In his article published at The Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal urges us to refrain from villainizing police officer John Pike and, instead, consider that his actions an illustration of change in the systematic police plan for responding to protest movements.
One of the comments at this youtube video says it all: "Of course it was peaceful. The ones causing violence were not there: the cops." The story is here. More and more, we are seeing a militarization of urban police forces--America's military weapons and tactics turned toward her own people who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
With the help of a DI reader who wishes to remain anonymous, I have created the following Declaration for modern Americans to wake up from their delusions. I'd recommend that all adults and school children put their hands over their hearts in the morning and say the following instead of pledging allegiance to the powers-that-be (but see here for an alternate form of the Pledge).
From Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, a discussion with Karen Smith, a retired judge who had served on the New York Supreme Court:
JUDGE KAREN SMITH (ret.): I was wearing—and I brought this—a hat, which says the "National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer." And as you can see, in color, it’s quite bright. And at night— AMY GOODMAN: It’s fluorescent green. JUDGE KAREN SMITH (ret.): It’s fluorescent green. And then I was wearing it, and I had a pad and a pen, and I was there to take down the names of people who were arrested so we could follow them through the system and just observe what was going on. And as I’m standing there, some African-American woman goes up to a police officer and says, "I need to get in. My daughter’s there. I want to know if she’s OK." And he said, "Move on, lady." And he kept pushing—they kept pushing with their sticks, pushing back. And she said—and she was crying. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he throws her to the ground and starts hitting her in the head. And I walk over, and I say, "Look, cuff her if she’s done something, but you don’t need to do that." And he said, "Lady, do you want to get arrested?" And I said, "Do you see my hat? I’m here as a legal observer." He said, "You want to get arrested?" And he pushed me up against the wall.
Here is a group of Eighteenth-Century Occupy Protesters:
[Image by Erich Vieth, a derivative work based on John Trumbull's painting, "Declaration of Independence"]
