Occupy Wall St - Democrats and fake victims and pepper spray oh my
From the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: GOAL: 100,000 Strong Standing with Occupy Wall Street"Out-of-touch Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor said he is “increasingly concerned by the growing mobs” protesting on Wall Street and across the country. Mobs? That must be what Republicans refer to as the middle class, or maybe the
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I still think the Occupiers are deluded fools misled by those with a political axe to grind and an agenda to push. They're fighting a make believe strawman enemy crafted to distract from the real culprits behind our financial woes. And they're protesting in ways that very often completely thumb their noses at the meaning of "peaceably assemble."
I even get that the police have to do SOMETHING. They're ordered to remove these people. The people refuse to move. The cops have got a job to do.
I'm still annoyed though, and I hate it, whenever police have to be the ones initiating the use of force. It might be harder, but I'd rather they go back to the old days of just physically removing the people, chaining them and CARRYING them if need be. It's quite possible that I've been hanging out with libertarians a little bit too much. ;)
I'm just a little concerned that my side (meaning conservatives, I guess) is just so quick not to merely disagree with the OWSers, but to kind of revel in their getting beaten (whether or not it's deserved.) We're not libs. We actually believe in equal application of law, regardless of ideology. We ought to be just as shocked and frustrated at police abuse when it happens, and I'd argue that SOME (by no means ALL, or even the majority of cases!) of the instances do cross that line.
I still think the protesters are dangerous maniacs. I still think their goals are DEADLY to democracy. I still think most cops have been positively saintly overall. I just think we shouldn't go out of our way to be dicks just because it's libs being pepper sprayed. Yea, the Occupoiers are violating the spirit (if not the letter) of the First Amendment. I still think we ought to at least narrow our eyes, even if just a little bit, when force (of any kind) is being doled out like water, even in the face of civil disobedience. Riots, or attacks on police are one thing. Students just sitting there? Even if they're breaking the law? There's got to be a better way to handle that.
Then again, I'll admit I laughed at your caption: "The police give one of the occupiers a drink of tasty water."
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"Tee hee excruciatingly painful I'm on tv squee"
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And I know this makes me a horrible person, but as much as I do sympathize with the general cause of free speech and tend to have an "err on the side of freedom over state force" philosophy on all this... I still couldn't help but snicker as I put pepper on my burger that was "occupying" my plate last night.
Sweet, delicious, PEPPER.
(I had no idea you'd been pepper sprayed. My nephew got to have that, and be tased, as part of his police training. Not something I'd willingly sign up for.)
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http://www.therightscoop.com/uc-davis-occupy-protester-admits-they-provoked-police-in-pepper-spray-incident/
"Well we were protesting together and the riot cops came at us and we linked arms and sat down peacefully to protest their presence on our campus. And then at one point they were - we had encircled them and they were trying to leave and they were trying to clear a path. And so we sat down, linked arms and said that if they wanted to clear the path they would have to go through us."
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*sigh*
http://mynorthwest.com/11/582967/Pregnant-Occupy-protestor-tried-to-lure-children
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http://melvin-udall.livejournal.com/1308511.html
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