The first court order in NYC yesterday would have stopped the removal of people from Liberty Park and allowed them back in with their tents. Police refused to look at the Court order, making it useless, even though that meant their refusal to abide by it put them in Contempt of Court. If there are no consequences for these actions, does turning to courts even serve to protect any rights?
The Bloomberg administration apparently went judge shopping. That means the legal playing field is not level, further jeopardizing the protection of rights that should accrue to all.
The timing in the 2nd court order is designed to run out the clock, and to prevent an appeal on the grounds that the legal processes have not yet been completed. That seems like a transparent violation, but not clear that one can get the appellate division to even consider an appeal.
The use of sonic weapons, the use of massive police, the changing of the rules of access to the park after the fact in violation of the agreement by which the park was created, the refusal of the authorities to allow access to the press, the arresting of journalists, the continued incarceration of people including a city councilman without bringing them to the courts - all of these are indicators that basic rights apparently no longer matter to those in control of power.
How the people as a whole respond to what has happened, including the coordination across multiple cities and the inappropriate intervention of the Department of Homeland Security into this situation, may represent the last chance to prevent this nation from slipping into fascism - corporate domination of the system without regard to the rights of persons ostensibly guaranteed by the Constitutions of the United States and the several states.
I look back to when police forces first started to organize SWAT teams. I know see the use of massive amounts of police disproportionate to any threat to public health or safety, and wonder if we have any guaranteed rights left.
We know that with the current membership of SCOTUS we can expect little judicial help at the highest levels. We will not be able to hold public officials accountable for their violation of our rights. Even our ability to change our public officials by electoral processes requires us to overcome the unleashing of corporate money by Citizens United.
I am not a violent person. But I fear violence will rise, with any offered by those protesting the violation of rights being used as an excuse for massive application of violent force against any and all critics of what is happening.
I am watching. I am wondering yet again if what I am teaching in my classroom still has any connection with reality.
We have an Obama administration that has walked away from many democratic principles, or allowed them to be bargained away in the Congress.
We have Republican candidates who seem to care not for ordinary people or for any rights of anyone who disagrees with them, who have no trouble demonizing opponents and fomenting hatred against them.
And America is still supposed to be a beacon of liberty and freedom for the rest of the world? If so, God help us all, because we can no longer help ourselves.
Now forgive me, but I am going to get dressed, go teach, and try to make a difference in the lives of some young people, even if it may already be too late.