Category Archives: police

NATO Protests Give Glimpse Into Police State

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Though the NATO summit in Chicago didn’t happen until today, there was plenty of news and excitement to go around from yesterday.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which many purport to be unnecessary in today’s world, has been a dirty word for the people of the Middle-East, Latinos, Central Americans and many other societies.

Knowing that protesters would show up in full force, the US spent millions of dollars to protect the elite for a measly few days. In times of austerity and massive cuts, it rarely makes sense to see politicians waste millions to protect an elite against a majority of protesters who are peaceful. Interesting how the world’s strongest military continues to claim that hipsters and hippies are a bigger threat than the police’s sound cannons, billy clubs, armored vehicles, tasers, guns, drones and abusive techniques.

As expected, protesters, including Occupiers and Anonymous members, showed up Saturday in a cooperative showing of solidarity to show the leaders of the world that they do not condone their militaristic and inhumane behavior anymore.

During the summit, leaders also discussed their new ballistic missile defense system that is more than likely an attempt to further intimidate Iran and frustrate Russia. It’s more than frustrating to see these politicians and elite figures from around the world express their concerns of dangerous protesters as “terrorists,” but refuse to give credence to the protesters’ concerns. Protesters are out taking a stand against corruption and the military industrial complex and what are the first things NATO members discuss? They talk about installing more weapon systems to send a message to the Iranian “terrorists.”

Somewhat positive news was gleaned from the summit though as leaders discussed the future of Western nations’ occupation of Afghanistan. As budgets around the world are becoming strained and political fallout is growing, NATO members are beginning to consider allowing the Afghan military defend their own country. It’s funny because who are we to tell someone else how to protect their own country?

It’s unreal to know that the only reason we are considering pulling out of Afghanistan is because of the world economy. Forget the facts that OBL is dead, soldiers are returning home sick, injured, uninsured, homeless and unhinged, thousands of civilians and schools are being bombed or that Afghanistan is not the real threat, but we are only considering pulling out because we just don’t have the funds. But believe me, if these governments had the money, we’d be there forever.

My Twitter feed was exploding with tweets about NATO under the hashtag #noNATO last night. I had to switch to my TweetDeck application in order to keep up with information, so most of the stuff on this post will be from Twitter.

For updates on NATO and what’s happening in Chicago follow @OccupyChicago‘s feed. In the meantime take a look at some tweets from yesterday (some photos may not appear so make sure to click the links on each tweet to see the related photos):

  • Here is a video of Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange.org being raided by Chicago police:

Even with all of this chaos, the worst part hasn’t even been discussed. Three protesters were caught and are now being charged with attempting to firebomb Obama’s campaign headquarters as well Mayor Emmanuel’s North Side home. But the catch is that one of the protesters was an undercover cop and according to the two mens’ lawyer Michael Deutsch, the cops provided the men with the equipment. Is this another case of entrapment like we saw with the CIA and the alleged bomb plot foil on OBL’s anniversary?

It’s interesting that as the country was showing more disdain and anger towards the TSA (especially after they said an 18-month-old was a terrorist and pulled her off a flight) all of a sudden the CIA foils a bombs plot and finds a gun stuffed in a child’s stuffed animal as if to show us why we need the TSA. Right…

Some view these arrests during the NATO protests as a false flag attempt so the government can get the public on their side to pass even more freedom infringing laws on the American public and Internet rogues.

Let’s see if the American public has learned its lesson since Sept. 11. I highly doubt it.

Senate Passes S. 1867 in Closed-Door Committee Without Single Hearing

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TSA groping (illustration)

The Defense Authorization Bill, S.1867, passed early December with a 93-7 vote (check link to see how your Senator voted). The bill was passed closed-door and without a single hearing. The bill will cost the taxpayer $662 billion. Another $17 billion has been allocated to defense programs, run by the Department of Energy (now the military industrial complex has infiltrated the department of energy in such a way?).

People always want to say that politics is dysfunctional and is supposed to be a slow process. Yeah, that’s when the legislation deals with helping anyone but special interest groups. When it comes to the military industrial complex, Congress always has the money and time for that. Look at how quick and effortlessly the Republicans and Democrats joined forces and got behind spying, detaining and torturing US citizens that they feel is a threat—for whatever reason.

The bill allows for a number of treasonous actions by our politicians. For starters, the bill allows for the President to detain suspected terrorists without any reason or due process. The bill also makes the head of the National Guard a member of the Chiefs of Staff under the right circumstances —meaning whenever Capital Hill feels like doing so.

