Police Thugs in America

The Republicans -- experts in "security" -- are at it again. They have executed a series of raids against "dangerous" subversives in Minneapolis advance of the Republican convention. You can watch for yourself and judge just how "dangerous" and "subversive" these people who were subjected to a full-out SWAT raid really are. The following video is from a report in Salon magazine:



About halfway through a lawyer from the Minnesota Lawyer's Guild arrives to explain what is going on. If you listen you can see how politically motivated these police raids are:



Here is another video of a house being raided. This is apparantly a house of independent media types, e.g. "Democracy Now". And here is another video of another raid and an interview with a reporter from Democracy Now who was present at a house where a group called I-Witness were just arrested. I-Witness is a group of videographers who helped provide evidence to get charges dismissed against protesters at the 2004 GOP convention

Finally, here is a video of the mainstream media's take on these raids. You have to put up with half the video giving the thuggish sheriff his media exposure to point to a pathetic little pile of things that he presents as "tools of the trade" for taking down a convention. It is laughable to see a can of charcoal lighter presented as a dangerous "weapon". Sad! If you stick it out to the end of the video you get the other side's viewpoint, a potential protestor gives her side of the story, the receiving end of a thuggish police raid. She asks the obvious question: "If we were planning criminal acts so threatening to the RNC, why did the police release us?"

Watching these videos you can get a sense of the wild-eyed paranoia among the police. They came in guns ready to blaze... they had search warrants that allowed them to seize computers, "political materials" and the following "dangerous" items: twine, cardboard, spray paint, and paint thinner. As the lawyer points out, "these are items that can be found in any home in America".

The rabid religious Right a few years ago ran around asking "What Would Jesus Do?"... I ask, "What Would the Founders of the United States Do?" Let me answer my own question: the early patriots were the ones who put on warpaint and seized vessels in Boston harbor and threw tea into the ocean. Now that was a violent protest.

Where were the British "SWAT teams" back in 1775? They didn't exist. But the right wing "patriots" of today get red faced and full of bluster over the "outrageous acts" of the kids. What are these "acts". The kids want to wave signs, block streets, and make their presence known, i.e. do "political protest". Nothing as extreme as seize boats and throw cargo into the sea to destroy it. But raise a ruckus.

And what of those bully boy right wing "patriots"? They find this picture truly outrageous! How dare anybody question authority? For them "patriotism" is fighting to see who can salute the fastest, how can click their heels the hardest, and who can shout "Heil Bush!" the loudest.

Well... if there had been SWAT teams back in 1775, then there would be no United States today. Instead there would be comfortable English gentlemen sitting in their big country homes residing over a country of peacefully domesticated house servants, field hands, and wage slaves. Oh... that is exactly what the right wing in America wants. I guess these patriots are just plain mad that the Revolution of 1776 happened! They want to roll back history to a time when wealth and privilege and aristocracy ruled unchallenged and nobody was allowed to plan a "protest".