Some of us have been warning about this glaringly fascist shit since the 80s and before. Anyone remember COINTELPRO?
Six people and multiple Chicago attorneys came forward to the Guardian this week with detailed accounts of police holding suspects and witnesses for sustained periods of detention inside Homan Square, without public records, access to attorneys or being read their most basic rights – involving what they said included shackling, physical abuse and being “disappeared” from legal counsel and family. The Guardian’s recent investigation into Chicago police brutality began the week before, with a two-part account of the tactics of Detective Richard Zuley, who went fromChicago homicide investigatorto Guantánamo Bay torturer.
The scene is Minneapolis at the end of democracy, 2008, at the Republican National Convention, protected by a massive police and surveillance state.
“It was like a war zone. It was a police state.”
-Brad Crowder
The story involves activism, protest, non-violence, FBI provocateurs, the federal injustice system, endless war, Nuremberg violations, domestic terrorism, and Molotov cocktails. It has the entire post 911 experience wrapped up in a neat bow.
The nation is to be shocked by the existence of 8 Molotov cocktails. This is the evidence that will convict two Texas boys and send them away to federal prison. It’s fitting that they were Texans, protesting the Republicans, who had previously stolen two presidential elections, with frontman Dubya. The political alternatives seemed bleak to non-existent, and the two Texas boys were enamored of a particular older figure, and with the allure of direct action, street action, protest.
They said they weren’t anarchists. It’s not at all clear that both of them even wanted to use the gas bombs. They were clearly influenced by their mentor, the usual undercover FBI provocateur seeking to entrap them.
They were faced with the prospect of having a fair trial, as the Constitution is supposed to provide, but in the twisted world of federal prosecutions games are played. Plea bargains are used as tools to enforce silence and cover-up, while the maximum sentences are jacked up to ridiculous terms. This gives the prosecutors all the power to railroad people, pressure them, compel testimony, etc. Not justice. Something else.
This case may simply have come down to David McKay being a reckless dolt, unsophisticated enough to not know what he was getting himself into.
On the other hand, McKay didn’t actually hurt anyone. He just talked about it. His intent seems to have been property destruction, that old reckless anarchist standby, lauded by some, and clearly a useless counter-productive gateway to a world of shit.
I recall filming at the 2000 DNC convention in Los Angeles. It was there I first encountered the “Black Bloc.” These were the young hooligan types in masks that started shit, petty vandalism, spray paint, knocking over newspaper boxes. One unmasked, but particularly angry boy screamed at the MTV reporter, “Corporate! It’s corporate! Turn off your televisions!” It was a wild night. Events culminated in violence, the police shooting at everyone with rubber bullets and some kind of pellets. When I say everyone, I mean they were shooting at me! As I filmed. I got the shot.
The next day photographs revealed that a handful of violent anarchist types climbed up the 12 ft. fence and threw trash, rocks, water bottles, or whatever at the delegates entering the (corporate) Staples Center arena. Fitting all around that Al Gore would accept the nomination in a building owned by an office supply company.
Rattled but undeterred, I went back to LA later that week for the march to demand the release of political prisoners. I also videotaped that subsequent night. A portion of the kids were anarchist types, prone to angry outbursts and unwise acts of random vandalism.
You don’t change things by smashing a few windows. All you do is give your cause a bad reputation.
You change things by getting elected.
You are greatly outnumbered, child. And outgunned.
Back to Better This World
The hypocrisy of the smug FBI agent and federal prosecutor are hard to stomach. To accept the federal government’s Pollyanna clinging to the rule of law and the sanctity of life shtick when one knows the full reality, well it’s just surreal.
Ukraine on fire, cheered on by official Washington, which has given the coup leaders billions and continues to support the firebombing neo-nazi “Maidan” regime as they have murdered over 5,000 people in the east of the country.
The Iraq war may have cost over 1 million innocent lives, and it is a Crime Against the Peace, the “supreme international crime.” As Hitler invaded Poland, Bush invaded Iraq. There is no technical legal difference in International Law. The US breached the UN Charter in an absurd maneuver that its officials disingenuously claimed was to support UN resolutions.
Prior to 2003, the US enforced sanctions on Iraq killed over 500,000 children alone. Clinton’s ghoulish Secretary of State Madeleine Albright admitted on TV to this fact, and she claimed, “the price is worth it.”
This is the real world, not just words. And then we have David McKay, who filled 8 bottles with gas and never used them. So scary. Why did he fill them? Was he convinced to do so by his handler? Would he have burned anyone, or not, or just some cars? We’ll never know.
The bigger question is: when will those who burn thousands of civilians to death be brought to justice? And why does government authority confer immunity from prosecution and impunity to kill?
Police in a number of U.S. cities aren’t just tasering and tear-gassing protesters, they’re attacking their sense of hearing. The Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), also called a “sound canon,” is a powerful, military-grade electronic megaphone that, in addition to broadcasting police commands, can be used to disperse crowds with a chirping noise reaching 162 decibels, 42 decibels above the level that can cause immediate and permanent hearing damage.
This gross violation of human rights and 1st Amendment liberties should be considered an attack on the Constitution and the principles of freedom that America is supposedly founded upon.
“They’ll be ignorant to the facts, but they’ll also be ignorant to civic consciousness,” Robinson told me. “There are a good deal of studies that show this kind of ‘patriotism education’ is associated with xenophobia, jingoism, and authoritarian personalities. And when those youth actually confront the reality of their country’s history, there’s a shocking moment of disillusionment and radicalization.”
Ending Net Neutrality will open the floodgates of criminal collusion as Telecoms target their rivals: be they business competitors, political ideas or other knowledge which they deem not in their interest. This assault on freedom will usher in an age of secret collusion and destroy the ability to check information for its veracity, its truthfulness.
It will empower telecoms into becoming the arbiters of what can and cannot be said. This issue was successfully addressed originally when telephone companies could not police the content of calls. That is the model to use with Internet, less intrusion, less manipulation by private interests. The freedom of personal communications needs to be protected, not eroded and manipulated behind closed doors.
That’s un-American.
PS.
Unfortunately, FreePress.net sent me the notice at 10:20am PACIFIC TIME! It’s already too late.
