Occupy Underground

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/09/05/dnc-dispatch-occupy-movement-marches-in-support-of-bradley-manning/

News reports universally suggest it was the protesters that shut down the intersection. This treats the protesters as pests intent to shut down the convention by blocking traffic. It removes the politics from the action. The reality is, had the police and other security personnel had a plan to move the protesters through the city, as they should be able to do during the convention, there would have been no standoff.

Additionally, let’s be clear: there is nothing about the First Amendment in the 2012 Democratic Party platform. There is nothing about policing of protests or police violations of press freedom and people’s right to record, as has been widely documented by those following the Occupy movement for almost a year. What it does mention, however, is an American universal value of being able to “assemble without fear,” which should be promoted in countries abroad.

The message is two-fold: the Democratic Party considers a heavy police state to be part of protecting the right of people to “assemble without fear,” even though it opens up hundreds to stop-and-searches without probable cause in violation of one’s privacy. It intimidates families who would come out and exercise their right to assemble if they did not have small children. It makes Muslims or immigrants afraid because they do not want to be targeted by law enforcement. And it ensures only a small group of people, the most radical of the radical or the most passionate of the passionate, show up to protest.

Finally, the Democrats find it perfectly acceptable to proselytize on the virtue of countries other than America being free while individuals are put on terror watch lists here so they do not protest during major political events. They obscure instances where US citizens are having their freedom of expression violated like, for example, when a Manhattan district attorney in New York remains committed to unconstitutionally subpoenaing the Twitter data of Occupy Wall Street protesters (even though Twitter has appealed twice). They wholly ignore ordinances passed to control free speech and assembly in ways that target protesters and may be unconstitutional.