Homeland Security Coordinated 18-City Police Crackdown on Occupy Protest

http://alturl.com/hhqzg [Washington Blog]

Posted on November 16, 2011 by WashingtonsBlog

National Coordination Goes Against Protection of Local Accountability

According to Oakland Mayor Jean said that 18 cities coordinated police crack downs on Occupy protests.

Wonkette reports that Homeland Security likely organized the crack downs:

Remember when people were freaking out over the Patriot Act and Homeland Security and all this other conveniently ready-to-go post-9/11 police state stuff, because it would obviously be just a matter of time before the whole apparatus was turned against non-Muslim Americans when they started getting complain-y about the social injustice and economic injustice and income inequality and endless recession and permanent unemployment? That day is now, and has been for some time. But it's also now confirmed that it's now, as some Justice Department official screwed up and admitted that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated the riot-cop raids on a dozen major #Occupy Wall Street demonstration camps nationwide yesterday and today. (Oh, and tonight, too: Seattle is being busted up by the riot cops right now, so be careful out there.)

Rick Ellis of the Minneapolis edition of Examiner.com has this, based on a "background conversation" he had with a Justice Department official on Monday night:

Over the past ten days, more than a dozen cities have moved to evict "Occupy" protesters from city parks and other public spaces. As was the case in last night's move in New York City, each of the police actions shares a number of characteristics. And according to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.

[...]

According to this official, in several recent conference calls and briefings, local police agencies were advised to seek a legal reason to evict residents of tent cities, focusing on zoning laws and existing curfew rules. Agencies were also advised to demonstrate a massive show of police force, including large numbers in riot gear. In particular, the FBI reportedly advised on press relations, with one presentation suggesting that any moves to evict protesters be coordinated for a time when the press was the least likely to be present.

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(And for those who are understandably doubtful about Examiner.com as a news source, here's an AP story from a couple hours ago that verifies everything except the specific mention of DHS coordination.)

Yves Smith notes:

The 18 police action was a national, coordinated effort. This is a more serious development that one might imagine. Reader Richard Kline has pointed out that one of the de facto protections of American freedoms is that policing is local, accountable to elected officials at a level of government where voters matter. National coordination vitiates the notion that policing is responsive to and accountable to the governed.

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--
The Heretic
Missouri, United States of Amerika
Rural American Progressive
The Heartland Heretic
In Unity is Strength

I betch thought I had disappeared

A lot of people would probably prefer that! But in truth, I had an encounter with the police state which consumed quite a bit of my time for a while even though I managed to avoid a prolonged incarceration.

But all of that is pretty much over now and I am back to shed my particular brand of pessimism and gloom. Enjoy!

Gravity

The world sucks. People suck. I'm tired of it all.

Thinking more about it every day

I tried to set up and play guitar for a while. I didn't make it through one whole song. It just fucking hurts.

Not a day goes by that I don't thing about the futility of life.

There simply are no good days. And the bearable ones are fewer and farther in between.

My Dad Sells Insurance

Tell me again, Dad. Just how good a business is insurance to get into? You still want ME to sell the bogus crap to my friends and neighbors? Do you sleep at night?

Well, I 'Twittered'

Everyone was talking about it so I had to give it a spin. I found it... lacking in any real functional purpose.

Twitter: What are you doing?
Me: Looking for someone who gives a fuck what I am doing or what I think.

So, I look around. I actually seek out people. Mostly, what I found was self-absorbed pricks who actually thought that I (or anyone else) actually gives a fuck about what they are eating for lunch. I found a few news services that tweeted me every time they posted a fucking article. News Flash: I'll read your site or subscribe to your rss if I really want to know.

I read tweets by my legislators about the fucking ball game that they are watching. Hmmm... doncha think we have bigger issues to address than sports. IMHO all competitive sports suck. And I certainly don't need to hear what my legislator who is suppose to be balancing our budget, repairing our infrastructure and getting me adequate health care thinks about a fucking game that benefits no one except the bastards that own the teams and the stadium in which the game is played.

But mostly, I was actually HURT when my legislators would not respond to my tweets nor to direct email through their web site. And also, people who 'friended' me (or whatever you want to call it) who did not respond to direct messages with serious direct questions.... well, it just suggests to me that cyber society is as, or more, dysfunctional than the one we live in.

Basically, twitter is facebook, myspace, digg, and any number of other past and present fads which will run its course. Another will pop up and replace it and all of the drones who consider themselves citizens of this great land will open an account and jump off of the cliff while all of the advertising executives will continue to gather meta data on them and monitor them and figure out ways to target them for sales, slander, or jail cells... and possibly mass graves.

So, go ahead twitter heads. Start guessing what the next one will be called. Why don't you try fubar? At least the name of that site describes the state of our society. (Fucked up beyond all repair, for you few who don't know it.)

If anything, this experience has taught me that merely voting for a Democrat to keep the Republican out of office is not any wiser than voting for a fascist. They both are.

Still wonder why Americans are losing faith in their leadership? They are part of this dysfunctional society. And I am a former Marine and Public Servant making these statements. Ironically, I was appointed to my public service job by a Republican. And I consider them to be the vilest of evil.

Hmmm. Could that say something about me?

Nah. They are just dumb asses.

Mississippi Legislature Honors Event Hosted By White Supremacist

The Mississippi Legislature has voted once again to honor an occasion organized by a staunch white supremacist. Lawmakers in the House and Senate approved resolutions last week designating March 2 “The Spirit of America Day” to commemorate the achievements of standout male high school athletes in Mississippi.

What the resolutions fail to mention is that “The Spirit of America Day” events are hosted by Richard Barrett, an attorney in Learned, Miss., and the head of the Nationalist Movement, a white supremacist organization that advocates striking down civil rights laws and organizes white power events nationwide. He’s also chairman of the board of America’s Foundation, the Mississippi sports organization that’s sponsoring “The Spirit of America Day. This year, seven teenagers were selected on the basis of their athleticism, leadership and citizenship.

“The endeavors of these individual students to be productive and contributing members of society provide the model example for other students to pattern themselves after, in efforts of becoming notable and model citizens for future generations to come,” states the resolution adopted by the House.

“The Mississippi government’s repeated recognition of him [Barrett] would be a comical Ground Hog Day parody but for the vitriol of his bigotry,” Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, told Hatewatch.
In his 1982 autobiography, The Commission, he called for resettling non-white Americans to “Puerto Rico, Mexico, Israel, the Orient and Africa,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.
”Never one to miss an opportunity to exploit racial tension, Barrett marched on Martin Luther King Day last year in Jena, La.

In 2004, Barrett tried to sponsor a booth at the Mississippi State Fair backing Edgar Ray Killen, the former Klan leader who was found guilty of manslaughter in connection with the deaths of three civil rights workers. Although he suggested to the AP that he doesn’t share his racist views at “Spirit of America” events, the day isn’t Barrett’s only youth outreach effort.

Despite criticizing the violence encouraged by certain extremist groups, Barrett currently runs an online forum for skinheads, where last week he referred to Obama as “Chimpanzee-in-Chief.
” His racist message is a hit with the young men who post there. ”No matter how many laws you pass a white woman will always be the ultimate prize and target of black men,” reads one recent post. “Long live you my brave brothers and thank God for this forum and the wise words of Richard Barrett.

Hate is an insidious cancer that eats away at the very fabric of our society year in and year out. State sponsored events that are hosted by hate groups tends to lend credence to these vicious impediments to the advancement of civilization and society. We cannot allow these practices of governmental legitimization of these groups. Hate is hate. Intolerance is intolerance. Hate and intolerance are killing mankind.

Please visit ReligiousTolerance.org and StandStrongAgainstHate.org
to see what you can do to stem the tide of this societal cancer.