DAY 60: Occupy Wall Street (video)

Occupy Wall Street, RT.com, Wisdom Quarterly, Pacifica

A gauntlet of free beatings, cowboy police at the rodeo herd hapless cows as if it were a holocaust. Zurich was also raided.

• JP Morgan (bank) buys NYPD for $4.6 million
• Watch Occupy Wall Street LIVESTREAM

Midnight Solidarity with Zuccotti Park

Tuesday, 12:20 am, Nov. 15, 2011


"You can't arrest an idea."

Google keeps police brutality videos up

WOMEN’S DAY on Pacifica Radio Archives

Occupy Wall Street destroyed by police

MIDNIGHT POLICE RAID

Occupy Los Angeles watched the livestream and spontaneously woke the camp and marched two miles through a deserted downtown banging drums in solidarity, causing an LAPD tactical alert until 2:00 am.

• #OWS gets court staying mayor and police vandalism
  

(AP) Occupy Wall Street protesters have been ordered to leave [and struck with batons and pepper spray] Zuccotti Park, their longtime encampment in Lower Manhattan. But they've been told they can return once it has been cleaned [and their computers, tents, generators, equipment, food, and everything else has been destroyed, pile into bins and carted away].

• LATEST UPDATES

(John Taggart/NY Daily News)

At about 1:00 am Tuesday [Nov. 15, 2011], police handed out notices from the park's "owner," Brookfield Office Properties, and the City saying that the park had to be cleared because it had become unsanitary and hazardous.

Protesters were told they could return -- but without sleeping bags, tarps, or tents [or any protection from the elements as winter descends].

Paul Browne, a spokesman for the NYPD, says most people began filing out of the park once they received the notices; one person was arrested for disorderly conduct. Brown says the park was not heavily populated Tuesday morning. More

Camp Bulldozed to "Clean" It
NEW YORK - Hundreds of New York police...dressed in riot gear, descended on the headquarters of "Occupy Wall Street" in Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, issuing protesters with eviction letters and warning they would be arrested if they remained. The officers arrived just after midnight...ordering them to temporarily evacuate the park. Campers were told [but not given the chance] to remove their tents and all their belongings... [That removal was done by special police cleaning/demolishing crews.] More

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the New World Order

Occupy Oakland tossed from one camp yesterday

Oakland re-attacked by Police (video)

Wisdom Quarterly, RT.com, Global Grind,

(RT) Nov. 14, 2011 - The City of Oakland paid for 1,000 paramilitary troops in this planned take down. Now police in occupied Oakland have cleared out a re-formed occupation after threatening Occupy demonstrators with more heavy handed violence.

Oakland PD and agents from other San Francisco Bay Area cities encircled the downtown encampment before dawn and moved in at about 6:00 am. They escorted handcuffed protesters away soon afterward to be imprisoned, strip searched, humiliated, and potentially violated further.

• Eyewitness: Occupy Oakland raided again
• Storm Troopers hit one Oakland camp, leave other
  
• Student loans add to angst at Occupy Wall St.

The police state action comes a day after police attacked hundreds of Occupy Wall Street-style demonstrators from encampments in Portland, Oregon arresting more than 50 people. Oakland officials insisted on an end to their city's encampment using the pretext that a man was fatally shot Thursday near the camp.

Scott Olsen regains (free) speech

War veteran/peace activist Scott Olsen releases statement

Berkeley (Occupy Cal), St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Eureka, Denver, Albany (NY), Riverside, Portland, and other camps have been attacked as part of an organized suppression campaign.

• PHOTOS: Can police end occupations and save Wall St.?
• PHOTOS: Occupy Oakland and Wall Street solidarity
• VIDEO: Crackdown on UC Berkeley student protest
• Keystone Tar Sands: Ring Around the Rose Garden
  

Power to the People Film Series


(Theendofpoverty.com)

• Police clear Occupy Oakland tent city

  (San Jose Mercury News) Police cleared Occupy Oakland early Monday in what has so far been a peaceful raid. Hundreds of protesters gathered at... More
• Occupy Oakland: Pre-dawn raid on Frank Ogawa Plaza
• #OWS: The Most Important Thing in the World Now
• Special Report: Food for the Soul at Occupy LA
• Vatican City's gay love triangle murder
  
• How do we dismantle rape culture
  
• Capitalism versus the climate
• Racism in the Occupy Movement?
• Occupy Wall Street and its offshoots have been catching flak for being so "white." Occupy Atlanta is no exception, getting off to a rough start...when a civil rights movement hero-turned-Congressman stopped by to offer his support, only to be waved off by the mostly white G.A.

