Does Anyone Still Doubt We Languish in a Police-State? Becky Akers 1. LewRockwell.com October 29, 2011 Hard to keep track of what’s illegal these days. The most innocuous deeds can land a serf behind bars even as crimes worthy of a sociopath earn rulers the Nobel Prize. And so the Feds order some drones to kill American citizens and others to sexually assault them. You might think cops who pretend they joined “the force” to protect rather than lord it over us would hie themselves to DC and collar the criminals preying on us. But no. Instead, they waddle about our neighborhoods, arresting us for “crimes” that aren’t, as they’ve done for decades – a reign of terror so long that few Americans even notice anymore. Yet those who do contend that we’ve descended further into the police-state. Why? Because victims used to have to smoke weed in public or drag-race down Main Street to draw cops’ attention. Yes, laws banning marijuana are tyrannical, and the State has no authority, moral or Constitutional, to own, build, or patrol roads – but at least the peons knew where they stood: get caught flouting Leviathan’s silly rules, and you’d pay for it. The prudent pothead toked up at home, the speed-demon floored it on deserted highways. But now, not only do increasingly large numbers of harmless actions violate specific, incredibly petty regulations, but cops and courts stretch such vague terms as “disorderly conduct” or “child abuse” to cover behavior they – or anyone else –dislike. Consider the case of Lawrence Massey, 37. You might assume that Connecticut’s taxpayers would be grateful to him: when he “found the carcass [of a deer] on the side of Route 9 southbound,” he “loaded it into his minivan, and brought it home…,” saving them the cost of removal. It seems Mr. Massey is separated from his wife; he pulled
into a parking lot across from the apartment where she and their children live, unloaded his discovery, and proceeded to “show his sons the classic hunting technique of ‘how to field strip a deer after it had been killed.’” Until recently, Americans greatly admired such skill; indeed, it fed a good many of our grandparents. And note that Mr. Massey isn’t guilty of our wimpy times’ ultimate no-no: he didn’t kill the deer. “It was all bloated,” one witness relates, “and it doesn’t get like that unless it’s been there three or four days.” 1. Mr. Massey was also courteous to the owner of the property he was visiting: he “had put down plastic tarps in the parking lot” and, later, “without being asked Massey cleaned up the mess by loading it into the rear of his minivan to take it home…” Even so, I wouldn’t want a guy hunkering down on my asphalt butchering road-kill. So I can understand the manager’s asking him to move on. But that’s not what happened. Actually, thanks to the passive voice that so often cloaks the State’s evil, we don’t know how events transpired: both reports describing Mr. Massey’s travails only tell us “Police were called” without divulging the snitch’s identity. If there was one: cops materialize everywhere anymore, at schools, private residences, in hospitals and airports. The only time we’re safe from them is when someone commits an actual crime. So perhaps pigs cruising by the parking lot decided to have some fun. Whatever. They arrested Mr. Massey. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. His only possible wrong is trespassing, but if the lot’s owner hasn’t complained, what business is it of the cops? Or perhaps the owner is our unnamed snitch. If so, whatever happened to warning Mr. Massey first and resorting to stronger measures only if he refuses to leave? No, our hero’s mistake was surprising those around him with a pastime they deem disgusting. “[S]everal mothers and their young children were walking around,” though “a very strong smell emanat[ed] from the carcass. … Police found Massey holding a folding knife in his right hand with both arms covered in blood beyond his elbows … Several citizens … ‘found this behavior shocking and frightening and not an appropriate area [sic].’” I guess departing for pleasanter climes and minding their own affairs never occurred to these meddlers. The manly Mr. Massey goes to court in a few weeks. I’d like to think the judge will throw the book at his persecutors while highly commending the defendant, but somehow I expect the opposite.
