What are your thoughts about this?

Question

I just saw this question, and although it has already been "resolved" I have copied it to re-post it here. It's very important, and I wanted you all to see it:

Who Are the "Terrorists" When Members of the Media are herded into a Parking Lot & Kicked, Kneed and Bloodied?

Targeting the New Press

The list of those detained ranges from the well-known (Democracy Now's Amy Goodman) and well-established (Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke) -- to the bootstrapping bloggers and video makers who are covering local protests for TheUptake.org, Twin Cities Indymedia, I-Witness and other outlets.

Police -- with firearms drawn -- raided a meeting of the video journalists and arrested independent media, bloggers and videomakers. Journalists covering protests have been pointed out by authorities, blasted with tear gas and pepper spray, and brutalized while in custody.

Democracy Now's Goodman reports that a U.S. Secret Service agent ripped her press credentials from her neck the moment she identified herself to him as a member of the media. Her producers emerged yesterday from their jail cells bloodied and scarred, reporting unusually harsh treatment at the hands of local and federal authorities.

"And so, what happened was, they rushed the parking lot. Everyone in the parking lot was subject to arrest. They just rushed in. And Nicole very bravely was there filming the protesters. And you see that she gets tackled down very violently.

I was just on the outskirts of that, and I saw what had happened. So I ran in. I was holding a microphone. So I held it, you know, above my head with my left hand high to pose no threat. I held—I had a Democracy Now! press pass, as well as an RNC press pass, which gave me access to inside the convention, which is a hard one to get. You know, you have to get vetted through your Social Security number to get that one, so it’s a higher-degree press pass, as well. Anyway, I was holding my Democracy Now! one and screaming, “She’s press! She’s my co-worker! Let her go!”

And then, when I was doing that, three—two or three police officers tackled me. They threw me very violently against a wall. Then they threw me to the ground. I was kicked in the chest several times. A police officer ground his knee into my back. And I was handcuffed with plastic handcuffs. And I was also, the entire time, telling them, “I’m media. I’m press. I’m credentialed. I’m an accredited journalist.” But there was no—that didn’t seem to matter at all.

I looked over, saw Nicole on the floor on her stomach with her hands cuffed behind her back. I yelled over to her, and I saw her face was completely bloodied. This entire time, I kept telling them to let us go.

There was a photographer right next to me who was also taken down pretty violently. He was screaming he was press, as well. He had credentials. He kept saying he was a photographer for the New York Post. And quite funnily, he said, “For Christ’s sake, it’s a Republican paper!” But that didn’t seem to matter."

http://mwcnews.net/content/view/24966/26...

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/2/amy...

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/9/...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09...

12 hours ago

Answer 1

Very soon, police officers in this country are going to have to make a choice.  Will you side with your fellow citizens, or with the globalist criminals who have taken over our government?  Choose wisely, officers.

Answer 2

Over the last decade or so almost everyone in the so called "democratic world" has lost most of their rights to freedom of political assembly.

In Australia we have some of the most appalling anti-protest laws in the world. And precious little in our Constitution to protect us from them.

In NSW recently the Premier (Like a Governor) passed a law which stated that during the Papal Visit for World Youth Day no protester was allowed to do anything which "impedes, intimidates or OFFENDS a pilgrim"

"Offends" Protesters are now not allowed to "Offend" anyone. Tell me how you are supposed to do that?

They can name particular people and refuse them the right to participate in a demonstration. The person does not need to be a convicted criminal, or even to have been charged with an offence. they just must be "a person identified by the police to be a troublemaker".

Police are violent in the extreme with protesters. At the APEC protests in Sydney last year I saw a girl of 19 or 20 have her nose broken by a young male police officer with one close fisted punch. It knocked her to the ground.

She had danced up to him with a small bongo drum and chanted sing-song 1-2-3-4

I don't like this racist war.

Big security threat, huh?

And yet we feel free to kill foreigners in the name of freedom and democracy.

Ironic is it not?

Answer 3

What do you expect when you have a president in office that refers to our Constitution as "a God dmmmmed piece of paper".   This is the same document and rights that our troops swear to uphold and defend to their death.   The document that our country is based on and that our forefathers bled and died to secure.  

We have lost a lot during the Bush administration.   History will hold him accountible for these losses.   He might deny any responsiblity for his actions now but history keeps score and is not forgiving.   It is one place that the truth that has been optional to his administration will be told in full depth.    

Answer 4

Interesting, and thanks for reposting.

Remember that the leaders of the country have sworn to uphold the constitution, and the constitution guarantees a free press.  Reporters need to be able to report the facts as they happen, and covering a protest is one of the things they need to do.  Unless they were doing something illegal themselves, which is highly unlikely, they should be allowed to do their jobs.  The public has a right to know.

Answer 5

Welcome to n**i Germany and/or Red China.   Same tactics, so take your pick.

Answer 6

Thanks for the repost. If the attacks on members of the press on home soil was bad, spare a thought for the journalists locked up without charge in various American concentration camps dotted around the globe. I was reading about a recently released British journalist of Indian origin who spent a couple of weeks in custody at the Afghan/Pakistan border for no reason at all. Then today I read about the dozens of Iraqi journalists who work for international news agencies like AP and CNN - the guys who bring us the news when our own journalists dare not. Some have been in Iraqi prisons for as long as 2 years!

"Since the Iraq war began, more than 130 journalists — most of them Iraqi — have been fatally shot, beaten or tortured to death, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory"

Answer 7

Did this really happen in the USA?  

Very Orwellian...

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

Answer 8

Looks like the U.S. flag is quietly (but not so quietly) losing its white and blue.  Only one color will remain.

Answer 9

I see the stars and stripes are fading away exposing the swastika under the american flag.