Occupy Cal: Police brutality in Berkeley (video)

Miles Matthews, RT.com, Occupy Cal, The Daily Californian, Wisdom Quarterly

(Nov. 10, 2011) Our own media won't cover what really happens, but RussiaToday, the British tabloid press, CBC.ca, and Al Jazeera sometimes will.

(Video by Miles Mathews, CalTV) US paramilitary forces in riot gear clashed with dissenting students at Cal Berkeley after demonstrators refused to dismantle their Occupy Cal camp. Tents were erected following a march protesting tuition fee increases for students -- in solidarity with the broader Occupy Wall Street movement. Several activists were arrested, some were beaten with impunity by police with batons, guns, spies, mace, cannons, and secret disorienting weapons.

Police are free to riot: totalitarian tactics on kids

The crowds at UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza at 10:30 pm, Wed., Nov. 4, 2011 (dailycal.org)

Occupy Cal protest sees large crowds, police violence

Amruta Trivedi (DailyCal.org)
On a day marked by large crowds and violence between protesters and police, UC Berkeley students and community members established an Occupy Cal encampment on Sproul Plaza, despite it going directly against campus policy.

The encampment, approved in a nearly unanimous general assembly vote by the protest’s participants, was formed to show solidarity with the national Occupy movement but focused on the increased privatization of the UC system... More (Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011 at 1:01 am, updated at 4:19 am).

UC students were arrested and suffered injuries following a police crackdown on an attempted campus. ­"We had the tents set up for about a half an hour when the police decided they wanted to shut down the camp," student protester Eric Uribe recalled in an interview with RT.



"What the students did is they set up a human wall around the tents. Soon after that, the police approached with full force in riot gear, with batons. We had no intention to move, but they jabbed some of us repeatedly in the stomach, pulling people onto the floor and arresting them." Hundreds of protesters had gathered at the town's Sproul Plaza to protest against tuition fee increases and public education funding cuts.

Police beat children, girls, and defenseless teens

• Riot police break up Occupy Cal peace demonstration (CBS)
  
• Occupy Cal plans encampment despite Chancellor’s warning
• Occupy Cal moves ahead despite administration’s warnings
• Day of Action sweeps across California
• Vice Chancellor Le Grande addresses Occupy Cal protesters
• Occupy Cal protests sees melee between police and protesters
• RT on Twitter twitter.com/RT_com
• RT on Facebook facebook.com/RTnews
• Occupy UC Berkeley protesters face violent police
• Raw Video: Arrests at UC Berkeley "Occupy" Camp
• Tuned In: Some of Bach's sweetest stuff on tap at UC Berkeley
• More: 239 related articles

Police shoot cameraman on video

Ernest A. Canning (BradBlog.com)

New video has emerged, courtesy of ThinkProgress, of an apparently unprovoked Oakland police officer shooting a cameraman during a recent stand-off with Occupy Oakland demonstrators.

In an email to The BRAD BLOG, Sgt. Christopher Bolton, Oakland PD's Chief of Staff, confirmed that the incident involved an "OPD use of force," which took place at 16th Street near San Pablo Ave. in Oakland on the morning of Nov. 3, 2011.

The matter was "under investigation." (Recall that a general strike took place in Oakland on Nov. 2. This event, according to the cameraman, took place shortly after midnight.) More

• INN World Report radio's Wall St. Teach-In
• VIDEO: Scott Walker gets checked after betraying voters
  
• Wolf: The people versus the police (CNN)
• Second Iraq Vet critically injured by Oakland PD
  The police's violent Oct. 25 crackdown on Occupy Oakland demonstrators sent another vet to surgery, one who wasn't even protesting...
• City Council hears testimony on Occupy Oakland
• The Oakland City Council heard hours of emotional testimony on the Occupy Oakland encampment and the city's brutal crackdown. Supporters urged a resolution opposing police brutality.

(democraticunderground.com)

Police attempt to murder Iraq War Vet (video)

Wisdom Quarterly

Using threats and force to press for a triumph of will over others is a police state tactic once called "fascism" and now called special weapons and tactics (SWAT) operations.

(Russia Today) Eyewitnesses in Oakland have put up footage of the police's violent tactics against activists. Here is one of the latest videos of the incident referred to in Marina Portnaya's report. An Iraq War veteran was injured.