Next we head to North Platte, Nebraska, for another totalitarian tale. Reports conflict as to whether a busybody (whom the UK’s Daily Mail dignified as “ 1. a concerned member of the public“) sicced cops on parents there, or whether our public servants simply took it on themselves to interfere. But in the end, the State busted up two families and kidnapped their children – ostensibly because one mother tried to safeguard her sons at night. I assume that the victims in this story are heartbreakingly poor: why else would four adults – a married couple, a single mother named Ashly Clark, and another woman – share a double-wide trailer with the couple’s two daughters and Ms. Clark’s boys, ages 3 and 5? Those boys sound like lovable little Huck Finns, so mischievous and adventurous they tried to crawl through the trailer’s windows at night – “escaping,” as the Daily Mail would have it. Their mother resolved this by putting them to bed in a “dog kennel” measuring 30¢ X 42¢; “Clark fastened its gate closed with a wire tie. Its inside contained a small, decrepit mattress.” Yep: most of a poor woman’s possessions are “small” and “decrepit.” Again, I’m trying to fathom the “crime” here. Were Ms. Clark wealthy, she might have hired a nanny to watch her boys while she slept. Instead, as a single mother with limited options, she devised a cheap but effective solution to protect her sons overnight. Alas, her ingenuity displeased Our Rulers. They also condemn her housekeeping: the trailer was “filthy… When officers went inside, they were met with the stench of urine and found trash and animal feces throughout the home…” And so they stole not only Ms. Clark’s sons but her roommates’ 8-year-old and 8 month-old daughters as well – though they frankly admit that “While the children were living in filthy conditions, there was no evidence to suggest they had been physically abused or were malnourished…” Those pitiable tykes now suffer “in the care of the state.” Satanic, Leviathan’s priorities. I’ve never yet met the child who complained that his house was too dirty, but I’ve met and read about hundreds who pined to the point of depression for absent parents. Likewise, a “filthy” home seldom kills a kid, but the “state’s custody” often does. The cops weren’t content with kidnapping minors: they kidnapped every adult in the trailer, too, even the childless friend. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong
time! “‘All of the adults were aware of the situation and were aware of the kids were being housed in the animal kennel and did nothing to stop it or report it,’ said Lt. Hoaglund. …[They’re] each charged with two counts of first-degree false imprisonment” – that’s rich, coming from tyrants who cage more people than any other country on earth – “two counts of felony child abuse and misdemeanor child abuse, based on the condition of the house.” Shall we discuss the condition of the average airport, where goons force us to walk barefoot while their grimy paws grope us? Take a lesson, thralls: if you want to gut a deer or keep a messy house, win an election first. Then you can not only slaughter animals in your house if you like, you can also graduate to actual atrocities like theft, rape and murder – all with utter impunity. nineteen eighty-four 1984 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5464625623984168940 Police State 2000 (1999) VIDEO BELOW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKty_3IlXOc The Marketing of Madness: The Truth About Psychotropic Drugs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fduMpYhv1_M
The nationwide crackdown on Occupy Wall Street has begun Madison Ruppert 1. Activist Post October 29, 2011 Multiple cities across the nation have begun their offensive against the people standing up for the right to fair representation and a just economic system instead of the corporatist system which we are currently subjugated by. Some of these have been brutal and vicious attacks on Americans, including what now appears to be an intentional attack on Scott Olsen — a former Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq before leaving the military in 2010. In Oakland Olsen was struck in the head by a police projectile, causing a skull fracture which put him in critical condition. Thankfully, Olsen is now conscious, although he is reportedly having trouble speaking and his brain swelling is still a risk according to doctors. The most disturbing part of this incident is not that the police who are supposed to protect and serve are brutally assaulting demonstrators but that the officer apparently meant to hit Olsen in the head. As you will see in the following video, Scott Olsen was just feet away from the police barricade when he was hit in the head. The officer responsible clearly did not lob a tear gas canister as they are supposed to do, but instead aimed at Olsen’s head. 1. You will then see activists rush to Olsen’s aid as he is lying on the ground, unmoving and bleeding from the head. Notice the police officer move back behind two other officers then lob what appears to be a flash bang right next to Olsen’s body. What appears to be a flash bang grenade goes off and the crowd disperses for a moment. Footage of Scott Olsen being shot by Police at Occupy Oakland video below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEj_4fqDbnM