The measure that makes me most uncomfortable is the one that applies strict sanctions on Iran because of Israel and the U.S.’s fears that Tehran is developing nuclear missiles (God forbid anyone have nuclear missiles other than the United States and Israel). This measure to the bill passed 100-0. And by the way, I always find it interesting that whatever is good for Israel is good for the world. And whatever is bad for them is bad for the entire world? I’m sorry, does Israel keep me safe as a U.S. citizen or endanger my country because of its elites’ massive egos? This disturbs me because I can’t believe we are trying to get into yet another war. It doesn’t stop.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had this to say about Iran:

“Iran supports terrorist groups, arms the killers of American soldiers, lies about its nuclear program, violates its citizens’ basic rights and threatens Israel’s security.”

First these jokers tried to fool us with one false flag incident like the unlikely assassination attempt from Mansour Arbabsiar on the Saudi ambassador to the US. Arbabsiar was a guy who went by the nickname “Jack” because of his love of Jack Daniels. He was also a known pot-smoker and couldn’t keep his marriage together. His ex said he couldn’t remember things. And this was the guy that we should all be worried about? Puh-leeze…

Iran is so upset about this bogus conviction that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demanded an apology. If I was Ahmadinejad, I would be scared shitless right now. President Obama is a drone-flying, secret operation-leading, Chicago gangster. He doesn’t play around when it comes to eliminating brown leaders from Africa and the Middle East. I’m going to say it now, but by April 2012, President Ahmadinejad will probably be assassinated or imprisoned in a lawless, overseas detention, while being tickled with water flooding his nasal cavities because we all know waterboarding isn’t torture. All of this will be in the name of some fabricated humanitarian effort and the American people will eat it up like Hardees.

The new police state: TSA now roams our highways

Then we had the Republican debates that completely ignore the state of the economy (except Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul) and instead focus on the exaggerated threat from Iran. Not too long ago, I posted a tweet asking how long it would be before we invaded or attacked the other Ira- place. I said that as a joke and lo and behold, it’s reality. Like something straight out of a fiction novel.

There is some hope though. We had the Udall Amendment which was aimed at protecting “American values.” Most importantly it ordered for a Congressional review of any detention of power. How do you think that fared? Of course, it was voted down. Now all we have left is Obama’s veto of the bill. Don’t count on it though.

And down go America’s values.

It’s going to go down in 2012, for sure. But back to S. 1876. We’re done. lol. This bill really sucks because now we legitimately have to fear our government and what we say about it. For example, not too long ago, Civil Rights attorney and activist Barbara Arnwine of Maryland got her house raided by SWAT. She sat in her house at gunpoint for over three hours and she had no idea as to why she was being detained. Let’s be real, we all know why she was detained. Arnwine was intimidated by the state because of what she stands for and believes in.

The SWAT also told her the Fourth Amendment didn’t apply to her situation and questioned her professional qualifications. Hm, I wonder why the state didn’t think Arnwine was an educated lawyer who got her degree from Duke… Like I noted in the previous post. We have entered our rights of passage into the police state era.

With PIPA, SOPA, the Defense Authorization Act, TSAs now patrolling highways for safety, torture being scrapped as a dishonorable action and with police aiming guns at citizen journalists, there is no doubt in my mind what this country has become.

This is what an empire looks like when it’s falling apart. Welcome to the underground, where most of us move in silence as to not draw much attention from the overlords.

We’re probably in another double-dip recession, unemployment is still at a record high 16.2%, Europe is on the brink of collapsing, we’re cutting programs with surgical precision and spending ludicrous amounts of money on citizen surveillance. What’s next?

A Message to My Family: Citizens of America and the World

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First, I want to thank all that view my blog for giving me your attention. I know that in this crazy world of high taxes, lack of empathy, mean faces, scary climate changes, corrupt politicians and companies, vicious cops and lazy free-riders, it’s difficult to pay any attention to anything that doesn’t immediately benefit you. It’s difficult to pay attention to anything that doesn’t help your situation out immediately, but this is why I try to bring you pertinent information. Through enlightenment there is hope.

I try to bring you to the light and see things from my perspective. I want my fellow humans of the world to see that the conflicts and dark days that we face are no longer a result between of different cultures, countries and people of different hue. Even when the country was torn between races, we got more done as a nation… Today, it’s all about the haves and have-nots. Just take a look around you. Your neighbors are composed of people of different races, age groups, backgrounds and cultures, yet you ALL live in the same place and share the same struggle.

