Riot Gear as a proxy for freedom of speech? Or lack thereof?

[c1ue]

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/20...part-riot.html

[don]

Re: Riot Gear as a proxy for freedom of speech? Or lack thereof?

once upon a time . . .

[subtly]

Re: Riot Gear as a proxy for freedom of speech? Or lack thereof?

once upon a time . . .

Grand Daddy told me about people like that; called them peace officers. And there was something about protecting and serving if I remember correctly,

[lektrode]

Re: Riot Gear as a proxy for freedom of speech? Or lack thereof?

once upon a time . .

yep... those were the days my friend, we thot they'd never end, we'd sing and dance forever and a day...

and for those that recognize it, an unmistakeable/unique uniform - didnt see any of em here tho:
http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/13...-order-to-vac/

(quite to their credit, too, i would add)

[doom&gloom]

Re: Riot Gear as a proxy for freedom of speech? Or lack thereof?

I believe every protestor needs thir uniform as well... and it is rather simple and far less expensive.

[Slimprofits]

Re: Riot Gear as a proxy for freedom of speech? Or lack thereof?

Grand Daddy told me about people like that; called them peace officers. And there was something about protecting and serving if I remember correctly,

That was before the War on Drugs.

[sunskyfan]

Re: Riot Gear as a proxy for freedom of speech? Or lack thereof?

Hey, didn't you hear? After the "citizens united" ruling almost anything can be free speech. Even bullets I guess.

[Sutter Cane]

Re: Riot Gear as a proxy for freedom of speech? Or lack thereof?

once upon a time . . .

On that note, excellent op-ed in the Times yesterday:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/op...ml?ref=opinion

Why Is the N.Y.P.D. After Me?

WHEN I was 14, my mother told me not to panic if a police officer stopped me. And she cautioned me to carry ID and never run away from the police or I could be shot. In the nine years since my mother gave me this advice, I have had numerous occasions to consider her wisdom.

Nicholas K. Peart, 23, has been stopped and frisked by New York City police officers at least five times.

One evening in August of 2006, I was celebrating my 18th birthday with my cousin and a friend. We were staying at my sister’s house on 96th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan and decided to walk to a nearby place and get some burgers. It was closed so we sat on benches in the median strip that runs down the middle of Broadway. We were talking, watching the night go by, enjoying the evening when suddenly, and out of nowhere, squad cars surrounded us. A policeman yelled from the window, “Get on the ground!”

I was stunned. And I was scared. Then I was on the ground — with a gun pointed at me. I couldn’t see what was happening but I could feel a policeman’s hand reach into my pocket and remove my wallet. Apparently he looked through and found the ID I kept there. “Happy Birthday,” he said sarcastically. The officers questioned my cousin and friend, asked what they were doing in town, and then said goodnight and left us on the sidewalk.

Less than two years later, in the spring of 2008, N.Y.P.D. officers stopped and frisked me, again. And for no apparent reason. This time I was leaving my grandmother’s home in Flatbush, Brooklyn; a squad car passed me as I walked down East 49th Street to the bus stop. The car backed up. Three officers jumped out. Not again. The officers ordered me to stand, hands against a garage door, fished my wallet out of my pocket and looked at my ID. Then they let me go.

I was stopped again in September of 2010. This time I was just walking home from the gym. It was the same routine: I was stopped, frisked, searched, ID’d and let go.
These experiences changed the way I felt about the police. After the third incident I worried when police cars drove by; I was afraid I would be stopped and searched or that something worse would happen. I dress better if I go downtown. I don’t hang out with friends outside my neighborhood in Harlem as much as I used to. Essentially, I incorporated into my daily life the sense that I might find myself up against a wall or on the ground with an officer’s gun at my head. For a black man in his 20s like me, it’s just a fact of life in New York.

We need change. When I was young I thought cops were cool. They had a respectable and honorable job to keep people safe and fight crime. Now, I think their tactics are unfair and they abuse their authority. The police should consider the consequences of a generation of young people who want nothing to do with them — distrust, alienation and more crime.

[KGW]

Re: Riot Gear as a proxy for freedom of speech? Or lack thereof?

Prevention of Injury (POI) from kyle broom on Vimeo.