Marine veteran Scott Olsen is seen lying on the ground after being shot in the head by a police officer wielding a tear gas canister propeller, fracturing Olsen's skull and swelling his brain. When a group of activists run to his aid, a policeman deliberately takes aim at the protesters, misusing a "non-lethal" weapon in an illegally deadly fashion with complete immunity. Police then lob a flash bomb at the group to prevent them from aiding Olsen. It goes off immediately, terrorizing the unarmed civilians being subjected to indiscriminate deadly force.

• Police wounding Vet stirs new wave of dissent (The Nation)
• Vietnam Vets were treated the same way in the past
  

(CelebDelaCreamTv)

"Veterans for Peace" member Scott Olsen was critically wounded by Oakland Police who are believed to have been joined by 15 other government agencies. Together they fired on unarmed American citizens. When the government uses violence to suppress its people it is a form of fascism.

In New York near Wall Street police brutality is encouraged.

• Hurt protester Scott Olsen was "provoking no one"‎ (SFC)
• Oakland PD under cloud for violent crackdown‎ (Mother Jones)
• US protesters call for strike against Oakland (Reuters)
• Marine Down in Oakland‎ (Counter Punch)
• All Eyes on Oakland: Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Jail‎ (Huff Po)
• Occupy protesters arrested in two cities‎ (CNN/CIA)

It's a Police State now (video)

(Niknak72) This footage is unbelievable. So please spread it as quickly as possible before it gets removed. Authorities have already spoken to Google and YouTube demanding that all police brutality videos be taken down. So much for free speech.

Pretext: "It's not healthy for these kids to camp like they're homeless." Force: Coordinated paramilitary city police. Victim ("enemy"): Peaceful demonstrators occupying public square to call attention to broken economic, political, and educational system. The world is not working under American capitalism, which is owned, controlled, and in service of corporations not the people they purport to serve. Solution: More occupiers.

The police did not feel safe. So they suited up and mowed down the unarmed opposition. It's just like NFL football... except with guns, concussive grenades, tear gas, blunt force trauma inducing batons, torture technique training, and virtual immunity from prosecution for brutality and assault.

Protesters vow return to plaza despite ouster
(LA Times) Occupy San Diego protesters vowed Friday to return to the civic plaza behind City Hall despite being ousted and their tents removed by a massive police sweep hours earlier. "The police were completely out of line," said protest leader Ray Lutz. "This insidious show of force has only energized our movement. We're going to be even stronger." More

(RT.com)

Occupy The Valley (video)

Wisdom Quarterly

Occupy San Diego will not be stopped by oppressive police tactics. Instead, the Occupy Movement in California is growing in response.

This is our currency! We will occupy it! (occupygeorge.com)

It will soon be in Van Nuys and Sherman Oaks (the world-famous Valley), which is part of the San Fernando Valley in northwest Los Angeles County. It is also coming to Pasadena, in the progressive adjacent northeast San Gabriel Valley. These are largely residential enclaves in the megalopolis that is 50-mile-long "Los Angeles." The people united will never be defeated.

• Occupy LA to branch out (ABC News)
• Occupying the LA Unified School District
• Occupy the Valley begins Saturday, Oct. 29th
• Britain to abolish rule of male succession
  

Wolf condemns "Stalinist" erosion of protest rights Author Naomi Wolf and her partner Avram Ludwig are arrested in New York at an Occupy Wall Street protest (Guardian.co.uk/Mike Shane).

(Guardian) Feminist author Naomi Wolf has criticized the erosion of the right to public protest in the United States after she was arrested alongside Occupy Wall Street demonstrators in New York City. Wolf was led away in handcuffs after addressing protesters outside an awards ceremony held to honor New York's governor, at which she was a guest. The author had disputed claims by police that a permit granted to the event -- organized by the Huffington Post website on Tuesday night -- allowed them to clear the sidewalk outside the venue in the Soho district of Manhattan. More

Occupy San Diego attacked by police (video)

Wisdom Quarterly, Occupy San Diego

"Hey you filthy hippie punk, don't you come near my barricade!"

Wisdom Quarterly neglected to organize Occupation Meditations at Occupy San Diego, our great neighbor to the south. It may not have prevented the onslaught of police state tactics, but it could only have helped. The Raiders of Oakland organized their paramilitary forces and in scenes reminiscent of Nineteen Eighty-Four came like thieves in the night and stole camping supplies and herded occupiers away to jail. "I've been dehumanized by the city/I've been Americanized by the pity," an old punk song once rang out.

