On Monday, Lawrence O'Donnell hit it out of the park with a segment about the police response to #OccupyWallStreet. It doesn't seem to have gotten much attention here, so I wanted to give it more exposure by giving it a diary of its own. Please follow me below the fleur de Kos to watch it.
I was astonished at how far LO was willing to go in this segment. He begins by reporting first on various incidents during the Wall Street protests, then ties them very neatly into other incidents in the past, while denouncing the attitude that this is police "just going a bit too far".
Some excerpts:
Time for tonight's "rewrite'. This weekend a few troublemakers turned a peaceful protest against wall street greed into a violent burst of chaos. The troublemakers carried pepper spray and guns and were wearing badges.
Let's take another look at that unprovoked police brutality. The reason that man is being assaulted by the police is because of what he has in his hand. He's holding a professional-grade video camera.
He also blasts the upcoming police investigations, basically daring them to take real, meaningful action about inappropriate behavior.
As usual, the police department is defending its troublemakers....police investigations of this sort are always a sham, designed from the start to the finish to defend the police conduct.
Please watch the full video if you can. Excerpts cannot show how effective this video was, nor adequately convey the rage in Mr. O'Donnell's face. He goes much further than most protesters and supporters have dared in his denunciation of police conduct.
Apparently, police brutality has been a bete noire to Mr. O'Donnell for years, featuring in a book he wrote called "Deadly Force: The Wrongful Death of James Bouden Jr.: A True Story of How a Badge Can Become a License To Kill". Mr. O'Donnell's father was the plaintiff's attorney in that case. I'm glad to see him take such an interest in the OWS police misconduct. Hopefully he will continue to call out police misconduct as it happens.
11:30 AM PT: Update: Oh wow. The wreck list for the first time ever. Thanks so much everyone!