Remember the protests in Iran where everyone in America was shocked and appalled that the citizens were being harassed by the police? If it wasn't for Twitter, no one in the world would know what was going on in Iran.
Well the same thing happened in Pittsburgh last week at the G20 Summit. The descriptions and videos of the police/military behavior is despicable. What's more, the tactics used against students in the University of Pittsburgh is more than alarming. Tear gas was used on protesters, innocent people, bystanders and onlookers. For the first time in the US long-range acoustic devices (LRAD) were used (sound guns). Reports of rubber bullets abound.
What kind of democracy is it when you can't come together to express dissent at what your government is doing? From what I understand, no one had weapons (which as we know were evident at Obama speeches where no one was brutalized by cops)... but in Pittsburgh the cops and paramilitary whathaveyou and National Guard troops (has anyone heard of the Posse Comatitus Act?) acted against their fellow citizens. How easy is it to train people to turn against their neighbors?
Check out these 2 very good accounts of what happened
From the Ground: G20 Summit Brings Martial Law to Pittsburgh
and
Armored Police Seize University of Pittsburgh Campus, Attack Students, Then Claim They Were Stopping Anarchists @ G20
I'm simply stunned (but not very surprised.)
This is what Cindy Sheehan wrote on her Facebook page yesterday "Cindy Sheehan tear gas hurts, but what hurts more is seeing the cops/soldiers so fucking out of control brutal, especially with the young people. Am too tired and sore to write more tonight...and my throat, nose and eyes are stinging from the tear gas...more soon."
RIP USA
No comments:
Post a Comment