Occupy returns, police clamp down (video)

The Blaze, The Guardian, Wisdom Quarterly, RT, SF Chronicle
Minute 2:00 shows Wisdom Quarterly analyzing what is motivating the police state.

Tear gas was used in a military action against peaceful civilian protesters under the pretext of shooting at, arresting, destroying the encampment and materials, and brutalizing them for their own good. Like the My Lai Massacre, the police are "destroying them to save them."

A crowd of roughly 400 Occupy Oakland protesters clashed with police Tuesday evening while trying to reclaim a campsite that they had been ousted from earlier in the day. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the crowd marched from the public library toward [Oscar Grant] Plaza at about 5:00 pm, vowing to confront police.

(The Blaze/Jonathon M. Seidl) - We’ve already brought you some pictures and video from the Occupy Oakland eviction last night, but this morning it seems things were much worse.... police used [deadly, canon-style projectile] rubber bullets on the crowd. Intrepid blogger Zombie put together a collage of videos and pictures the seem to capture the full chaos of what happened. Here’s how he describes it in his piece, “Rioting in Downtown Oakland as Occupiers Clash with Police”... More

Police shoot Vet, toss grenade at people who come to his aid

(Guardian.co.uk) Protesters have returned to downtown Oakland, California, to demand the resignation of the city's mayor and an investigation to explain how an Iraq war veteran, Scott Olsen, was hit in the head by a teargas canister at close range, leaving him critically injured [skull fracture, brain swelling]. About 2,000 people -- half as many as Tuesday night -- massed in front of City Hall on Wednesday, tearing down a steel barricade intended to keep them off the grass in [Oscar Grant] Plaza. More

Police storm Occupy Oakland (video)

Marcus Wohlsen (AP), Huffington Post, Wisdom Quarterly, Occupy Oakland

Paramilitary tactics on a peaceful civilian demonstration? It's what US police have been waiting to unpack as they take us from Brave New World Order to Orwellian nightmare.

OAKLAND, Northern California - Shock and awe. Police in full riot gear with tear gas and three helicopters overhead cleared anti-Wall Street Occupy Oakland protesters this morning (Oct. 25) from the plaza in front of Oakland's City Hall where they have been camped out for about two weeks. TV news footage shows numerous people in plastic handcuffs being led away from the site by police around after the 5:00 am raid. The protesters did not appear to be resisting, although an officer did fire a [potentially deadly] non-lethal projectile from a shotgun at a protester who lobbed a bottle, authorities told the San Francisco Chronicle. More

• Occupy Together
• Occupy Berkeley: End the Monied Corruption of Democracy
• Occupy San Jose
  
• Occupy San Francisco
• Occupying the Message (Right-wing style)

This morning at 5:00 am over 500 police in riot gear from cities all over central California brutally attacked the Occupy Oakland encampment at the intersection of 14th & Broadway. Riot police attacked the peaceful protest with flash grenades, tear gas, and [deadly canon style] rubber bullets after moving in with armored vehicles. Apparently, the media was not allowed in to document this repression, and one was warned or allowed to leave. Police established barricades as far apart as 11th and 17th. Over 70 people were arrested, and the camping gear was destroyed and/or stolen by riot police. Contact the mayor and tell her what you think of her actions.

• Reconvene today (Tuesday, Oct. 25) at 4:00 pm at the Oakland Library on 14th & Madison.
• We're not finished. We have only begun.
• We will be protesting this planned atrocity at the next City Council meeting.

• Riot police occupy Oakland, evict protesters (CBS)

Wall Street: "Sleep Now in the Fire" (video)

Wisdom Quarterly, Democracy Now!, Michael Moore, Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine once hired Michael Moore to produce their video for the song "Sleep Now in the Fire" eleven years ago. They chose Wall Street, shutting the stock exchange in the process as police overreacted to a music video.

Moore was arrested while everyone else ran away. But the story lives on because just today, he was banned from filming a news piece for a cable news agency. Apparently, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) now owns the street outside the exchange and determines who can be interviewed on the street.

Moore was interviewed on Democracy Now! this morning recounting the story to Amy Goodman. While he could have gone down to Occupy Wall Street a block or two away, Moore said he was going to Wall St. whether or not the news crew was coming. More than a decade later, one sign in this video says it all: "I CAN'T BELIEVE WE STILL HAVE TO PROTEST THIS CR*P."