Keep in mind that the Oakland Police Department claims that they did not use flash bang grenades against the protesters, although they will not account for the other police agencies involved in the assault. 1. The Daily Bail posted a picture of some of the ammunition used by police in the attack which clearly includes a rubber bullet, which the Oakland Police also claim they did not use: In an article published on Business Insider, a Marine is quoted saying that the tactics utilized by police in Oakland are not even allowed in a war zone. Is there not something seriously wrong when our public servants are utilizing tactics on American civilians that American soldiers are not supposed to use in combat on foreign soil? Oakland’s Mayor Jean Quan said in a written statement that the city has opened an investigation into the use of force, including the use of tear gas on Tuesday. However, the statement also said, “We are asking you not to camp overnight. Frank Ogawa Plaza is open for free speech activities between 6 am and 10 pm.” This is the kind of ludicrously un-American thinking that has plagued the response to the Occupy Wall Street movement. This is a nation with free speech which means that you cannot tell us when and where to speak freely. You might not like it, but we have every right to occupy a public space all hours of the day. We have every right to freely assemble whenever and wherever we want. If it really is problematic for you, you might want to explore moving to a nation which was not founded upon the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Oakland is just one of the many places in which police are launching an all-out offensive on peaceful demonstrators who are sick and tired of the elite ruling class robbing America blind while our politicians encourage it. Indeed California now seems to be a hotspot for these anti-Occupation moves, contrary to what one might assume based on California’s history as a blue state. However, this is just more proof that the bi-partisan system in Washington is nothing other than a two-party dictatorship in which both parties work towards the exact same goals and push an identical agenda of control and oppression.
San Diego saw police actions against their Occupation at around 2 am in the morning. OB Rag, an independent news organization out of Ocean Beach, California reports that at least 44 people were arrested in the sweep which began at 1:45 am in Children’s Park without any forewarning. Police and the Sheriff’s department arrived outfitted in riot gear with batons and at least two men were reportedly beaten in the process of being arrested. Several of the demonstrators who were arrested were veterans and one man was apparently a legal observer although more specific details are not yet available. All of the donated food and medical supplies at both occupation sites were confiscated by the police. Previously Assistant Police Chief Boyd Long told demonstrators that they could remain in Children’s Park so long as they did not set up tents. Despite this assurance, Long told the OB Rag that they were clearing both sites and people had been ordered to clear the areas before this. Later, barricades were set up at the Civic Center Plaza and activists were told they could return after the area was power washed, but without any belongings. A similar incident occurred at Occupy Nashville when, despite false assurances that arrests would not occur until the next day, police rounded up activists in accordance with a new 10 pm to 6 am curfew on the state Capitol grounds. State troopers arrested some 29 demonstrators at 3 am and kept them in detention until 9 am at which point they marched right back onto the Legislative Plaza. Thankfully, in this case a tiny bit of justice has already been seen when the magistrate of the court refused to even hear the charges in saying that the state didn’t give the activists adequate prior notice of the curfew since it was only announced yesterday in the afternoon. The Highway Patrol was advised by the judge to release the protesters immediately but instead they continued to hold them and issued criminal trespass citations. This was a clear example of the state deceiving activists and the media in order to illegally crackdown on the protests. Yesterday Lola Potter, the Tennessee state spokeswoman told reporters that demonstrators wouldn’t be arrested until they had an opportunity today to apply for one of the new state permits
required to hold demonstrations at the State’s Capitol. Despite the claim that they were “not going to enforce it today” they indeed did just that. The Occupy Nashville movement is having none of it, calling the state’s policy “a direct violation of our constitutional rights” which indeed it is. Undeterred, the activists held another meeting on the Plaza steps at 7 pm in defiance of the state’s unjust actions. Then in New York, where the Occupy Wall Street movement first began, the police is utilizing more indirect methods to push the activists out of Zuccotti Park. Instead of utilizing brutal police state tactics like we witnessed in Oakland, the city has confiscated all fuels and generators. This comes as the cold encroaches and 1. a forecast includes more wet cold weather in the near future. Tomorrow has a 100% chance of precipitation and tomorrow night has a forecast of snow and 90% chance of precipitation. The city claims that they are worried about the Occupy camp becoming a “fire trap” due to gasoline powered generators. However, no open flames are used in the camp and dishwater is brought in pre-heated, and the movement is even planning on setting up a volunteer fire brigade with fire extinguishers. It appears that this is nothing more than a tricky tactic to pressure the activists to leave and stop exercising their right to free speech and assembly. The president of the Benevolent Association, Ed Mullins, also made a somewhat absurd statement to The New York Post, saying that the NYPD will sue “obnoxious” activists for physical confrontations with police. Mullins said, “I am deeply concerned that protesters will be emboldened by the recent rash of violent acts against police officers in other cities. New York’s police officers are working around the clock as the already overburdened economy in New York is being drained by ‘occupiers’ who intentionally and maliciously instigate needless and violent confrontations with the police.”
