General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: My how things have changed. [View all]sylvi
(813 posts)or under a Rethuglican administration, you probably wouldn't be seeing near the cheerleading you see now. People would, correctly, be more circumspect and critical of it, as you have in your OP. As it stands now, I think a lot of people are trying to preempt wingers' cries of "Look what happened on Obama's watch, nyah-nyah-nyah!" by celebrating and emphasizing how quickily it was contained, methods be damned.
Then again, I could be wrong. It could be part and parcel to a more general swing in attitudes toward a more authoritarian style of governance. We've certainly seen evidence of that in the past few months.
A couple of other random thoughts:
This is basically the same police force that beat down Veterans For Peace members and other Occupiers while forcing them out of Union Square in October of 2011. Yet here some are, lining up to sniff their badges because they performed the default act of actually doing their jobs.
I wonder if the police would have been so ardent in this balls-out approach to searching for and cornering these guys if one of their own hadn't been murdered early in the pursuit.
Yesterday I saw a thread with photos meant to praise BPD. One of the photos depicted an armored vehicle with officers around it decked out in full tactical regalia. A week ago, that same photo would have been posted to decry "the militarization of the police".
Up is down and down is up.