Sunday, September 07, 2008


So what does it Take for the People to Rise Up?

Following the terrorising of protestors by the Twin Cities pigs at the US National Republican Convention, Ron Jacobs writes a good piece in The Dissident Voice saying:

I don’t give a rat’s ass about the Jerry Springer-like drama playing out around the GOP vice presidential pick Sarah Palin. Let me also state that I seriously wonder how long it will be before the folks that vote for the Republicans year in and year out realize that the men and women they are voting to rule them are part of the Washington elite just as much as the Democrats they despise.

He goes on:

What I do care about in terms of this week in Minnesota is what is going on outside the convention. From all reports in the media outlets that cover that which is not scripted by the GOP, the streets of the Twin Cities have been turned into a zone where police terror is permitted and even encouraged ... In addition, police have attacked protesters, journalists and bystanders with clubs, pepper spray, and tear gas. So far, close to five hundred people have been arrested. Most of them are being held in open air detention centers.

But this state terrorism wasn't carried out merely as a local operation. Clearly it had been carefully planned a long way ahead of events, not just by city authorities but by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. No doubt all the way back to the thugs in the White House.

These arrests, while certainly of questionable legality, are but the tip of the iceberg. On September 3, 2008, eight members of the RNC Welcoming Committee– some of the primary organizers of the protests–were formally charged with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism. These eight were among those arrested in the pre-convention raids and, according to the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), face up to 7 1/2 years imprisonment each.

The evidence collected by the pigs to substantiate these charges is in itself laughable, were the charges not so serious:

None of the defendants have any prior criminal history involving acts of violence. Searches conducted in connection with the raids failed to turn up any physical evidence to support the allegations of organized attacks on law enforcement. ” Because no physical evidence of this nature was found, police seized common household items like lighters, cleaning fluid, some nails and a couple hatchets and claimed that these items were to be used to incite insurrection. In addition, police claimed they confiscated two buckets of what they called (I’m serious here) “weaponized urine.” What these buckets actually contained was gray water used to flush toilets at the house where they were found. According to police, other seized materials included other types of household tools, padding (probably to protect people from police truncheons), some pvc pipe and an army helmet.

Jacobs sums up:

At this writing, the charges brought against the eight are state charges. It is unknown whether or not federal authorities have any plans to charge these eight or any of the others arrested. What is known is that, much like Chicago forty years ago, the primary cause of any riots that might occur in the Twin Cities are the result of unconstitutional police actions supported by local officials, the national party nominating its warmongering candidate, and the federal police state apparatus. Indeed, the events of forty years ago were termed a police riot by a federal commission formed to investigate the disturbances.

Police terrorism of this kind is not only restricted to the US. Here in the UK it has got much worse in the last decade or so since Tony Blair, who no doubt on Bush's orders imported the 'War on Terror' and chickenhawk fascism to Britain. As the US Constitution has been demolished by these Bringers of Chaos so our eight-centuries'-old Magna Carta and Habeas Corpus have been effectively done in and done away with. The pattern is predictable: if it happens in the US today, we'll have it here by tomorrow.

The Rule of Law has been given the death sentence.

You think I jest? Well here's an example of how the Rule of Law is turned upside-down by the very people responsible for its legislation: For over a year now some of us have been trying to get the UK police constabulary to bring charges of war crimes against Tony Blair and Co. Now there is no question that these are common war criminals we're dealing with. The International Criminal Court Act of 2001 goes to great lengths to describe their crimes.

But it appears that war crimes are, after all, a political matter and nothing to do with the process of justice. War crimes are something we hang around the necks of our enemies once we have fought and won a war against them in which we ourselves commit countless war crimes against the innocent victims who got in our way: 'collateral damage' it's called. Very sad. Too bad. But that's war you know and once we've won we can attach all the blame for all the killing on those horrid people we had to go to war against in the first place. We did it to the Germans and we're doing it to the Serbs right now (and that'll learn 'em to mess about with us!)

That last bit in brackets, of course, is hissed inaudibly by the Judge so that only the Clerk of Court can hear it. It wouldn't do for us commoners to hear just what a stitch-up the judicial process can be when it has to deal with its political enemies. Well we discovered that when we reported Blair and his fellow war criminals to the British plods. In most cases they just scratched their heads bemusedly.

"Nothing to do with us. Complain to the politicians!" they replied in dismissal. So we took it to the politicians --in my case to Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, 'Our Eck'. "Nothing to do with me," he replied predictably. "Don't expect me to waste police time!"

