I signed up, finally, to be able to post on Daily Kos because of the happenings in Burlington, Vemont the weekend before last. So this is dated, as it takes a week to get authorized to post. On August 29th, during the New England Governor's Conference in Burlington, there was a protest march, speeches (Bill McKibben) and simulated oil spill by protesters to bring awareness to the closed door decisions and discussions about our Environment (Tar Sands Pipeline for one) being made by the Governors and Canadian primiers who were meeting. After the march, rally and "oil spill", some protesters decided to block the busses that were taking the conference participants to dinner. Police in riot gear came in and "freed" the busses, shooting protesters with rubber - pepper spray bullets and spraying one protester in the face with pepper spray.
That protester is my son, so I got a first hand account.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/... The Burlington Free Press covered this "event", but not a lot of other coverage by news media.
In one of the videos, it shows a policeman pointing his rifle at a protester, following her around, then shooting her. She was making no threatening moves toward him. He was dressed in his armor, helmet, codpiece, etc., she was dressed in a tank top and shorts.
Then, there was my son, who was moving to protect a woman holding a banner, who was being pushed by the police with their shields. A policeman leaned over the "frontline", smiled at my son, then pepper sprayed him in the face.
I always thought police were to protect and serve. Now we all know better who's interests they are serving. Naturally, the police chief and AG's office said the police had done a good job and not overreacted. Once again, the party line.
It's not unusual these days to see stories about police attacking peaceful protests. But in Burlington, VT?
When Ki was being interviewed afterward about the police response and being pepper sprayed, he said about the police action, "if they can, they will, they do" Yeah, they do don't they...