I've been reading a lot of articles that deserve some more mention. Not only is police brutality the classic oppressive instrument of the state, it is a fundamental look into how government agencies are set up to run. Take these news clips:
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"Outside the debate, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War led a demonstration at the Hofstra University gates. At least fifteen people were arrested–including five IVAW members. Emily Forman of I-Witness Video captured footage of police on horseback attacking the crowd. Police horses trampled at least one veteran, Nick Morgan, who lay on the ground nearly unconscious in a pool of blood. Morgan served in Iraq for about a year. His condition is unknown."
Taken from DemocracyNow! Thursday October 16th, 2008
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"In Maryland, new details have been released on the state police spying on peace groups and anti-death penalty activists. In July, Maryland was forced to admit its agents infiltrated meetings and events of the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance and the Baltimore Coalition Against the Death Penalty. On Tuesday, Maryland’s top police chief admitted fifty-three nonviolent activists, as well as several protest groups, were classified as terrorists and entered onto a federal database that tracks terrorism suspects. Activists are now being invited to review their files before they are deleted."
Taken from DemocracyNow! Wednesday October 8th, 2008
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Today in one of my classes, there was an interesting question posed. "Think of how different your life would be, if at all, if you never had to fear violence of any kind?" This kind of police action is state violence directly against the people of this nation. Police all across the country have committed acts of violence and oppression against the working, working poor, and working/studying/activist youth of this country. Take a glimpse into what happened outside the last presidential debate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmQESpuiurI
This disrespect goes to our veterans...now think of what you may have experienced. Being pushed around, humiliated and taunted in the squad car, at the office, in the cell, chained up inside a courtroom with a leash around your neck. At other protests, tactics continue to include shooting rubber bullets and gasses into the crowds of men, women, and children. Since when was protesting illegal? This is direct state intervention and violence against what is arguably the most basic duty of people in a free society...demanding democracy in their streets. Demanding an end to an illegal war and occupation, which has devastated the people, enflamed a civil war, and condemned the region to billions of years of radiation from exploded depleted uranium shell casings. Oil supplies are not a good reason to invade a country...though, the members of the White House may not agree with me. You may have heard of Project for a New American Century...well, this is where you can find the neo-cons' logic and reasoning, as well as a hint that they might have let a certain disaster happen to get us behind some not-so-popular initiatives. I believe the quote from one of their publications read that they would need a "Pearl Harbor-like event" to get the people behind these plans. Lots of exploding, fire, massive destruction, many questions as to why it happened in the first place...if there's one disaster after Pearl Harbor that fits all these criteria, it's 9-11.
Let me plainly state the obvious: The members of our government have used the pretext of a threat of terrorism to concentrate power into the hands of fewer and fewer people with less and less oversight. This is especially alarming considering the fact that U.S. troops are now being stationed for operations right here on U.S. soil. That's right:
"In a barely noticed development, a US Army unit is now training for domestic operations under the control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. An initial news report in the Army Times newspaper last month noted that in addition to emergency response the force “may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control.” The military has since claimed the force will not be used for civil unrest, but questions remain."
Taken from DemocracyNow! Monday, October 13th, 2008
Martial law is coming soon, and the police are the test run. The Army is next.
Fight the power. Hit the streets. Show your numbers. Resist, refuse.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
"What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
NOAM CHOMSKY
[Q: do you think the Palestinian suicide bombers are freedom fighters or terrorists?] "They're terrorists - they're both, actually. They're trying to fight for freedom, but doing it in a totally unacceptable immoral way. Of course they're terrorists. And there's been Palestinian terrorism all the way through. I have always opposed it, I oppose it now. But it's very small as compared with the US-backed Israeli terrorism. Quite typically, violence reflects the means of violence. It's not unusual. State terror is almost always much more extreme than retail terror, and this is no exception."
"States are violent institutions. The government of any country, including ours, represents some sort of domestic power structure, and it's usually violent. States are violent to the extent that they're powerful, that's roughly accurate."
"To gain control over this resource, and have probably military bases there, is a tremendous achievement for world control. You read counter-arguments to this, and they're worth looking at. So it's argued that it can't be true, because the costs of reconstruction are gonna be greater than the profits that will be made. Well, maybe that's true, maybe it isn't, but it's totally irrelevant. And the reason is because the costs of reconstruction are gonna be paid by the taxpayer, by you, and the profits are gonna go right into the pockets of the energy corporations. So yeah, it doesn't matter how they balance out, it's just another taxpayer subsidy to the rich."
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
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1 comment:
The video is crazy! What the hell are they doing to our veterans!?
Yeah i head about the stationed people there. Scott has been saying how scary would it be if that would halt this election....
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