Activists have been using the internet to organize for over a decade. Now the surveillance tactics have caught up with the technology and the internet is no longer a safe tool, so activists will find another way to communicate that isn't as easily tapped by the gestapo...er the police. It was just a matter of time.

Arbitrary and capricious punishment of the innocent without leaving any room for the victims to force them to stop --that is the key tool in maintaining any police state.

Unless government functionaries are permanently enjoined from committing these crimes (and that's exactly what they are - crimes), nothing will change because there's no downside.

I was at this protest. As a cell phone-les luddite who finds twitter rather perplexing (what use is a message that can be no longer than a single sentence?), I must admit that Tin Can Comm's twitter communication system worked brilliantly.

The "planned" march down liberty toward the Convention Center was actually a ruse. The actual target was the Phipps Conservatory at Shenley Park, where the "leaders" were headed to at the time of the protest anyway. They almost pulled it off.

He and his roommate should sue -- even though Obama would likely persuade the court to toss the suit on the grounds of "state secrets."

We live in a police state.

The latest local news "Ripple of Hysteria" generator in the Philadelphia PA area involves the phenomenon of "flash mobs".

It's reminiscent of all the hype about "wilding" that rippled hysterically out of New York City's corporate media several years back.

There are always actual, real incidents that spark this attention and generate the subsequent hype. But even these actual events are seized upon as pretexts to generalize and stereotype criminal behavior.

I didn't overcome my general aversion to local teevee news sufficiently to see how much detail was provided, but the "flash mob" story involved an apparently spontaneously-generated group of rowdies congregating in a Center City shopping mall just to generally raise hell after tweets, texts, and other IM applications were used to send out the "invitation".

I don't know whether this particular "flash mob" was actually an ugly example of spontaneous, authentic high-tech abuse or was somehow provoked or contrived. But I guarantee that law enforcement authorities and lobbyists will use the Looming Threat of Flash Mobs to justify further draconian assaults on the freedoms that have already been virtually abolished in Amerika.

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"To protect the identity of the victim we can't tell you who or where he/she is."

I generally concur with Coopersy who wrote on this thread:

"That is just the point - it's not illegal! If you hide your activities you are either acknowledgeing illegality, or you are giving up on democracy - when legal questioning of authority is criminalized, there is no democracy... Guess there is no democracy."

From the article:

"According to the criminal complaint filed against them, the two men had been "communicating with various protestors, and protest groups...[via] internet based communications, more commonly known as 'Twitter'. The observed 'Twitter' communications were noted to be relevant to the direction of the movement of the Protestors...in order to avoid apprehension...""

Apprehension for what? Walking in the public right of way?

Virtually any act can be declared illegal, as in Orwell's 1984. "Thought crimes" are the most reprehensible because they can be so fleeting.

Like Tweets, I just changed my mind.

It is both painful and salutary to be too old to partake of public demonstrations. I have no interest in these little-screen brain-cancer-causing devices. A swarm need not depend on them. These devices are toxic and they obsolesce too quickly and they end up poisoning the groundwater. And they depend upon sources of energy in the Electromagnetic Spectrum ultimately controlled by the Oppressors.

What is needed now is to save the US Postal System. It is under assault. When was the last time you Tweeted Grandma?

-30-

This article actually made me want to vomit. Nothing new; we all know that even worse abuses of our "civil rights" take place every day. I guess it was just having an entire narrative with so many aspects of the oppressive, intrusive, reactionary police-national security state in play that got to me.

I'm wondering why Beck and O'Reilly and the tea-bagging right-wing fringe aren't all over these kinds of stories, rather than Beck going on and on about socialists coming for your tomato seeds, guns and bibles.

One more thing: how fellow union members -- other working class people -- (the police) are so easily co-opted by those who ultimately mean them harm.

"no gods, no masters" --m. sanger

"When three white cops beat up perfectly innocent black teenage kid coming home from school, they never mention anything about race."

I recall them showing the kid that was beaten but not revealing what the 3 cops looked like or what their race was.

"I suppose when the black kids were invited, then banned from the white suburban swimming club incident over your way last summer, the media never mentioned anything abour race either."

Now I do remember race being brought up in regards to that incident, but maybe I got the news from a different place.

The media plays up race when it's convenient and ignores it when it's useful for them to do so. Class almost always tends to get buried though.

"The 'planned' march down liberty toward the Convention Center was actually a ruse. The actual target was the Phipps Conservatory at Shenley Park, where the "leaders" were headed to at the time of the protest anyway. They almost pulled it off."

I knew that the protestors weren't going to get anywhere near the principals of the summit. The city was on lockdown, especially where anyone important had to be. They specifically wanted to shield the G20 participants from any sort of protest. I don't think they honestly feared violence. These were just a bunch of rich, powerful people that didn't want to be reminded of how corrupt and callous they are.

I mean, did The Prez even address what happened in Pittsburgh? If Obama was any kind of progressive leader, he would have come out to talk to the protestors, but he didn't, which speaks a mouthful.

Engage in pre-emptive war against the soft targets and don't forget about the quilting clubs! Be sure and protect teabaggers who carry guns and have small planes.

Brilliant.

"Obama, in his concluding press remarks at the convention center, only commented that the protests were small (using the usual deflated turnout number) claimed that they were much smaller than the "hundreds of thouands" (a greatly inflated turnout value) seen when the G20 was in London, and therefore indicated that the "American people" were completely behind him."

Ok,I missed that. Again, that's why they wanted to stifle the protest so that the leaders could convince themselves that they're doing the right thing because they didn't encounter much protest.

Now I have even less respect for Obama.