When politicians on the right and left of the spectrum are both being funded by the same corporations and special interests, it’s easy to see that the argument between conservatives and liberals is a front. Politicians, corporations and the elite make their real decisions behind closed doors and leave us with wedge issues. That way we can fight amongst ourselves while they steal the country and we undergo the biggest redistribution of wealth to the top 1% in American history. So Obama, a “liberal,” made a deal with pharmaceutical companies to make sure the public option wouldn’t be included in the health care deal. This would drive down costs of insurance. We can’t have that. Dubya, a “conservative,” pushed for home-owners, who couldn’t afford to pay their mortgages, to own homes in 2002. This helped kick-start the economic collapse of 2007. It’s not so bad for the rich, but of course, it sucks for the rest of us.

Both of these presidents are divisive because of what they stand for. Barack Obama, our first black president, scares the hell out of extremists in the South and on the right and Dubya, a military-happy and gun-toting conservative scared the hell out of extremists in the North and on the left. But let’s look at these presidents for who they really are. Let’s look at these presidents and understand who they are beyond the surface. One president stands for the poor while the other stand for the rich, but who is with the middle-class? Republicans want to tax the middle-class and poor and Democrats want to tax the rich. But even if taxes were increased on the rich, law-makers would still increase taxes on the middle-class by at least 8%, according to Daily Finance. Big surprise, the middle-class gets hit again, as if we can afford that on top of rising unemployment, a stagnant economy, rising gas prices and high levels of inflation. But this is how it’s done in America politics: Fight to protect the poor and rich for political gain, but leave out the middle-class who pays for most of the taxes, is the most politically active, and constantly gets screwed over.

I just want people to wake up and see that Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party aren’t all that different. I liken the two movements to how the human body and mind works. One movement (the Tea Party) is the ego, focused on protecting the self (America). This movement sees the problem from within political and state boundaries, while the other movement (Occupy Wall Street) is focused on the soul, understanding the problem from a worldly scale. Both of these movements are important as is the ego and the heart when referring to the human body.

It’s time to wake up and understand what our politicians, banks and corporations are up to. What are they doing around the world and what effects do cheap food and commodities have on the labor system and the environment? It’s time to nip the problem in the bud or risk crashing together while we point the finger at that other person, like we still live in the 1960s.

Occupy Boston Raided in the Late Hours of the Night, Avoiding Media Attention

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Credit to OccupyBoston.com

What happened last night around 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time should send chills down some people’s backs. It should also wake up the Occupy movement to what may be something very sinister.

In early hours of the morning, the Boston Police Department gave protesters a five-minute warning to clear from Dewey Square because of “unlawful assembly.” Shortly after their warning, the Boston Police Department raided the Occupy Boston event with military equipment, riot gear, large wooden billy clubs, and two large dump trucks. Tents and lawn chairs were said to have been destroyed and thrown into the dump trucks later in the night. Insiders at the protest said their second camp site was completely destroyed. As protesters joined hands, they were arrested in large numbers. According to the Boston Globe, over 100 were arrested that night (the images from the raid can be seen here).

Here are some additional images from John Atwater, a reporter for the local Boston news station WCVB-TV. His Twitter account can be found at https://twitter.com/#!/AtwaterWCVB.

Credit to John Atwater of WCVB-TV

Here is a video from a Lauren Metter that was posted to Youtube last night. In the video you can see the Boston Police Department moving in on war veterans. You can also hear people screaming at the police “Have you fought in war?!” and “You are cowards!” It was posted by Evan Fleischer last night on his blog site. His Twitter account can be found at https://twitter.com/#!/efleischer. He follows the protests closely and was blogging throughout the day, yesterday, when the raids happened. For more information, follow his blog.

More photos of the raid can be seen on Safe Sounds’ Flickr account.

Occupiers need to be aware of their rights, have lawyers on hand and be respectful of the laws in each and every city. But if the protesters are following the laws, cops need to be respectful of that too. They need to give fair warning, clear instructions and let the people know what laws are being broken. If the cops don’t do this, the protesters have every right to stand in solidarity without fear from intimidation tactics.

From the bit of coverage that I’ve done, this seemed like a coordinated attack. There were rumors of the same thing happening at occupy events in Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta and Dallas. Watching the live feed of Occupy St. Louis last night, leaders were saying that the cops asked them politely to move from the plaza to the sidewalks. They did so. But then the cop came back and said that the protesters would be safe that night from arrests, but he couldn’t promise that would be the case the next day.

Today, the protesters at K Street in D.C. tweeted “#OccupyDC cop level: extremely high” and posted this video.

This looks like a coordinated attack on the protests happening around the country. Be on the lookout for misinformation from authority figures because from what I witnessed, the Boston Police Department gave a warning to the occupiers that was not realistic. A five-minute warning is not enough time to get your belongings and move elsewhere, especially when you are camped. Let’s see what the future holds.

And beware of this jackass.