Plaza renamed for man murdered by BART police

• Occupy Oakland [brutally] raided by police
  

Veteran: "There is no honor in this" (Occupy)

A Marine at Occupy Wall Street tells NYPD "There is no honor in beating unarmed citizens."

• CostOfWar.com
  
• OccupyWallStreet.org
• OccupyTogether.org
• Global reaction to killing Kaddafi
  

Prison hunger strike succeeds...

at one prison, continues at others
Don't worry, peaceniks, it's a "non-lethal" weapon... unless I choose to shoot y'all in the face, which is my right because (I can say) I feel threatened -- even though I have a gun, reinforcements, and am specially trained to control, corral, and torture.

Tortured on the street and finished off behind bars. That is what US citizens can expect due to living in the freest country in the world, which the entire world envies. Of course, we are only the strongest empire. We are far from free. As we stand in solidarity with one another, 99 percent of us, we will first be stripped even of the appearance of rights. Police have official permission to riot, to provoke, antagonize, torture, and then to arrest and retaliate for the trouble they have been put through.

Those who sit on juries will sympathize with PR firms, legal consultants, county prosecutors and the tales the three concoct. But as the people occupy Wall Street and every major city in the country, there is hope that we can turn these human rights abuses around. The lowliest among us, our prisoners, have stood up to the outrages of officially sanctioned torture. And there may be a modicum of justice as the internal policing mechanism investigates itself.

The other hunger strike solidarity prisons have not even been granted that, so the protest continues. Meanwhile, on the streets of now more than 1,000 US cities, the occupation is on. Los Angeles in particular catches our attention, even though recently Occupy San Diego and Occupy Wall Street faced mass arrest for not moving on demand. Some unlucky LA demonstrators may soon find themselves in the very hell we have been protesting. Most citizens of the empire (that's us) do not care a whit about "prisoners." We may start when we suddenly find ourselves judged, juried, and waiting to be executed by a Sheriff guard having a bad day.

U.S. widens inquiry into abuse at L.A. County jails
Robert Faturechi and Jack Leonard, Los Angeles Times
Unconvicted men at the LA County Jail are routinely abused by sheriffs. The Sheriff's Department runs the jail under Lee Baca with rookie trainees who are forced to first work as guards to harden them for abusing suspects, minorities, and other "undesirables" and covering up such crimes once on the street.

Sheriff's Department seeks to curtail the extent of subpoenas, which seek data on workers since 2009. Federal authorities have widened their misconduct investigation into the Los Angeles County jail system, demanding internal Sheriff's Department documents detailing deputies' use of force on inmates over several years, as well as other records.

Sheriff's officials balked at the size and scope of the subpoenas when they were served several weeks ago and are negotiating with federal prosecutors to reduce the number of documents they must produce. More

• Code of silence among jail guards hinders abuse probes, watchdog says
• ACLU files suit over alleged racial profiling of students
• Convicting an officer is a tough challenge, experts say
• Full coverage: Jails under scrut

Rioting is exactly what Police want (DK "Riot")

Wisdom Quarterly

(Chastrie) Police riot (provoking by strategy, brutality, and with undercover provocateurs) because they can't beat peace. All they need is an excuse. Rioting is what they train for with the help of consultants, lawyers, the FBI, and PR firms. Police want rioting.

"Riot" (Dead Kennedys)
Rioting, the unbeatable high
Adrenaline shoots your nerves to the sky
Everyone knows this town is gonna blow
And it's all gonna blow right now

Now you can smash all the windows that you want
All you really need are some friends and a rock
Throwing a brick never felt so [darn] good
Smash more glass
Scream with a laugh
And wallow with the crowds
Watch them kicking peoples' ass

But you get to the place
Where the real slave drivers live
It's walled off by the riot squad
Aiming guns right at your head

So you turn right around
And play right into their hands

And set your own neighborhood
Burning to the ground instead

Riot: the unbeatable high
Riot: shoots your nerves to the sky
Riot: playing into their hands
Tomorrow you're homeless
Tonight it's a blast!

