THE GOVERNMENT CLOSES RANKS AGAINST CIVIL PROTESTS

Les Blough writes "Axis of Logic Commentary, November 24, 2003

(To view all hyperlinked references and IndyMedia photo - go to http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_ 3491.shtml)

To those of us who have been protesting the U.S. Wars on Palestine, Afganistan and Iraq, it's old news. Since the new wave of anti-war protests in America hit the streets 2 years ago, we have watched the police photographers as they took close-up photos of our faces in Boston. On February 15-16, we watched the police snipers and photographers on NYC rooftops as they watched us from above. We watched them hover overhead in helicopters as we marched peacefully down NYC avenues. We later read how the Bush Regime tried to ban the NYC protests with their amicus brief in court before they got started. We saw hundreds of our fellow protestors arrested, handcuffed and taken away for walking down streets they purchased with their tax dollars. The barricaded police called our walking of those streets "disorderly conduct". We watched earlier this year as they physically attacked protesters in the street directly behind our sound-truck in Washington, D.C.

It's been happening all along. Now, the corporate media (New York Times)has finally come around to report on these government actions of intimidation and scrutiny of Americans who exercise their First-Amendment rights.

Those of you who are old enough to remember May 4, 1970, the day "America killed it's children" at Kent State University. You may also remember the chill of watching as unarmed Kent State students, protesting the war in Viet Nam were shot down in cold blood. You may remember the horror of watching fellow students trying to help their friends as they lie dying from bullets fired by the U.S. National Guard. Well, the Washington regime has now begun in earnest - their attacks on those who protest their policies and behavior.

Last Friday, they attacked retreating protestors in Miami in what Tom Hayden called "The Miami Model" [of suppression]". As the Neocon-Bush regime gets deeper into trouble with their war-crimes in Iraq, we can expect them to become more violent toward those who will ultimately shut them down here at home. Alas, it's a sad, sad day for America. Those of us who experienced their iron boot during the Viet Nam War protests know all too well what they are capable of doing when they feel threatened by their own citizens. 33 years ago, they used their "domino theory" to rationalize and justify their war crimes in Viet Nam. Today, they are using their "War on Terrorism" to justify their crimes, attacking the very same Americans they pretend to protect.

We can now expect them to bring their "Operation Iron Hammer" in Iraq, home to America - to use it against America's children once again. But we will carry on and we will shut them down once again as we have in the past. I have friends who have most sacrificially devoted their entire lives to protect our freedom and our civil liberties - our human rights, here in America - and they are not wearing military uniforms. They say "there is safety in numbers". We must maintain a united front and build our numbers until the tyrants in Washington, D.C. board their Nixonian planes, leave the nation's capital in shame and give the government to the people who pay for it and live under it.

Les Blough, Editor
Axis of Logic
Boston, MA (USA)
rmcmail@speakeasy.net
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printed from THE GOVERNMENT CLOSES RANKS AGAINST CIVIL PROTESTS on 2004-06-22 19:23:31