They will reportedly seek the “harshest possible civil sanctions – including monetary damages – against any individual protester who causes injury to [police].” Unfortunately most protesters don’t have the attorneys on retainer to harass the police who brutally assaulted them for no reason. These are just a few examples of how crackdowns are occurring across the nation as those in power attempt to shut down the Occupy Wall Street movement which shows no signs of slowing down or giving up. It appears that politicians, even ostensibly “liberal” ones like Democratic California Senator Dianne Feinstein, are becoming fed up with the Occupation movement. Immediately following the disturbingly vicious attack on Occupy Oakland, Feinstein made a painfully ignorant statement that exposed her for what she truly is: yet another elitist, corrupt, freedom-hating politician. Feinstein said she did not think that the “protesters have the right to occupy forever.” Sorry, Dianne, they have every right to occupy forever despite what you might hope. “I don’t think people, for example, can sleep in a square for weeks on end. You have to have some order to it,” she said. Again, sorry Dianne but you don’t get to decide when and where people can assemble and speak freely or for how long they do it, or in what manner. Feinstein parroted the typical ignorant objection to the Occupy Wall Street movement in saying, “There are all kinds of different agendas going on [and it is] hard to figure out what people want,” as if that is some kind of indictment of the movement. Feinstein doesn’t understand what people want because she is part of the 1% that is unconcerned with the economic situation in our country and the implications it has for average Americans. You can view Feinstein’s financial statements here which include a purchase of over $1,000,000 in JP Morgan Chase just last year. Obviously, despite her purported leftist leanings, she is just another Washington elite that seeks to profit at the expense of the American people. In 2009 Feinstein’s net worth was between $46,055,250 and $108,109,018. Can anyone expect someone of such massive wealth to understand the plight of most Americans? Interestingly, the 2009 report of the top 16 richest members of both the House and the Senate included five individuals from California.
These include Darrell Issa with a maximum net worth of over $451 million, Jane Harman with a maximum net worth of over $435 million, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi with a maximum net worth of over $108 million and Gary Miller with a maximum net worth of over $84 million. Could this overrepresentation of multi-millionaires be related to the mistreatment of anticorporatist demonstrators in California? While it is pure speculation, it seems to be a somewhat valid conclusion. Regardless, there is an irrefutable trend sweeping the nation encouraging the oppression and crackdown on peaceful protesters seeking a new direction for the hijacked American economy and government. Hopefully people will see this and it will encourage them to take action and fight back against the un-American restriction of free speech in any and every way possible. The last thing we need is to allow the Occupy Wall Street movement to either be co-opted by the Democratic party, unions, or any other group with an ulterior motive, or to be shut down through police force. Through bringing these issues to the forefront we can help keep the movement alive and kicking despite the many attempts to marginalize it and/or co-opt it for questionable ends. Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at admin@EndtheLie.com Police State 4: The Rise of FEMA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klqv9t1zVww
Americans: Awash In Spin Dr. Paul Craig Roberts Infowars.com October 29, 2011 I have come to the conclusion that Big Brother’s subjects in George Orwell’s 1984 are better informed than Americans. 1. Americans have no idea why they have been at war in the Middle East, Asia and Africa for a decade. They don’t realize that their liberties have been supplanted by a Gestapo Police State. Few understand that hard economic times are here to stay. On October 27, 2011, the US government announced some routine economic statistics, and the president of the European Council announced a new approach to the Greek sovereign debt crisis. The result of these funny numbers and mere words sent the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its largest monthly rally since 1974, erasing its 2011 yearly loss. The euro rose, putting the European currency again 40% above its initial parity with the US dollar when the euro was introduced. On National Public Radio a half-wit analyst declared, emphatically, that the latest US government statistics proved that the recovery was in place and that there was no danger whatsoever of a double-dip recession. And halfbrain economists predicted a better tomorrow. Europe is happy because the European private banks, the creditors of the European governments, have agreed to eat 50% of Greece’s sovereign debt and to be recapitalized by public money handed to them by the European Financial Stability Facility rescue fund. The President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, thinks that Greece’s debt is the only sovereign debt to be written down and that the debt of Italy, Spain, and Portugal will somehow be bailed out through other means, including a Chinese contribution to the EFSF rescue fund. Obviously, if all EU sovereign debt has to be cut by 50% as well, the rescue fund would not be up to the job.
