"Tell me what a Police State Looks Like" by Cindy Sheehan

[Joanne98]

For OpEdNews: Cindy Sheehan - Writer

“Pittsburgh is what a police state looks like!”

I have been to dozens of protests, large and small, since my son was killed in Iraq, but I have never seen anything like today and the only term I can use is: Profound Overkill. There were easily two cops/soldiers for every one of us protesters"or maybe even 3 to 1.

About two thousand of us gathered in Arsenal Park in Pittsburgh to try and march downtown. We were all peaceful and had no weapons. We had only traveled a few blocks when cops dressed like they were in full combat with heavily armed opponents stopped us and blocked our way with a new weapon called “LRAD:” A new “crowd control” device. LRAD stands for: “Long Range Acoustical Device.” I was, unfortunately near it when the cops turned it on. It's painful.


The group dispersed and went in many different directions. Some of us got to a corner a few blocks up from where we were initially stopped and I am not kidding, at least 500 cops were stopped in formation at this intersection with their gas masks on and nightsticks at the ready to crack the head of anyone who actually tried to peacefully cross their lines"unarmed, of course.

I spoke to dozens of cops today and tried to explain to them that we peaceful protesters are only trying to exercise our 1st Amendment rights and the cops should be protecting us, members of their own class, and not suppressing our freedoms and actually physically hurting us.

There was absolutely no reason for the over-reaction of the police state to the protesters today. Do not believe the news propaganda that says the protesters were the cause of the violence"it was the cops. The thugs even dropped tear gas from helicopters. We're like ants trying to struggle against anteaters.

Seeing the National Guard troops, fresh from Iraq, broke my heart the hardest. I also talked to dozens of them, none had ever heard of posse commitatus, and asked them if my son, their brother, died in Iraq so they could steal the rights of his mother. Most of them wouldn't even look at me. The cops and soldiers should be ashamed of themselves for allowing their selves to be used as tools of the Robber Class “elites.”

“Just following orders” is not a defense.

The G20 will announce tomorrow that they will become the new “permanent council” for international economic cooperation. Who the hell do they think they are? Who voted for this? Who gives them the authority to have this power over our wellbeing and our very lives?

Continued>>>
http://www.opednews.com/articles/-Tell-me-what-a-Police-Sta-by-Cindy-Sheehan-090925-797.html

[Nikki Stone1]

1. The G20 will announce tomorrow that they will become the new “permanent council” for international..

"The G20 will announce tomorrow that they will become the new “permanent council” for international economic cooperation"

The New World Order is sealed.

[ShortnFiery]

2. Welcome to The Machine.

[vinylsolution]

3. And where are those so-called 'patriotic' teabaggers....

.... when they should be protesting about troops on the streets, in clear breach of posse comitatus?

Not a single murmur.

[lillypaddle]

4. My heart goes out

to this mother who lost her son. She is no different than thousands of other mothers and fathers, and sisters and brothers, and ... my heart goes out to all of them.

Why does Cindy Sheehan bug the shit out of me? I honestly don't know. But for some strange reason, she does.

[Seldona]

5. The only video I have watched backs that up.

MSNBC had a camera person walking with the protesters. I didn't even hear much yelling! Overkill is kind imo. This was, at the least, a violation of civil rights. At worst it is an unconstitutional, illegal, assault.

I am still looking for video of the reasons the police reacted like they did. Arrest those that break the law, by all means. WTF was the military doing there? Cops can't handle this? Or is this the 'training' between the military and the police talked about by a General whose name I cannot remember? I have got to find that article. It was here on DU that I saw it.

[stray cat]

6. Police state? Try visiting one and then say it with a straight face....

[carla]

7. Soviet style

police states are a thing of the past. American fascist police state is the groove.

[Vidar]

8. Well said.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Stop acting like a good German!

You are enabling tyranny!

[Igel]

10. In most of the police states I've looked at,

the protest would never have occurred.


This is the cinematic version of the police state, with lots of violence that gets you outraged; the kind that makes for good footage of the valiant protester out-matched by the unjust, quasi-military police, but who puts up a worthy fight for Good and Justice. This version has a hero and bad guys, and often has a martyr. This makes for very bad PR. When a police state has to deal with this, it means it's a very weak police state and won't last long unless it learns to do better.

The more serious kind of police state, the kind that was worse historically, didn't do that. Their MO makes for bad cinematography. A serious police state is anodyne. Several policemen dressed in standard or civilian garb unlock a door in the dark and rush in to arrest you in the middle of the night, or they show up when you're arriving or leaving work. Before you can do much more than let out a yell or two you're put in the car or police van that's waiting. No valiant struggle, and you're not really out-matched by somebody in Imperial Storm Trooper armor. You vanish without the support of your colleagues and family; you vanish in anonymity, your struggle not noted by anybody except those close to you. Your disappearance certainly a warning or provocation to them, but they're also powerless. You may wind up at trial, in which the conclusion is pretty much pretermined. Or you may just vanish. This is designed to discourage, and typically does a very good job. Moreover, it is designed to keep others information-poor: You don't know if you were one of a hopeless few, or one of the powerless many, until you're gone essentially neutered as a threat, and if your arrest is reported it won't encourage others to protest. You will be billed as an impotent zero. But the worst thing is that you don't know how they knew you were involved in the aborted protest: Somebody may have betrayed you, and you may never know who it was--but you know that they will not be punished while you moulder in jail.

[Aragorn]

11. Go Cindy

Everyone should speak out and speak up.