Back in 1992 I went to the Republican National Convention in Houston to protest with ACT UP. It was an experience I will remember forever - the chants, the planning, the big protest with a Bush doll burning in effigy and the mounted police charging the protesters.
Somewhere here at home I have a VHS tape with video of the protest and the police surge as they swung billy clubs and trampled activists. I remember vividly punching a police horse in the nose to keep from getting injured and beaten.
When I see video from this year's Republican convention, I'm automatically swept back to that time. I think, "Horses and billy clubs have turned to tear gas and concussion grenades. What has happened to America? When did we turn into the society of Akira?!?"
Compare and contrast videos after the jump. Either way it seems the government is actively working to hurt and suppress human rights and our ability to assemble peacefully.
America. Protesters rounded up with tear gas, concussion grenades and batons.
Akira. Protesters rounded up with tear gas, concussion grenades and batons.
You decide.
I'm so sick of this shit. I hope each and every person arrested in the park sues the hell out of the RNC, the Republican Party, the Minneapolis police department and the National Guard. They're all complicit in violently snatching away the rights of American citizens.
They should pay dearly.
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4 Comments
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Your tax dollars at work.
I'm with you Bil, it makes me furious! They arrested those people simply because they were there, and the police wanted to exercise force. That's it.
Am I wrong, but before the Patriot and Military Commissions acts, wasn't it illegal to "police" American cities with military troops?
Brynn Craffey | September 20, 2008 12:19 AM
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Hell, you probably all picked this up earlier, but the GOP and the police were picking up protesters before the RNC even started.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/index.html
For those with linkophobia, the police broke into a group home filled with peaceful college-aged kids and arrested a good number of them. As one of the kids said, slowly you start to think that maybe the police aren't that bad, and maybe the people in power aren't that bad, and then they pull something like this and you realize that in your wildest dreams you could never guess how terrifying and stereotypical the cops can be.
Anononon | September 20, 2008 6:42 AM
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These things work like a pendulum. I was a Junior in high school during Kent State. I remember my teachers, WWII vets and Depression survivors disgusted that students were killed by soldiers. When I made my own post about the lack of media reports by networks on the scene of the Republican convention it was a part of the disgust I felt for the unreal Orwellian nature of it all.
"Early in life I noticed that no event is reported correctly in a newspaper."
"If Liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
"There are some ideas so wrong that only a truly intelligent person could believe in them."
"War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength."
Brush up on George Orwell.
Robert Ganshorn | September 20, 2008 8:50 AM
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"War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength."
Sounds like the personal philosophy of Governor Palin/Caribou Barbie
MauraHennessey | September 21, 2008 9:44 AM
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