Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

OWS Protesters' Treatment

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • OWS Protesters' Treatment

    Summary of what it's like after you are out of cell phone or media range... when the police have you all to themselves... and you are simply protesting a broken system peacefully:

    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/...otesters….html

    * I heard from two different sources that at least one busload of protesters (around 40 people) was forced to spend seven excruciating hours locked in tiny cages on a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. prison bus, denied food, water and access to bathroom facilities. Both men and women were forced to urinate in their seats. Meanwhile, the cops in charge of the bus took an extended Starbucks coffee break.

    • The bus that I was shoved into didn’t move for at least an hour. The whole time we listened to the screams and crying from a young woman whom the cops locked into a tiny cage at the front of the bus. She was in agony, begging and pleading for one of the policemen to loosen her plastic handcuffs. A police officer sat a couple of feet away the entire time that she screamed–but wouldn’t lift a finger.

    • Everyone on my bus felt her pain–literally felt it. That’s because the zip-tie handcuffs they use—like the ones you see on Iraq prisoners in Abu Ghraib—cut off your circulation and wedge deep through your skin, where they can do some serious nerve damage, if that’s the point. And it did seem to be the point. A couple of guys around me were writhing in agony in their hard plastic seats, hands handcuffed behind their back.

    • One seriously injured protester, who had been shot with a shotgun beanbag round and had an oozing bloody welt the size of a grapefruit just above his elbow, was denied medical attention for five hours. Another young guy, who complained that he thought his arm had been broken, was not given medical attention for at least as long. Instead, he spent the entire pre-booking procedure handcuffed to a wall, completely spaced out and staring blankly into space like he was in shock.

  • #2
    Re: OWS Protesters' Treatment

    The irony is that the police depend on tax revenues for their pay. Tax revenues that the OWS protestors want to raise from the 1% and the Tea Partiers want to cut. Yet i can't recall a single complaint from any Tea Party protestor that they were mistreated by the police.

    Some may say that the difference is that OWS is breaking the law and the Tea Party was not. While that distinction may give police actions political cover, I think there are other reasons for the different treatment. First, the Tea Party goes home after its rallies because they have homes. It appears to me that the OWS movement attracts a significant number of homeless people who have nowhere else to go and naturally see a benefit from sharing their situation with others who sympathize. The police and the homeless are in constant conflict and view each other with great suspicion. Second, the OWS appears to be primarily a youth movement (traditionally more challenging to authority figures) The TP appears to be a movement of older conservatives who traditionally have been aligned with the police.

    This may seem far fetched, but I see these two groups as nascent organizations similar to the communists and fascists in 1930s Germany. The German police made room for Nazi rallies but shut down Communist ones. When pressed by difficult economic times and social unrest, I believe most governments will similarly encourage the rise of conservative "order keepers" such as those that routinely appeared in Latin American countries as a response to the rise of the socialist left. Here, because conservatives are depending on our police departments to play that role, I expect that where they control state governments they will increasingly seek to cut eduction and not police budgets.

    Just a cautionary note to those conservative Itulipers who have school age children...

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: OWS Protesters' Treatment

      Just a cautionary note to those conservative Itulipers who have school age children...
      Any advice for non-conservative Itulipers with school aged children? Just wondering.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: OWS Protesters' Treatment

        My kids' school asks for "donations" to make up for the lack of funding. I suspect most parents pay, but we live in a fairly affluent area. In my opinion, this is the future... wealthier areas will have better schooling because parents will kick in more money to their 'free' public schools. I think we donated about $600 dollars this year, at least. They also "pool" the school supplies that we give the kids. This helps support the kids with less money.

        I heard on the radio about one school that struggles to find the money to pay for kids to have breakfast because they are too hungry every day to study properly. Same county, different school district.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: OWS Protesters' Treatment

          The irony is that the police depend on tax revenues for their pay. Tax revenues that the OWS protestors want to raise from the 1% and the Tea Partiers want to cut. Yet i can't recall a single complaint from any Tea Party protestor that they were mistreated by the police.
          There's no irony here. The job of the police, in every society, is to protect what are currently called the 1%, in a quid pro quo relationship. This has been the case for centuries, including following a revolution. You can gauge the threat posed by any group by the magnitude of their repression. Making an example of Spartacus wasn't an act of whimsey.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: OWS Protesters' Treatment

            OWS protesters treated similarly to many other people that are arrested by the police... This isn't a dispute with Don's point, more a commentary on the thread title.

            I've definitely experienced the ol' handcuffed to a wall trick before.
            Last edited by Slimprofits; December 03, 2011, 05:32 PM.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: OWS Protesters' Treatment

              Originally posted by aaron View Post
              My kids' school asks for "donations" to make up for the lack of funding. I suspect most parents pay, but we live in a fairly affluent area. In my opinion, this is the future... wealthier areas will have better schooling because parents will kick in more money to their 'free' public schools. I think we donated about $600 dollars this year, at least. They also "pool" the school supplies that we give the kids. This helps support the kids with less money.

