Nat'l Park Service buckles to Darrell Issa, tases occupy protester

[Scuba]

in my email this morning....

Scuba,

My name's Eric. I'm a middle-aged, middle-class PTA dad who participates in Occupy DC because I want a better country for our kids.

Today, the National Park Service brutally tased a peaceful, young Occupy DC demonstrator. This was a prelude to their threatened crackdown of Occupy DC tomorrow at noon.

Watch here (warning: video is graphic). And please join me in petitioning the National Park Service to leave Occupy DC alone.

Then pass this email to others -- because the media will be at Occupy DC tomorrow, and the more signers we have, the more they can report that the public's on our side.

Until now, Occupy DC has been protected from eviction because the National Park Service -- not the DC police -- have jurisdiction over us. The National Park Service said publicly, "We don’t have any issues with these folks" and "The core of their First Amendment activity is that they occupy the site."

But last week, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa politicized the Park Service -- holding hearings where he pressured them to crack down on Occupy DC under the pretext of enforcing camping regulations. The Park Service quickly buckled.

We need to create our own pressure. Click here to tell the National Park Service that First Amendment rights trump camping rules.

http://act.boldprogressives.org/go/6766?akid=6459.623692.awIYK_&t=4

Then, pass this to others so we can show the media a public outpouring.

Occupy DC is fighting the good fight in our nation's capital -- protesting the Koch brothers, both political parties, and Joe Lieberman (last night) for being part of a broken political system that is hurting our democracy. Monday is key to our survival -- please stand with us in solidarity.

-- Eric Lotke, Occupy DC participator and dad

[leveymg]

1. Park Service is part of the Interior Dept. If there's a crackdown, it's the White House, not Issa

who gives that dispersal and arrest order.

If the U.S. Park Police do forcibly evict OWS from DC, we will have become just another Third World Police State in the eyes of the world.

P.S. - It's incidents of petty brutality and unlawful arrest of political protestors, like this one, that creates that image. It's the kind of mass arrest scene in Oakland, below, that solidifies it.