Get your kicks in quick
They're callin' the National Guard
Now could be your only chance
To torch a police car

Climb the roof, kick the siren in
And jump and yelp for joy
Quickly, dive back in the crowd
Slip away, now don't get caught

Let's loot the spiffy hi-fi store
Grab as much as you can hold
Pray your full arms don't fall off
Here comes the owner with a gun

CHORUS

The barricades spring up from nowhere
Cops in helmets line the lines
Shotguns prod into your bellies
The trigger fingers want an excuse, NOW

The raging mob has lost its nerve
There's more of us but who goes first
No one dares to cross the line
The cops know that they've won

It's all over but not quite
The p[olice] have just begun to fight
They club your heads, kick your teeth
Police can riot all that they please

CHORUS

Tomorrow you're homeless
Tonight it's a blast

• Living in an American Police State
• Top 10 Signs we're living in a Police State
• 20 signs the US is becoming a Totalitarian State
• Only through direct action will change come
• LIVESTREAM: Global Peaceful Revolution
  

All the "change" we got

Dog mauls Cat (graphic video)

CC Liu, Amber Dorrian, PFC Sandoval, Allen Weiss (Wisdom Quarterly)

Unions join Occupy Wall Street demonstrators today. Will the dogs behave? (krittersthattwitter.com)

Should a Cat Strike Back?
Just as in the animal plane, so in the human. Dogs tear at cats, aggressors at pacifists, fear against peace. Fear is a form of hate. So love and peace must be demolished, batons against flowers. There is an ancient Indian sentiment about how the peaceful, beautiful flower" people respond to forces dressed in black hoping to provoke "rioting" to justify cracking and instituting Marshall law:

Just as the sandalwood tree sprinkles
Perfume on the very axe that lays it low
So the good/wise person showers with
Love even those who approach as foes.

"Poetic justice" is not justice. Police use these incidents to justify preemptive brutality. There are a great many back up troops to conduct mass attacks in an unending bouts of retaliation.

In the movie "Berkeley in the Sixties," many students talk about how police coralled them, blocking from leaving campus after a sit in/speech. A military helicopter was getting into position to tear gas them. It did as the riot police laughed, swung batons, and arrested anyone still standing. Business as usual.

Police train to corral peaceful demonstrators. Now they are "illegally" assembled. And it is time to round them up. It just happened in the arrest of 700 peaceful activists led onto then trapped on the Brooklyn bridge -- misguiding them into actions they can be arrested, shot, brutalized, or maced over. It is no accident, no crossed signals, no error. This is how they are drilled in from covert training manuals. The CIA has its own Anarchist's Cookbook. They want activists to break the law to counter it with draconian tactics, torture, brutality, and a militaristic mentality.

The US illegally invaded Buddhist countries (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) in covert wars. American college students stood up. Massacres of students by the police that provoke rather than pacify them is exactly what "peace" officers train and hope for.

Occupy Together vs. The Police (cartoons)

Wisdom Quarterly, Occupy Everywhere Demand Nothing, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy Boston, Occupy San Francisco, Occupy Tokyo... Occupy TOGETHER
Officer Cartman: "You will respect my authority!" (Runescaper443*)

• CLICK IMAGES FOR VIDEOS

PHOTOS: Occupy Los Angeles (UPI.com)

Hippie InfestationSOUTH
PARK

Occupy Together

Wisdom Quarterly
Occupy Los Angeles has cooperated with police requests on where to squat and what space to leave open. Amazingly, things have remained peaceful. Usually, the LAPD is eager to riot, arrest, and brutalize. Fellow at work forces in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other places that feel the Arab Spring resonate with the American Fall. The police see to it because the motto of a police state is "We don't want to have to tell you twice." You have no rights -- unless you assert them. What gets into Little Eichmanns/Officer Cartmans? It is a different view of the world from that side of the line, where punitive, obedient, conservative, oppression, and (often) hypocrisy rules. Many officers are ex-military or active-reserve agents of the state. They are trained to humiliate, brutalize, and kill civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Northern Africa, and in other secret "kinetic actions." They take that training into American society saying, "I fought in Afghanistan for your free speech, so the h*ll if I'm going to stand here and let you mouth off!" Officer, isn't that a contradiction? "You will respect my authority!" Deploy pepper spray, baton, Taser, tear gas, less-than-lethal projectile shotgun, disorienting EMF emitter, microwaves, semi-automatic handgun, automatic weapons, water canons at will. Why? It is because, as we learn from an observation by the Dead Kennedys, "Police can riot all that they please."

Diverse issues invite diverse solutions at Occupy LA; clip from "Hippie Infestation."

*Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976: "Allowance is made for 'fair use' for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."