              I heard on the radio about one school that struggles to find the money to pay for kids to have breakfast because they are too hungry every day to study properly. Same county, different school district.
              not to 'pick a fight' with you, mr aaron - but who do you suppose _should_ pay for better schools? (besides the residents of their communities)

              and the whole current events debacle in congress over pizza being classified as a 'vegetable'? i mean, this is a joke, isnt it (or would be if it wasnt so pathetic)
              first of all: after witnessing just how much of the federally-funded school lunch gets thrown into the garbage can every day, i say: IF THE KIDS WILL EAT PIZZA, lettem have it - at least they dont chuck it or start flippin it around the cafeteria

              and 2nd, but primarily my question is:

              WHY IS IT THE FEDERAL GOV'S JOB TO FEED YOUR KIDS LUNCH in the first place? (and not _your_ kids mr aaron, but everyones)

              if one wants to make sure ones child gets fed, THEN _YOU_ MAKE THEM A LUNCH and have em take it to school.

              and i dont want to hear BS about how many kids only get fed at school cafeteria's - not when most/a lot of it gets thrown away, never mind how many billions are being spent on foodstamps - hey! where does it stop? and just how many more functions of what should be the individual's responsibility for their own damn lives do we expect the .gov to pay for?

              adding: aside from the fact that we need to raise some taxes on the 1% to cover those who are being 'fed to the lions' so the 1% can live it up on bailout money

              again - not to pick on yer kids mr aaron....
              Last edited by lektrode; December 03, 2011, 08:43 PM.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: OWS Protesters' Treatment

                the big diff tween OWS and the teapartiers was the fact the TP's generally behaved themselves and more or less cooperated with the cops - what we see happening with the OWS crowd is that the usual suspects of the radical leftwing are stirring up trouble - why is it surprising, the reaction of the cops? (not that i'm condoning/defending the more aggregious actions of them, some of the cops should clearly be re-trained if not prosecuted for excessive and unwarranted brutality)

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: OWS Protesters' Treatment

                  Remembering back to the protest against the Vietnam War during the 1960s, the protests lost their effectiveness when they became side-tracked on other issues such as police brutality, the right of free speech, the right to sleep outside, the STUPID and obsurd Peoples' Park protest at UC Berkeley during 1969, solidarity with farm workers, gay and lesbian rights, woman's rights, pot legalization, solidarity with labour, save the whales, save the dolphins, save the redwoods, keep Lake Tahoe blue, solidarity with Cuba, Down with the Shah of Iran, on and on and on and on............ The result was that the establishment won, including Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. The protests became a joke. In fact, they became a tourist attraction in Berkeley and in San Francisco.

                  The OWS Movement seems to be going down the same path. The OWS Movement is being diluted and side-tracked.

                  The OWS Movement now needs to make a short list of what needs to be done in Washington; and realistic goals for the Congress need to be drawn-up. Maybe realistic goals might be: a.) pass another Glass-Stiegal Act to keep banks/bankers away from brokerage houses; b.) outlaw lobbyists in Washington; c.) arrest Congressmen/women and Senators who pedal their influence to lobbyists; d.) pass a federal sales tax in the Congress to balance the budget; e.) require balanced-budgets; f.) raise federal income taxes for all brackets; g.) extend Medicare to cover everyone, regardless of age or pre-existing conditions; h.) abolish the Federal Reserve Bank System; i.) abolish the EPA; j.) cut the budget for the Defence Department; k.) abolish the Department of Agriculture; l.) abolish the Department of Commerce; m.) cut funding for NASA and the DEA; abolish or reform (trim) the Dept. of Education; n.) outlaw Congressmen/women and Senators from forming corporations in Washington.

                  This is a short list of what can be done. Some of it may be accomplished. This is the direction that the OWS protests need to take now--- and not, "How long can we sleep in the streets?". Once we have specific, realistic, and simple objectives drawn-up, we can have a debate in America on how to begin the reform of this monstrosity that they call a federal government here.

                  President Franklin Roosevelt had to govern by Executive Order during the 1930s when the Congress failed to govern, and fell into grid-lock, drift and corruption. President Obama now may have to do the same thing. FDR had advisors on how to proceed, such as John Kenneth Galbraith during the 1930s. The OWS Movement needs to get their short-list together and advise President Obama now on how to proceed. Then we can dig-out of this economic mess.
                  Last edited by Starving Steve; December 03, 2011, 11:47 PM.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: OWS Protesters' Treatment

                    not to 'pick a fight' with you, mr aaron - but who do you suppose _should_ pay for better schools? (besides the residents of their communities)
                    Well lektrode surely you can see that this logic will lead to a spiral up and a spiral down. Neighbourhoods are segregated by property prices at the very least. Those who can afford to live in an affluent neighbourhood can also afford to subsidize the schools. Those who can't also can't afford the real estate taxes to fund a the schools and also obviously thereby can't afford to make up the shortfall. Two solitudes.

                    And yet the kid's can't choose their families. There is presumably as much talent in a low-income school district as in a higher income one, and certainly more need. So why exacerbate the problem? Surely all kids deserve and require a basic standard of education? What does their parent's income have to do with it?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: OWS Protesters' Treatment

                      Originally posted by Starving Steve View Post
                      .... The OWS Movement needs to get their short-list together and advise President Obama now on how to proceed. Then we can dig-out of this economic mess.
                      +1 mr steve!
                      the whole lot of it was good nuff for me.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: OWS Protesters' Treatment

                        You mean a list like this:

                        http://www.whatever.itulip.com/forum...-what-OWS-want...

                        By one of the Naomis.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: OWS Protesters' Treatment

                          Comment

                          Working...
                          X