Caustic Situation
--Unsuit Wall StreetDouble, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble
--Macbeth, Shakespeare
Are you taking over
or are you taking orders?
Are you going backwards
Or are you going forwards?
--White Riot, The Clash
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
--(What's So Funny 'Bout)
Peace, Love and Understanding?,
Elvis Costello
___________________
If U.S. police have used CS or CN (tear gas) against citizens in Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests, they are violating current Chemical Weapons Conventions which ban the use of these chemicals on the battlefield.
But of course, citizens are not accorded the rights given combatants; if you protest here, you are at the mercy of a militarized police force which sees you as the enemy. If you're an American citizen protesting your economic betters, you are seen as scum of the earth, or hopelessly naive or fruity; doesn't everyone aspire to having country club membership and annual greens fees?
Flash bang canisters, stun grenades and beanbag rounds are also reported as having been used against the Oakland protesters (Tear gas and stun grenades used on 'Occupy Oakland' protesters). To express one's dissatisfaction publicly might earn you a skull fracture, like that sustained by former 24-year-old Marine and two-tour Iraqi War veteran Scott Olsen (Occupy Oakland protester Scott Olsen awake ahead of brain surgery).
One would think a higher level of care would be accorded to citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. Apparently, the memories of Kent State have been lost in the fog.
Strange days when the U.S. traipses halfway 'round the world to create ripe environments in which democracy might take root, while bashing those fruits at home. Apparently, freedoms accorded in a democracy have a shelf life, and we have exceeded ours.
What can be said? Democracy is a messy business?
But of course, citizens are not accorded the rights given combatants; if you protest here, you are at the mercy of a militarized police force which sees you as the enemy. If you're an American citizen protesting your economic betters, you are seen as scum of the earth, or hopelessly naive or fruity; doesn't everyone aspire to having country club membership and annual greens fees?
Flash bang canisters, stun grenades and beanbag rounds are also reported as having been used against the Oakland protesters (Tear gas and stun grenades used on 'Occupy Oakland' protesters). To express one's dissatisfaction publicly might earn you a skull fracture, like that sustained by former 24-year-old Marine and two-tour Iraqi War veteran Scott Olsen (Occupy Oakland protester Scott Olsen awake ahead of brain surgery).
One would think a higher level of care would be accorded to citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. Apparently, the memories of Kent State have been lost in the fog.
Strange days when the U.S. traipses halfway 'round the world to create ripe environments in which democracy might take root, while bashing those fruits at home. Apparently, freedoms accorded in a democracy have a shelf life, and we have exceeded ours.
What can be said? Democracy is a messy business?
Labels: first amendment, freedom of speech, oakland OWS, occupy wall street, ows
posted by Lisa at 9:09 PM
10 Comments:
I'm not sure we really want to unring the 'less lethal' bell for law enforcement.
Doesn't make what is being done with them right though.
The bell has already been rung. Two tour Combat Marine Scott Olsen was shot at point blank range in the head with a tear gas canister and critically injured while he was standing 20 feet from police barricades. He was in his 'camo's standing with the 'Veterans for Peace' as a silent witness.
Every police officer trains in riot control tactics and well know's that that shooting teargas canister to the head at point blank range is lethal. To show they really meant it, a 'flashbang' grenade was then thrown, by the riot police into a group of about 20 people trying to administer medical aid to the fallen Marine. Apparently our law enforcement establishment is exempt from the Geneva Conventions and stands outside the law for the rest of us. Why is this behavior tolerated by a freedom loving people ? Maybe we prefer slavery to the risks of freedom ?
I find much irony of in our 'freeing the world of tyrants', croaked by our Government's 'talking heads' and the brutality of our 'leaders' treatment of it's own peacefully demonstrating citizens. We are living in an Orwellian landscape and the defenders of our kleptocracy will to anything to keep the people down.
At some point one has to decide wether we are happy to 'Live on our knee's' ?
"A hard rain is going to fall..."
Bob Dylan
BH,
The police are indeed not governed by the GC's, but they are by the Constitution.
Whatever happened to the right to freely and peaceably assemble?
BTW it is legal for the police to use tear gas b/c they are not military, and are exempt from the Convention. Morally is another issue.
And yes they knew what they were doing when they shot the bystander.
The FBI has used hot cs to burn out barricaded criminals , and then express dismay that there was a fire. You can remember the incidents as well as i do. Also you are aware of these games b/c you worked so closely with the blue wall.
jim
Blackhawk, I am unable to find the appropriate words to express how wrong what happened to Scott Olsen is and how I feel about it.
There is somone with whom I agreed to disagree regarding the protesters. He had taken the hard right perspective (as he always does). You know....the protesters are scroungy losers and need to be dispersed and/or caged. He stated that they need to be "disciplined" as their behaviour is merely symptomatic of an overly ego gratifying upbringing. After the Scott Olsen incident was reported i asked him if that didn't alter his outlook. Nope. Olsen, he said, exercised bad judgement in hanging out around the unwashed mob. Basically got what he deserved as a result of said bad judgement.
I will not talk to that man ever again.
avedis
Three minutes of truth..with a cautionary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiQoq-wqZxg
There it is.
Deryle
Avedis,
Bless you. I have to contend with the same ignorance here, but I take it as part and parcel of living in this hick area.
Oh, the protesters are crummy scumbag people. Berkeley fruit and nut types. Give them no heed
So, if you're wealthy and wearing Brooks Bros., you're right as rain. Use your 1st Amendment rights? Scumbag.
D, I did a copy and paste from your post to Youtube. Yipes! that song had been marching around my head while I was writing my previous post. The Clash rocks...for real.
Jim, I'd been trying to get my head around what happened to Sgt. Scott Olsen and picturing what would have happened media-wise (and our legislative handlers)if it was a LE officer lying on the pavement critically injured and some demonstrator, for kicks, threw a flash-bang at the officers trying to assist a fellow officer down.
What happened to Sgt Olson is a terrorist act committed on a Soldier/Citizen, IN THE USA, by those called to 'Serve and Protect'. I didn't come up with that jingle
"Whatever happened to the right to freely and peaceably assemble?"
Cox v. New Hampshire is what happened.
'Public Safety' (like 'officer safety' before it) is the au courant set of weasel words twisted by those addicted to power in order to circumvent the Constitution.
Lisa, what is the point in talking to such people? I no longer find his fascism ammusing or educational. All that would result from a conversation is elevated blood pressure. Or, who knows, the right set of circumstances and we both end up temporarily in some form of institutional setting.
avedis
avedis,
There is no use; wasted breath. In the South we call it "barking up the wrong tree".
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