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Miami FTAA Police Terrorism Hits the Mainstream Media...
What the police are good at is getting and keeping the ear of the mainstream media when there is police violence at protests. As soon as violence breaks out, there's usually a spokesperson repeating the usual tripe - "people were throwing things," "there were anarchists vandalizing things," "the police were defending themselves," lies that are disproven days or weeks later when all the videotape comes out.
But this Salon article destroys that police spin. Michelle Goldberg's article accurately portrays the police in Miami as attacking peaceful protesters and motivated by nothing as much as pure hate.
My only problem with the article is that Ms. Goldberg is a bit too mild on the police. She describes what happened in Miami as a "police riot."
What happened was the unlawful use of violence to punish political speech and intimidate people from exercising political speech. What happened in Miami was terrorism on the part of the police.
Terrorism is attacking reporters and legal observers. Terrorism is pepper-spraying children, including the 10-month-old sprayed by the Portland Police at the August 22, 2002 protest against pResident Bush. Terrorism is arresting people on flimsy charges without any intent on proving them in court. Terrorism is holding people charged with misdemeanors in conditions akin to torture, and certainly treating them rougher than any other person arrested for a misdemeanor.
But this Salon article destroys that police spin. Michelle Goldberg's article accurately portrays the police in Miami as attacking peaceful protesters and motivated by nothing as much as pure hate.
My only problem with the article is that Ms. Goldberg is a bit too mild on the police. She describes what happened in Miami as a "police riot."
What happened was the unlawful use of violence to punish political speech and intimidate people from exercising political speech. What happened in Miami was terrorism on the part of the police.
Terrorism is attacking reporters and legal observers. Terrorism is pepper-spraying children, including the 10-month-old sprayed by the Portland Police at the August 22, 2002 protest against pResident Bush. Terrorism is arresting people on flimsy charges without any intent on proving them in court. Terrorism is holding people charged with misdemeanors in conditions akin to torture, and certainly treating them rougher than any other person arrested for a misdemeanor.