Which only goes to show just how knowledgeable your average politician, be he never so high, is of national and international law. The ICC Act of 2001 is modelled on the Rome Statute of 1998 and was legislated into being by the MPs who were sitting at that time in Westminster's House of Commons. MPs, it should be recalled, including one Alex Salmond. But then a week in politics is a long time as the late Harold Wilson once observed and the memory of your average MP very much shorter.

Well, my own complaint was finally taken seriously by a politically savvy Chief Constable who neatly passed the buck onto the Counter Terrorism Command at Scotland Yard. Now why, you may ask, should the reporting of a crime be passed onto Counter Terrorism? Does this mean that the British police, in their wisdom, consider our politicians to be potential terrorists? Or is it really we who are being reported for daring to uphold the Rule of Law in the case of such crimes?

It seems that we stepped out of line and are now being investigated for possible terrorist offences. For having carried out Britain's first known civil obedience campaign, asking the powers that be to carry out their own laws, we have been turned into terrorist suspects! Now what does that tell you about the inverted bizarro world in which we find ourselves today?

I could go on to describe the surveillance state in which we long-suffering Brits live today, where there are more CCTV cameras spying on us than anywhere else in the world. I grew up in the Cold War of the 'sixties when we were fed scare stories about those dreadful Reds in the totalitarian Soviet Union. Ha! And look at us now! Betcha any money those Russkies don't have anywhere near the CCTV and other surveillance we have! And doesn't that prove our technological superiority!?

Just how much repression are we in the Anglo-American world prepared to take before we rise up against our tormentors? How many millions does it take to shiver and starve and die in the cold of midwinter as many of us soon surely will? If nothing else does it, empty stomachs soon leads to revolt. And this is where the manner in which our governments treats protestors returns for our consideration. For if what we are seeing in the US and in Britain, conveniently justified as a 'War against Terror', is anything to go by then we're in for a very rough time indeed. The events of 911 and 77 were only just the beginning. We ain't seen nothin' yet.

So let me finish this rant by repeating here the thoughts of a fellow Brit on the significance of events at the RNC for not just north Americans but their distant cousins on this overcrowded little island:

What this shows is the extent the authorities will still go to protect the interests they serve. [These are] unfortunately effective tactics.

Where this breaks down is if the protest movement can reach a critical mass. Squashing even a few hundred and arresting a few dozen is one thing. But if protests become the norm across the country then they can't 100s of thousands. Numbers reduce them to impotence.

Unfortunately, mass based organising whilst extensive cannot get that kind of number out consistently. You need millions of people who are prepared to risk prison and criminal records. And when you're mortgaged and you need to keep a particular kind of job to keep feeding the family then the ability to participate, and take these risks, is curtailed.

However, when ruling elites reduce enough people to a state where you don't give a damn, or the costs of confronting power directly are no longer outweighed by the gains to be achieved through conformance, then you are in a revolutionary state.

It can happen! The ruling class despise most outside of their class instinctively. And they are pulling away in wealth. I suppose as long as the populace have bread and circuses then they might be able to brazen it out for a while yet!

Medialens


Indeed. But for how much longer?

Rory Winter

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:22 pm

    VIOLENCE IN VICENZA

    Stephanie (U.S. CITIZENS FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE, ROME, ITALY)

    http://www.peaceandjustice.it/
    Hi all,
    Thanks to Rose for sending around the video of the police violence in Vicenza yesterday. See below a report on what happened. Not written very well, but wanted to get this to you as soon as I could, since most of the press is painting this in an entirely different light.
    *****
    http://www.globalproject.info/IMG/mov/video1.mov
    http://www.globalproject.info/IMG/mov/video2.mov
    *****
    Yesterday, Saturday, September 6, as part of the 10-day No Dal Molin Festival protesting the new U.S. military base in Vicenza, we planned to construct an observation tower near the site of the new base. This had been regularly communicated to the police, who gave no indications that there were any problems.
    We arrived at approximately 11:30am and found the police lined up 200 meters from where we had planned to build the tower, which had been communicated to the police, in an area that didn¥t border the base. After some negotiations, we were allowed to proceed.
    We set up and construction of the tower began, with mixing of cement, cutting and mounting scaffolding material. The police were about 10-15 meters away. Everything was done out in the open and communicated over the megaphone.
    Seeing us under the hot sun, a woman from the house in front of where we were working kindly refilled our water bottles from the fountain in her garden. This water was coming from the most important ground water sources in northeast Italy, which lies directly below the site of the new base and has been great cause for concern.
    Some of the guys took a ladder over to the fence of the base and managed to tie one of the scarecrows we were carrying so that it could keep an eye on what was happening inside.
    The atmosphere was jovial.
    Around 1pm, the assistant police chief, who had been brought into Vicenza recently by the new police chief, arrived saying the tower had to come down. Police, Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza officers put on their
    helmets and gloves, held up their shields and billy clubs, and started moving toward us. Just 5 minutes prior, an official with Digos, another law enforcement agency, had assured us that the tower would stay up for the entire 10-day festival.
    At that point we all sat down in the street around the tower, arms locked together, hands up. It was repeatedly announced on the megaphone that we had permission to be there until 4pm, that everything we had planned to do had been communicated to the police.
    The police line came up to within a few centimeters of us. I was in the second row of people. Some negotiations took place. But the police would not back down. A request was made for them to simply step back a few meters while the negotiations took place, but they refused.
    The police were then given orders to move in. They started dragging away some who were in the front row. Kicking and stepping on people. They managed to drag away 6 people. If you watched the video, you see a woman get up and run toward the police only to be thrown back on the people sitting. This is because her husband was one of those dragged away and was being beaten on his back. She got up again and was dragged away at that point. She is now wearing a neck brace.
    Not visible in the video is another woman being dragged away by her hair, with a billy club under her chin. She is also now wearing a neck brace, as is another man.
    The 6 people were taken to the hospital and then to the police station.
    Things settled down for approximately one hour, though the police, in full riot gear, some carrying hexagonal shaped billy clubs, remained at our feet. I was now in the front row.
    Calls went out to everyone from the movement, including those working at the campsite, to get there immediately.
    We had the police in front of us, a fence for the house on our left, and the police started forming a line also to our right. Shortly after carabinieri arrived to the back of us. We were being boxed in.
    Once again the police were given orders to move in. I was hit in the mouth, got kicked and stepped on by police boots, and was dragged along the street, together with three others with whom I had locked arms. My glasses were stripped from my face and I never found them.
    In the video, you can also see one of the police officers take the cars keys from someone¥s pockets, place them in his own pocket and then throw them back at the crowd.
    Once behind the police line, they simply left us so they could get back to the other protesters. At that point, the woman who had been giving us water opened her gate and let us enter.
    The other behinds us faired worse than us, being beating and kicked, from the front and behind.
    In the end we all managed to get inside the garden. The woman told the police that we were her guests and they could not come in. The cold water from the fountain was used to clean wounds and alleviate pain. A woman in a wheelchair was also hit, and had a huge bruise on her arm. A young guy from Trieste, who had been hit in the head with a billy club, fainted. There was a good deal of crying and hugging, as no one expected such a violent
    reaction from the police against peaceful, non-violent protesters, seated with their hands raised.
    The police, instead, as you can see from the video, attempted to strike people through the hedge surrounding the garden. Outside the gates, they bragged about having hit or kicked this person or that.
    After some negotiations, we were allowed to leave the garden. The first ones out the gate formed a line 3 people deep, facing the police, to make sure nothing else happened. At this point all trust had broken down.
    We got out and walked backwards in order to keep an eye on the police.
    Back to the campsite, a press release was put together immediately, also calling for a press conference at 6:30pm. Within hours, photos and video of the events were on the No Dal Molin web site.
    Most of us who had been injured went to the hospital (also because 3 police officers had already been claiming injuries from us!) though some chose not to go as this meant some risk of arrest. Others went to the police station to demand the release of the 6 who had been taken away earlier.
    At 6:30 the press conference began, though little or no press felt this newsworthy. Video was shown and one by one the people recounted what had taken place.
    It was after 8pm before the other were released.
    There has definitely been a change in the approach by the police here, who in the past preferred to try to manage the situation and avoid conflict.
    Yesterday, it seemed that was exactly what they wanted. This is in part due to the policies of the new police chief who was brought in last December, who in turn brought in some of his own men, and in part due to the fact that construction will be starting any day. In fact, trucks from CMC, the company contracted to build the base, as well as US trucks have been entering and exiting the base.
    This change in approach has been duly noted and the people here, though shaken by the violent reaction, are as determined as ever.
    Stephanie
    **********
    info@peaceandjustice.it
    http://www.peaceandjustice.it/
    **********

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  2. I smell a fish, and his name is Salmond.

    ~~ Good work, Rory. Keep the flame burning.

    Something odd has been going on. It's strange how so much of the world collectively 'lost it' (the plot) all at the same time.

    Something fishy (another type of fish from Salmond, and known as 'Chemtrails') has been, and is, in the air.

    Still, it seems to have been said somewhere, once people start to wake up, they can't be stopped.

    ~~ Michael

    PS Apologies if some of my comments are for the wrong blog entry; I thought the link for comments was at the end of an article, instead it seems to be at the start. These Chemtrails don't help anything very much, except for stupidity and illness.

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