For our corrupt financial markets, any news that can be spun as good news can send stocks up. But what are the facts? For facts one has to turn to serious people, not to the presstitute media. Among those who give us real facts is John Williams of shadowstats.com. In his October 27 report, Williams exposes the happy second quarter 2011 economic growth figure of 2.5% as nonsense. Every other economic indicator contradicts the spin. For example, personal consumption is reported to have increased 1.7%, but this surge in consumption took place despite a 1.7% collapse in consumer disposable income! In other words, if there was an increase in personal consumption, it come from drawing down savings or from incurring higher consumer debt. A country’s consumers cannot forever draw down savings or go deeper into debt. For an economy to recover, there must be growth in consumer income. That growth is nowhere to be seen in the US. A large percentage of the goods and services sold to Americans by American corporations are now produced abroad by foreign labor. Thus, Americans no longer received incomes from the production of the goods and services that they consume. The American consumer market is on its way out. The Dow Jones rose 339.51 points on the phony good news, but consumer sentiment is in the basement. John Williams reports that “consumer confidence hit the lowest levels ever recorded in 2008 and 2009” and that consumer confidence has now “fallen back to that 2008 level.” But the stock market boomed. Somehow a population 23% unemployed with debt up to its eyeballs is going to spark an economic recovery. Recovery can only happen in the delusional world created for us by the concentrated media. No longer permitted to utter one world of truth, the presstitutes proclaim non-existent recoveries and weapons of mass destruction and demonize Washington’s chosen opponents. The sovereign debt crisis in Europe has distracted Americans from the much worst crisis in their country. After two decades of exporting US manufacturing and middle class jobs, and after a decade of consumer debt growth that has resulted in millions of foreclosed homeowners and massive credit card and student loan debt that cannot be paid, consumers have no income growth or borrowing capacity with which to fuel an economy based on consumer demand.
European banks, already ruined by purchases of Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s AAA ratings of junk derivatives, now find themselves threatened by sovereign debt. Greece’s debt crisis, caused with Goldman Sachs’ help in hiding the true debt of the country as was done for Enron, has brought to light that Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Spain, in addition to Greece, have more debt than the governments can service. In the EU, unlike the US and UK which have their own central banks that can create new money to bail out the overindebted governments, the EU central bank is prohibited by treaty from printing money in order to purchase bonds from member states that cannot be redeemed. Regardless of the treaty prohibition, the EU central bank has been lending Greece the money to pay its bond holders. The imposed austerity that is part of the deal created political instability in Greece. Now that European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has announced a 50% write-off by private banks of Greek sovereign debt, can the same treatment be denied Portugal, Italy, and Spain? The European Central Bank is following the lead of the Federal Reserve and creating new money to bail out debt. The cost will be paid in inflation and flight from the euro and the dollar. As an indication of the future, despite the positive spin on the news and the rise in US stocks, on October 27 the Japanese yen rose to a new high against the US dollar. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously an editor for the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating.