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My Occupy LA Arrest
My name is Patrick Meighan, and I’m a husband, a father, a writer on the Fox animated sitcom “Family Guy”, and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica.
I was arrested at about 1 a.m. Wednesday morning with 291 other people at Occupy LA. I was sitting in City Hall Park with a pillow, a blanket, and a copy of Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Being Peace” when 1,400 heavily-armed LAPD officers in paramilitary SWAT gear streamed in. I was in a group of about 50 peaceful protestors who sat Indian-style, arms interlocked, around a tent (the symbolic image of the Occupy movement). The LAPD officers encircled us, weapons drawn, while we chanted “We Are Peaceful” and “We Are Nonviolent” and “Join Us.”
As we sat there, encircled, a separate team of LAPD officers used knives to slice open every personal tent in the park. They forcibly removed anyone sleeping inside, and then yanked out and destroyed any personal property inside those tents, scattering the contents across the park. They then did the same with the communal property of the Occupy LA movement. For example, I watched as the LAPD destroyed a pop-up canopy tent that, until that moment, had been serving as Occupy LA’s First Aid and Wellness tent, in which volunteer health professionals gave free medical care to absolutely anyone who requested it. As it happens, my family had personally contributed that exact canopy tent to Occupy LA, at a cost of several hundred of my family’s dollars. As I watched, the LAPD sliced that canopy tent to shreds, broke the telescoping poles into pieces and scattered the detritus across the park. Note that these were the objects described in subsequent mainstream press reports as “30 tons of garbage” that was “abandoned” by Occupy LA: personal property forcibly stolen from us, destroyed in front of our eyes and then left for maintenance workers to dispose of while we were sent to prison.
When the LAPD finally began arresting those of us interlocked around the symbolic tent, we were all ordered by the LAPD to unlink from each other (in order to facilitate the arrests). Each seated, nonviolent protester beside me who refused to cooperate by unlinking his arms had the following done to him: an LAPD officer would forcibly extend the protestor’s legs, grab his left foot, twist it all the way around and then stomp his boot on the insole, pinning the protestor’s left foot to the pavement, twisted backwards. Then the LAPD officer would grab the protestor’s right foot and twist it all the way the other direction until the non-violent protestor, in incredible agony, would shriek in pain and unlink from his neighbor.
It was horrible to watch, and apparently designed to terrorize the rest of us. At least I was sufficiently terrorized. I unlinked my arms voluntarily and informed the LAPD officers that I would go peacefully and cooperatively. I stood as instructed, and then I had my arms wrenched behind my back, and an officer hyperextended my wrists into my inner arms. It was super violent, it hurt really really bad, and he was doing it on purpose. When I involuntarily recoiled from the pain, the LAPD officer threw me face-first to the pavement. He had my hands behind my back, so I landed right on my face. The officer dropped with his knee on my back and ground my face into the pavement. It really, really hurt and my face started bleeding and I was very scared. I begged for mercy and I promised that I was honestly not resisting and would not resist.
My hands were then zipcuffed very tightly behind my back, where they turned blue. I am now suffering nerve damage in my right thumb and palm.
I was put on a paddywagon with other nonviolent protestors and taken to a parking garage in Parker Center. They forced us to kneel on the hard pavement of that parking garage for seven straight hours with our hands still tightly zipcuffed behind our backs. Some began to pass out. One man rolled to the ground and vomited for a long, long time before falling unconscious. The LAPD officers watched and did nothing.
At 9 a.m. we were finally taken from the pavement into the station to be processed. The charge was sitting in the park after the police said not to. It’s a misdemeanor. Almost always, for a misdemeanor, the police just give you a ticket and let you go. It costs you a couple hundred dollars. Apparently, that’s what happened with most every other misdemeanor arrest in LA that day.
With us Occupy LA protestors, however, they set bail at $5,000 and booked us into jail. Almost none of the protesters could afford to bail themselves out. I’m lucky and I could afford it, except the LAPD spent all day refusing to actually *accept* the bail they set. If you were an accused murderer or a rapist in LAPD custody that day, you could bail yourself right out and be back on the street, no problem. But if you were a nonviolent Occupy LA protestor with bail money in hand, you were held long into the following morning, with absolutely no access to a lawyer.
I spent most of my day and night crammed into an eight-man jail cell, along with sixteen other Occupy LA protesters. My sleeping spot was on the floor next to the toilet.
Finally, at 2:30 the next morning, after twenty-five hours in custody, I was released on bail. But there were at least 200 Occupy LA protestors who couldn’t afford the bail. The LAPD chose to keep those peaceful, non-violent protesters in prison for two full days… the absolute legal maximum that the LAPD is allowed to detain someone on misdemeanor charges.
As a reminder, Antonio Villaraigosa has referred to all of this as “the LAPD’s finest hour.”
So that’s what happened to the 292 women and men were arrested last Wednesday. Now let’s talk about a man who was not arrested last Wednesday. He is former Citigroup CEO Charles Prince. Under Charles Prince, Citigroup was guilty of massive, coordinated securities fraud.
Citigroup spent years intentionally buying up every bad mortgage loan it could find, creating bad securities out of those bad loans and then selling shares in those bad securities to duped investors. And then they sometimes secretly bet *against* their *own* bad securities to make even more money. For one such bad Citigroup security, Citigroup executives were internally calling it, quote, “a collection of dogshit”. To investors, however, they called it, quote, “an attractive investment rigorously selected by an independent investment adviser”.
This is fraud, and it’s a felony, and the Charles Princes of the world spent several years doing it again and again: knowingly writing bad mortgages, and then packaging them into fraudulent securities which they then sold to suckers and then repeating the process. This is a big part of why your property values went up so fast. But then the bubble burst, and that’s why our economy is now shattered for a generation, and it’s also why your home is now underwater. Or at least mine is.
Anyway, if your retirement fund lost a decade’s-worth of gains overnight, this is why.
If your son’s middle school has added furlough days because the school district can’t afford to keep its doors open for a full school year, this is why.
If your daughter has come out of college with a degree only to discover that there are no jobs for her, this is why.
But back to Charles Prince. For his four years of in charge of massive, repeated fraud at Citigroup, he received fifty-three million dollars in salary and also received another ninety-four million dollars in stock holdings. What Charles Prince has *not* received is a pair of zipcuffs. The nerves in his thumb are fine. No cop has thrown Charles Prince into the pavement, face-first. Each and every peaceful, nonviolent Occupy LA protester arrested last week has has spent more time sleeping on a jail floor than every single Charles Prince on Wall Street, combined.
The more I think about that, the madder I get. What does it say about our country that nonviolent protesters are given the bottom of a police boot while those who steal hundreds of billions, do trillions worth of damage to our economy and shatter our social fabric for a generation are not only spared the zipcuffs but showered with rewards?
In any event, believe it or not, I’m really not angry that I got arrested. I chose to get arrested. And I’m not even angry that the mayor and the LAPD decided to give non-violent protestors like me a little extra shiv in jail (although I’m not especially grateful for it either).
I’m just really angry that every single Charles Prince wasn’t in jail with me.
Thank you for letting me share that anger with you today.
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Show AllHere is an entry at my blog about violent police. The first part is shown below. The rest can be read here:
http://what-could-posibly-go-wrong.blogspot.com
Pensions and Protests
Jimmy O'toole loved beating up people. The rush he got when he knew a fight might be in the wind was like no other. He especially like roughing up women. They cried when he hit them, and there was little chance they would fight back. But Jimmy stayed away from big guys, especially if they looked like they were ex military. That is unless he and his buddies outnumbered the guy at least five to one, or he could shoot the guy from a safe distance.
Jimmy knew all the dirty tricks you needed in a street fight. If your going to shoot somebody, aim for the head, then wait for people to try to help the person, then shoot them too. He knew how to instigate a fight, so it was fought on his terms.
Yea, Officer O'toole loved being a big city cop. There was always something going on. Loiterers to be roughed up, petty thieves to slap around once you got them back to the station, were all good stuff. But to Jimmy they couldn't hold a candle to a protest, expecially if it turned into a riot, for sheer excitement.
You made me think of a new idea, and I know it's a great idea, so please try to give it a little thought. One of the best ways to connect the dots of evil for our brainwashed family and friends is to use symbolic nicknames when talking with them. Connect evil dot to evil dot in their minds by nicknaming people they know who may have done something amoral, with the names of these hyper-criminals on Wall-Struck and their gophers in Washing-town. Nicknames really make the synaptic connection in the brain. At the very least it's a lesson in communications that we the people really could use.
I feel strongly for all the Occupiers who undergo rough treatment. It's the shits, and it is absolutely unwarranted.
At the risk of opening up the old non-violence +/- debate again, however, I must point out that brute force is the direction things are going, whether one accepts it or not. Many North Americans are captivated by stories of noble women and men from other places who resist authority intelligently and non-violently. These are certainly important examples, but just as significant are the underreported examples of others who resist on different fronts and with different means. These accounts are less approved by ruling interests here in the West (unless the 'rebels' are resisting someone like Gaddafi). We need to realize that when times get tougher, peace alone is probably not going to get the job done. In terms of self-defense alone, we must find other ways to meet state power other than by submitting immediately and getting crushed.
Sadly, a commited activist these days is more likely to risk their health and freedom thanks to the increasing militarization of the police force.We can learn much from other places where the struggle has become more acute. There are some awful scenarios we could try to avoid (Algeria; Indonesia) bit there are some positive examples too, like Chiapas or the First Nations standoffs in Canada. Unless there is some show of strength, in addition to symbolic and necessary protest, I believe the rulers will continue to increase the tension and degree of force to maintain social control.
Give us an example of more "acute" acts, you would like someone else to do, on your behalf, in the presence of riot police?
I welcome any confrontation or light exchanges, but am leery of being drawn into saying compromising things on a comment thread. Still, how can you be so sure that I would not be an involved actor? I'm unmarried, with no family... consumer culture means nothing to me. Just because I'm commenting on here doesn't mean I'm passive or instigative...
But since you were specific about mentioning riot police, I can tell you that, first of all, we must reimagine the terms of engagement here and what can or can't be done in certain situations.
I think non-violent protest is useful and important, but also limited if things get worse. Since it's pure speculation at this point what 'worse' could be, I would rather not discuss something which few of us here in NA have experienced.
That being said, in a deteriorating social situation such as has been seen in many outside places recently, I would advise against confronting or engaging the police in the classic street protest scenario. It's suicide: protesters will always be outnumbered and outgunned. IF it came to a much more intense use of force on behalf of the state, I would recommend retreating out of cities altogether and forcing the conflict, if conflict there be, on grounds which are much more tenuous and risky for an urban police force. Of course, the worst outcome here would be that the state calls in the army instead, which is entirely possible. But guerilla tactics have often succeeded against great odds, and the best place for that to happen is outside the city.
Unfortunately, the North American settlement pattern has made this a less possible alternative, since so many people are urbanized now, and so few understand and know the landscape past city limits. The only way I would propose organized armed resistance would be in this situation, however... I'm thinking in terms of land that is useful for food and water and under immediate threat. Otherwise, I have to say that protests in the street are going to have less impact in the near future, and that urbanized activists are going to have to turn their attention outside of cities and toward the resource base. Since too many people are still unaware of its importance, it will take a long time before this comes to pass. But don't expect protests to get any easier, or demands to get met by civil disobedience in the meantime.
Here's a couple of great quotes on the whole non-violence/defending yourself argument.
"Though violence is not lawful, when it is offered in self-defense or for the defense of the defenseless, it is an act of bravery far better than cowardly submission. The latter benefits neither man nor woman. Under violence, there are many stages and varieties of bravery. Every man must judge this for himself. No other person has the right."
and
"I've been repeating myself over and over again that he who cannot protect himself or his nearest and dearest or their honor by nonviolently facing death may and ought to do so by violently dealing with the oppressor. He who can do neither of the two is a burden. He has no business to be the head of a family.He must either hide himself, or must rest content forever in helplessness and be prepared to crawl like a worm at the bidding of a bully."
Who said such things, such words not only condoning, but counseling the commission of violence in self-defense?
