Arrested for Reading the Constitution.....

[sammi jo]

Video of the event right here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCLuYvBeq40) It is beyond amazing how far this country has fallen, especially in the last 6 years.

A pro-war rally was happening in DC with McCain, Leiberman and others, and police informed counter demonstrators that they were only permitted to quietly hold their banners and signs, but not allowed to talk, let alone heckle. This is clearly unconstitutional. When members of Code Pink and others started to read the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, they were arrested on the spot. Who in the DC Police Department gave this order anyway, and what was the motivation?

I wonder what charges will be brought against these demonstrators? Since when was peacefully reading the constitution quietly on a sidewalk considered an arrestable offense, or unruly behavior?? An Iraq veteran was amongst those charged. This story has been aired on the alternative media, for example here (http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2007/021007_reading_constitution.htm), but naturally the mainstream weasels ignored it, in their standard display of corporate cowardice.

One of the demonstrators, an Iraq veteran, put in in a nutshell when he said this:
"Screw you, anonymous coward. I served my country honorably and proudly - and with my head, not my knees. Dissent is patriotic. If you want to work for a king, go flip burgers,"
America got started because its people forcefully objected to a self-serving monarchy. Now we have almost come full circle and we have a self-serving oligarchy which acts as of they are royalty, and seemingly they also have law enforcement on their side as well. (Has anyone ever heard of rowdy pro-war demonstrators being arrested at pro-peace events?.. as if!) The DC event was a small affair, but it is in keeping with so much similar BS recently.

This isn't about the rightness/wrongness of this current series of war(s), but what is it with police departments' prioritizing the protection of the the wealthy and powerful in general, at the expense of ordinary peoples' rights all over, on both sides of the political spectrum. Even the US Constitution, it seems is becoming verboten territory. I imagine the DC police will be subject to some kind of litigation here, but with the courts becoming the way they are, charges will probably get thrown out.

What the fvck is happening to this country?

[Mystic]

Why are you condemning the actions of the police while having no knowledge of what actions precipitated the arrest.

This woman was arrested for yelling over and suppressing the free speech of others, not for reading the Constitution. This is a carefully constructed PR stunt.

[@_@ Artman]

Press Briefing by Dana Perino James S. Brady Briefing Room (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/10/20071001-2.html)

I'll take your questions...

Q And the protests, themselves, seem to have been stilled. What do you make of that?

MS. PERINO: Well, unfortunately, intimidation and force can chill peaceful demonstrations. And reports about very innocent people being thrown into detention, where they could be held for years without any representation or charges, is distressing; and we understand that some of the monasteries have been sealed. Now, obviously, this has, again, a chilling effect on protesters, but we would ask that everyone show restraint and allow those who want to express themselves to be able to do so in Burma.

...of course, many would argue this administration did the same thing, except not so blatantly.

This is the ouroboros (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros) catching its neck. This is the monster of culture recycling itself at such an accelerating pace that it has caught up and is devouring its own feet as they rise from each step.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Ouroboros.png

All par for the course...Statements like these are likely purposefully ironic, and serve to reinforce the crimes of the neo-conservatives the White House as being necessary. In other words, "look, we issued a statement about how unlawful detention is wrong, so the detention that we do must be legal."

[Jubelum]

Now we have almost come full circle and we have a self-serving oligarchy which acts as of they are royalty, and seemingly they also have law enforcement on their side as well.

I'm looking forward to the day when I do not have to hear about the Bush or Clinton families. We do still have the power to throw them ALL out and start over, in theory. Within every six years we can overturn the whole thing. The problem is that whoever arrives in Washington eventually "grows in the role" to become just as screwed up as their predecessors. The Republican Class of 1994 was a great example.

The oligarchy has been building and deepening it's power since the Wilson Administration.

[Jubelum]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Ouroboros.png


12.19.14.12.13

[Jubelum]

I'd like to see the charges and know what exactly precipitated the arrests. In this climate, especially in DC, the Capitol Police would have to face the brunt of the court system if they violated anyone's civil rights. I'm not sure why they'd be willing to go down that path over a person reading the First Amendment out loud. What does the Capitol Police Dept have to gain from doing this, if they would easily lose a suit if the video you posted was the whole truth?

[@_@ Artman]

I'm not convinced.

Do you need a permit to protest in D.C.? Did they get a permit? What did the permit allow? Are you saying what the police did is unconstitutional according to your opinion or according to what the law currently allows? Make the argument. You can be passionate and thoughtful too, you know, sammijo.

Neither was I.

This report (http://www.columbiajournalist.org/rw1_hancock/2005/article.asp?subj=national&course=rw1_hancock&id=1612) says that they were only arrested after crossing a police barricade.

What Prisonplanet fails to mention too is Code Pink's confrontational style of protest (http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w070813&s=peterson081407). There are lack of facts and background in this story. Please Mr. Alex Jones, tell what really happened without twisting the story to further your political views...

Still, my thoughts on the overall condition of this administration stands. Our neo-con clowncar is heading toward Bizarro World. I want to get off...:mad:

I'll take confrontational protest for what it's worth. But it really doesn't send any message to me, except of course that your obnoxious women with no jobs and nothing better to do than purposely defy legitimate laws to get arrested and be seen on YouTube. There are plenty of ways to follow the laws and to protest and let your message to be heard, and then there's the Code Pink way.

Call me naive, dumb, or stupid, but I'm sure the police do not arrest people for reading the Constitution...it would not be in their best interests, and of course with multiple cameras and witnesses there, I'm sure there will be a lawsuit if Code Pink did not do anything wrong...so there won't be any lawsuit..

"Code Pink Members Get Ticket For Reading The Constitution ... (and parking in a tow zone)" :smokey:

[@_@ Artman]

I'm looking forward to the day when I do not have to hear about the Bush or Clinton families. We do still have the power to throw them ALL out and start over, in theory. Within every six years we can overturn the whole thing. The problem is that whoever arrives in Washington eventually "grows in the role" to become just as screwed up as their predecessors. The Republican Class of 1994 was a great example.

The oligarchy has been building and deepening it's power since the Wilson Administration.

Fuckin' scary isn't it? It's like we are living in television reruns [Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton?]. There's a good chance that Jeb Bush might run in 2012 though. Then it'll be Chelsea Clinton in 2016, Jenna Bush 2020...:wow:

[Jubelum]

Fuckin' scary isn't it? It's like we are living in television reruns [Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton?]. There's a good chance that Jeb Bush might run in 2012 though. Then it'll be Chelsea Clinton in 2016, Jenna Bush 2020...:wow:

The Kennedys, with all their dynastic philandering, leftist, woman-drowning, rape-suspected, no-rum-running-left-behind don't hold a candle to the BushClinton Co.

By 2012 Jebediah will have that K'utun thing to deal with. :\

[@_@ Artman]

K'utun

Heh? :???:

[@_@ Artman]

The Kennedys, with all their dynastic philandering, leftist, woman-drowning, rape-suspected, no-rum-running-left-behind don't hold a candle to the BushClinton Co.

FOUR MORE YEARS! HA HA! FOUR MORE YEARS! HA HA!

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g255/artman46/BushClintonDecide.jpg

"Of all the candidates vying for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Clinton is the one I think is least likely to operate in the sunlight, entertain a diversity of ideas, and give back the powers stolen from the other branches of government by the self-imagined Unitary Executive Bush. (http://www.theseminal.com/2007/10/02/you-cant-have-one-without-the-other/)"

http://www.jofreeman.com/rightreport/images/HC-Barf-Bag.jpg

[SpamSandwich]

Meh. This is just scare-mongering and propaganda.

[Jubelum]

Heh? :???:

Or depending on the dialect... "K'atun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calendar)"

December 21, 2012 is when we're all going to die, and it will probably be Exxon's fault.

[sammi jo]

I'm not convinced.

Do you need a permit to protest in D.C.? Did they get a permit? What did the permit allow? Are you saying what the police did is unconstitutional according to your opinion or according to what the law currently allows? Make the argument. You can be passionate and thoughtful too, you know, sammijo.

A permit to protest? I can understand the need, when there is a large organized demonstration, for permits in advance because of public safety and other issues. In the city where I live, the cut- off point re. permits for a public rally is 80 people.... less than that and no permit is required. It can take several days (sometimes weeks!) to get a permit for a rally, but many protest-worthy events happen far quicker than it is possible to get a permit for. In many cities, "free speech events" are exempted from some bureaucratic requirements (insurance etc). Different cities have different rules... but if police permits are required in the instance of a small handful of people spontaneously showing up to make a point, such as happened in DC when these people were arrested, then we have truly lost our freedoms.

:(

[Jubelum]

if police permits are required in the instance of a small handful of people spontaneously showing up to make a point, such as happened in DC when these people were arrested, then we have truly lost our freedoms.

:(

You're delusional if you think that CodePink is a "handful of people spontaneously showing up to make a point."

[mydo]

Why are you condemning the actions of the police while having no knowledge of what actions precipitated the arrest.

This woman was arrested for yelling over and suppressing the free speech of others, not for reading the Constitution. This is a carefully constructed PR stunt.

What you've just mentioned is not a crime.

[@_@ Artman]

Or depending on the dialect... "K'atun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calendar)"

December 21, 2012 is when we're all going to die, and it will probably be Exxon's fault.

And me, thinking it was gonna be Jebus...

http://www.riprense.com/images/jesus_knocking.jpg

:smokey:

[hardeeharhar]

This woman was arrested for yelling over and suppressing the free speech of others...

I don't care that the woman was arrested for crossing the police line, for that she deserves to be incarcerated.

I do care that you falsely believe that people have the right to be heard and that an individual can suppress the rights of another individual. The constitution guarantees no rights from each other, only from the government. The constitution doesn't guarantee you have the right to be heard. This meme that a person can suppress another person's rights by screaming is the most idiotic thing I have ever commonly read on the internet, that and that 9/11 was an inside job...

[@_@ Artman]

http://sfgate.com/c/pictures/2002/06/09/csp_savio-arrest.jpg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcx9BJRadfw)

"There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you cannot take part; you cannot even tacitly take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the wheels, and the gears and all the apparatus, and you have to make it stop. And you have to make it clear to the people who own it, and to the people who run it, that until you are free their machine will be prevented from running at all." - Mario Savio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Savio)

No, no. No more Mario Savios. Nothing to see here...:\

[sammi jo]

You're delusional if you think that CodePink is a "handful of people spontaneously showing up to make a point."

How else can you describe what happened? The demonstration did involve a "handful" of people (not 100s or 1000s) and they were definitely there to make a point. Hence the arrests. Semantics....

I have attended many anti-war (type) events in the last 6 years and I have lost count of the number of times I've seen police helicopters deliberately drowning out peoples' speeches by endlessly circling at an extremely low altitude, or obvious incidents of violence or other obnoxious conduct by counter-demonstrators ignored (or even encouraged) by police, or undercover cops provoking fights which enable arrests, or even paid stooges hurling rocks through store windows etc. in prearranged vandalism while being filmed by the mainstream media... you know, the usual tactics.

If the same standard of policing was being applied to both sides of the issue, then I wouldn't be bitching and moaning about it. But we're back to that old enemy, duplicity.... and its glaringly apparent to which side police departments all over the nation defer. And this isn't just a US thing....

[@_@ Artman]

COINTELPRO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO)

COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) was a program of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States. Although covert operations have been employed throughout FBI history, the formal COINTELPRO operations of 1956-1971 were broadly targeted against organizations that were (at the time) considered to have politically radical elements, ranging from those whose stated goal was the violent overthrow of the U.S. government (such as the Weathermen); non-violent civil rights groups such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference; and violent groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party. The founding document of COINTELPRO directed FBI agents to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" the activities of these movements and their leaders.

http://www.howtoavoidthebummerlife.com/weblog/archives/weather%20underground.jpg

The Weather Underground documentary (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1847524043861152897&q=the+weather+underground&total=224&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0) 1 hr 32 min

[sammi jo]

COINTELPRO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO)



http://www.howtoavoidthebummerlife.com/weblog/archives/weather%20underground.jpg

The Weather Underground documentary (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1847524043861152897&q=the+weather+underground&total=224&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0) 1 hr 32 min

I'm very aware of cointelpro, but hesitated to mention it first... I was just avoiding the typical moronic accusatory involving "tin foil hats" etc. Proof isn't enough for some pollyannas.. even the laws of physics/statistics/probability etc are losing out....
:rolleyes:

[@_@ Artman]

I'm very aware of cointelpro, but hesitated to mention it first... I was just avoiding the typical moronic accusatory involving "tin foil hats" etc. Proof isn't enough for some pollyannas.. even the laws of physics/statistics/probability etc are losing out....
:rolleyes:

This really did happen. I know, because I was a teenager at the time. The older "cooler" friends in my neighborhood thought they were "bad-ass" too. I don't condone their actions, but every little bit helps to change the mess that occurs from bungling, power-mad idiots causing unjust wars and stripping citizen's freedoms.

But all it takes for the police to come down on you today is if you make too much noise, or wear an "offensive" t-shirt or sign.

The documentary is revealing in the sense that the survivors of the Weathermen do question their actions. It also shows in depth the deadly shenanigans the FBI achieved with covert operations within the dissenting groups and parties of the time. Just as today.