This isn't a diary of the make-up of the two movements, or which one is truly grass roots versus which one was created by funding from conservative Billionaires. Nor is this a diary about the "message" each group presents to the public, nor how the media covered and continues to cover them (unequally, as you well know). No, this diary is about the difference between how the "legal authorities" and the elected officials in charge of law enforcement have treated members of the two groups.
Remember 2009? Remember when Tea Party "protestors" were allowed to bring guns to their protests and spit on members of Congress? I do.
People attending Tea Party rallies in which "protestors" spat on US Congressional members.
They also openly carried guns at sites where Democrats spoke, including the President, in 2009 during the height of the health care reform debate.
The police did nothing to disturb these "protestors" even as they implicitly threatened and intimidated people whose views they opposed.
Occupy Wall Street and the other protests around the country, however, have not been afforded the same degree of--respect--shall we say. For the sake of brevity, I won;t go onto the numerous incidents of documented police abuse, such as the unwarranted use of pepper spray on non-violent OWS protestors, or the use of police tactics such as kettling to create a "legal justification" for mass arrests. Instead, I will focus pn the most recent example: the treatment of protestors at Occupy Boston in the early hours of the morning of October 11th by the Boston Police department.
From Democracy Watchdog Action Network a photo of the Boston Police Department using excessive force to intimidate non-violent protestors in last night's raid in which 141 Occupy Boston protestors were arrested:
If the man were not a police officer this would be a clear cut, slam dunk case of assault and battery. Instead the poor woman being assaulted has likely been charged with resisting arrest for getting her throat in the way of the officer's hand. From the Boston Globe:
Police said the arrest of 141 in the early morning hours {Tuesday, October 11] was the largest mass detention in recent memory, and it heightened tensions between protesters and city officials trying to walk a narrow line. [...]
Occupy Boston said in a statement that police had “brutally attacked’’ protesters.
“Today’s reprehensible attack by the Boston Police Department represents a sad and disturbing shift away from dialogue and towards violent repression,’’ the group said on its website.
Philip Anderson, a spokesman for the group, said police threw protesters to the ground and dragged them.
“It got kind of brutal,’’ he said.
Elaine Driscoll, a spokeswoman for the Boston police, said officers “have a right to protect themselves’’ and acted with restraint.
“We believe all our officers were respectful and proportional,’’ she said. The department had not received any complaints. [...]
Urszula Masny-Latos, a member of a group that provides legal advice to protesters [Steve's note: Urszula Masny-Latos is the Executive Director of the National Lawyer's Guild in Massachusetts], said she was arrested, even though she was wearing a green hat with the words, “legal observer.’’
“Four officers grabbed me and dragged me,’’ she said.
I guess the brutal actions of these "heroic" police officers, sanctioned and no doubt ordered by the Mayor, Thomas Menino, tells you and me that excessive force, brutality and "shock and awe" tactics are the order of the day.
I guess exercising your first amendment rights to free assembly and free speech (and of course, your second amendment rights) have different parameters depending on whether one is considered a "Conservative Patriotic American" or a DFH (Dirty F***ing Hippy).
Imagine if the peaceful protestors in Boston had been carrying "weapons" of any kind, no matter how innocuous (toy guns, e.g.). There would have been dead bodies lying on those streets, not just arrests, in my opinion.
By the way, have any tea party protestors ever been arrested for anything they did at a "Tea Party" rally or event? I can't find one example. Were any Tea Party members assaulted with pepper spray while standing peacefully, posing no threat to anyone? Again, I don't recall the police acting aggressively toward any Tea Party members, despite threats of violence, implicit and explicit.
Though I think this guy did finally get arrested:
Though he wasn't arrested at the scene, wasn't abused by the police, and was sentenced to probation for his head stomping incident. Not quite the treatment that the young woman having her throat squeezed and her head pushed back at a dangerous angle received from the BPD officer who for whatever reason deemed that his use of such extreme force against a young woman was perfectly acceptable.
And that my friends is one more big difference between the Tea Party and OWS. Tea Party creeps can get away with assault. Protestors at OWS rallies and marches get the shit kicked out of them (for no good reason), they get choked (for no good reason), they get pepper sprayed (for no good reason), they get bashed with batons (for no good reason) and they get arrested en masse (often after being entrapped by questionable police tactics).
Not that this is unexpected. Remember the LAPD assaulting protestors in MacArthur Park during the Pro-Immigration marches, people who suffered beatings and being shot with rubber bullets in 2007? I do?
There is something terribly wrong with this country. If you don't see it, it is because you have chosen not to look.
