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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.
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.
Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors', city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.
For the terrible insight to take away from news that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated a violent crackdown is that the DHS does not freelance. The DHS cannot say, on its own initiative, "we are going after these scruffy hippies". Rather, DHS is answerable up a chain of command: first, to New York Representative Peter King, head of the House homeland security subcommittee, who naturally is influenced by his fellow congressmen and women's wishes and interests. And the DHS answers directly, above King, to the president (who was conveniently in Australia at the time).
In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces – pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS – to make war on peaceful citizens.
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
Originally posted by korathin
I don't think it really matters. The OWS made their bed, let them rot in it. The reason why they are going after the OWS is because the OWS messed up and alienated anyone that wasn't an extreme leftist.
Heck look at their "progressive caucus", and how racist and sexist it is. Basically a "progressive caucus" is if you have light colored skin+ a male genitalia you have to speak last if at all. I guess that fit's in well with all the male hating bigots and Caucasian hating bigots + all the self loathing mangina's that make up a certain percentage of OWS people.
They limited the amount of support they will ever receive because of their bigotry. So they where tolerated for a minute on the hopes that it would fizzle out on it's own. That hasn't happened because of how homogenous the group think is among OWS.
There is kind of a group think cult mentally among OWS supporters and participants. That makes them highly dangerous in a very limited kind of way. Meaning if the OWS people were left alone they would eventually resort to terrorism or a Charles Manson like night of knife play.
Add all that together, and any outrage at how OWS are being treated won't last beyond 30 day's when they are all mopped up.
Like I said, this course of events is a direct result of their stupidity and bigotry.
Then again if they tried to appeal to a larger demography, they would of been shut down much more quickly with lethal level of force. That would of triggered a series of events which could of lead to a very real insurrection. So take it for what you will.
But as it stands, OWS are just annoying squatters. The main risk with OWS, is that it fuels other, not so bigoted social movements. That would be very bad for the fascist/communist's/progressive/banker/NWO'ers.
Originally posted by juleol
reply to post by korathin
Why does everything have to be left vs right?? I think the brainwashing has worked pretty well on you.
OWS is a movement with all kinds of people. Not their fault that mainstream media is controlled and put them in the extreme left group.
It is time for americans to wake up and work together, as they are screwing you all over no matter if you are right or left.
Originally posted by korathin
reply to post by Vitchilo
I don't think it really matters. The OWS made their bed, let them rot in it. The reason why they are going after the OWS is because the OWS messed up and alienated anyone that wasn't an extreme leftist. Heck look at their "progressive caucus", and how racist and sexist it is. Basically a "progressive caucus" is if you have light colored skin+ a male genitalia you have to speak last if at all. I guess that fit's in well with all the male hating bigots and Caucasian hating bigots + all the self loathing mangina's that make up a certain percentage of OWS people.
Originally posted by Fractured.Facade
It's too bad that police actions are being used to bring sympathy to this movement that can't seem to gain more support any other way.
When you can't focus on the good things because there are so few, when there is little else, you take the bad, the isolated and instigated incidents and portray them in ways that benefit the cause, gain sympathy and support where otherwise there would be little or none.
They want violence and anger, and will not relent in their efforts to make it happen.
IMO