violence. It's a type of preemptive strike: "let's start the s#!t the young protesters were likely to in advance, so we can stop this protest before it turns violent." An unwarranted and unjustifiable action, imho.

Police officers are taught to use techniques like being provocateurs, and "kettling" to box protesters in to corners. Many in my family are cops and sheriffs, and two of them espouse such tactics as necessary - because that's what they are told by superiors.

It saddens me to no end that some of those police don't look deeply into their own pension funds, to see where their retirement money has been invested. Soon they will have no retirement funds to speak of.

We The People are not the enemy. The banksters are. Throughout history they have funded both (or more) sides of war.
But whatever.
Let the flames roll.

This happens even at Tea Party events... but they're not sent by cops but rather by rival political groups using Alinksy methods. Leftist groups try to make conservatives look like racists (it's their most often played hand at undermining conservatives) so they'll send in some people with racists slogans on signs. The MSM, of course, loves this so they don't bother to do any fact checking or follow-up. Once time they ran a story that suggested that gun rights are somehow a result of racism, and they talked about how a "racist tea partier" showed up at a rally with an assault rifle.... they had the video and cut out the part where it shows the man's face because he was a black man.

So, underhanded S#!% goes on for both sides. But only one side gets the support of the MSM (and the Daily Show lol).

Here are two false flag ops planned by conservatives:

Indiana prosecutor resigns after he told Wisconsin governor to stage ‘false flag’ operation:

www.rawstory.com...

Brooks brothers riots:

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Lomillialor


Because conservative "protesters" are always calling for the enforcement of the status quo. They most no actual risk to the current state of things, because they just get out there and mill around while either screaming about imaginary crap like "death panels" or proclaiming their undying support for the way things already are.

That is, conservative protesters have no message and ultimately no point.

Liberal protesters are usually actually trying to change something, which makes them a threat to the status quo - and since the police have their paychecks cut by the dudes in charge of the status quo...

reply to post by spaznational


What's funny is that everyone always talks about "anarchist riots," then try to point to the WTO riots in Seattle as evidence or something. Know what happened in Seattle?

Some jackasses smashed a few windows on one street. Out of a hundred thousand people protesting the WTO, maybe, MAYBE a grand high total of fifty engaged in some casual hooliganism.

And the cops went absolutely ape#, attacked the other 99,960 protesters with everything they had, and basically shut the city down for the night because people were scared of getting beat up by the cops.

Yeah, there was a riot - the cops were rioting. Hundreds of 'em out in the steets blasting their beanbags and gas weapons at any group of people they saw, grabbing people off their bikes, the whole mess was basically the King county police department turning Seattle into a free-fire zone.

reply to post by TheWalkingFox


Here's something going on right now...

UK anti-cuts demo

Violence flared away from the rally when a group of hundreds of activists, not connected with the union protest, clashed with police. They set off fireworks, threw paint and attacked shops in Oxford Street, Regent Street and Piccadilly. Topshop and HSBC had their windows smashed, while paint and glass bottles were thrown at a Royal Bank of Scotland branch. Covering their faces with scarves, they fought with police and disrupted traffic, throwing lightbulbs filled with ammonia at officers and lighting a fire.

Typical far-left thuggery at work.