I'll give you a hint.
In 1946, he told his official biographer: "The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs."
Give up?
The source of all of those quotes, even the incredibly racist, genocidal and anti-Semitic one, was the one and only, Mr. Non-violence Himself, 'Be the Change You Want To See', MOHANDES KARIMCHAND GHANDI!
As for protestors 'retreating out of the cities, forcing the conflict... on grounds which are much more tenuous and risky for an urban police force', not gonna happen. Why the hell do you think the US Government is prepping the US Military for mass arrests and indefinite detention ON U.S. SOIL? It's not gonna be cops you have to deal with, but well trained Government killers working in their environment, on their terms? Why do you think every cell phone has an RFID chip and GHP beacon? Why do you think so much money was spent on PROMIS, ECHELON and the real-time data mining of every single e-mail, cell call and text for the past ten years? The Elite, and the US Government and it's Police are already ten steps ahead of you.
Low tech guerilla resistance is the ONLY choice you, WE, have left! We can't fight them on their turf, so why in god's name should we even try? Hit 'em where they ain't! The recent French Greenpaece stunt where they entered French nuclear reactors unopposed should give you some ideas...
The vast majority of the populace is to addicted to their iCrap and toys, their conveniences. With no knowledge of the local landbase or indigenous foods, they would be reduced to the tactics of Che Guverra, ie: stealing from local farmers and forcing them into cadres unwillingly. (And you should know how that ended.) This is not how you win the fight for the majority of the so-called '99%', who have little interest beyond what's on TV tonight and their next text message.
I suggest you read the two volume 'Endgame' by Derrick Jensen. Clear out the cobwebs and other peoples thoughts that the mental illness called 'civilization' has instilled in you.
Despite the circuitous presentation of your argument, I think I can say we're mostly in agreement here. As for the suggestion about reading Jensen: already way ahead of you. I appreciate his ideas and have learned much from him.
As for my ideas of conflict, well, I'm hardly putting myself forward as an authority here. Just sharing my ideal views of the best way to resist state violence. I know about and believe what has been reported about the Rex84 plan introduced by Reagan (those who don't know what I'm saying can Google), so this is another factor to consider.
But you also must remember that we are not exactly the homogeneous mega-state that radicals and middle-class alike each tend to assume. One part of the country can be very different from another part of the country: geographically, socially, culturally. Tactics that are very effective in one region could be disastrous when used in another. I have always had trouble considering western Canada as being part of 'whole Canada', for example. Same difference for diametric opposites like Northwest and Southeast US.
As for the Che Guevara outcome, well, whatever. That's not my intention... I am probably based closer to the hinterland than you expect... I see the main problems of the future to be centered on water and food, not cities. Certain cities will be highly significant, yes, but not every center. Rather than have all these places become like Sarajevo recently or Algeria in the fifties, let's spare the city populations when necessary and refuse to play into the hands of nasty riot squads who are very comfortable and well-trained (especially those who've been to Israel recently) in urban environments.
Agreed.
Most of what I wrote was for the benefit of those who have not read Jensen.
I feel it's necessary to expand on my observation about regional dissolution here. One of the most hopeful outcomes I wish for is that people stop seeing themselves as part of an abstract super nation and care more about their more immediate surroundings. While this might sound regressive, it's actually quite positive: what's so good about maintaining a costly and irresponsible nation state when your local community is dying? Sensible people will start to see this, and nothing works better than loyalty to one's home turf to muster courage and defiance.
I think it's necessary to positively embrace dissolution and to break nations down into smaller federations. Trade and good relations can remain, but let's move away from feeding the one-world government tendency.
"What does it say about our country that nonviolent protesters are given the bottom of a police boot while those who steal hundreds of billions, do trillions worth of damage to our economy and shatter our social fabric for a generation are not only spared the zipcuffs but showered with rewards?"
One thing it says is that the Cops either lack courage or prefer a police state to a Democracy, or both. Do our veterans both active and inactive need to teach the Cops a lesson?
Good post, Stone.
For these cowardly immature sadistic SICK 'cops' to TORTURE (which is exactly what they did!) these peaceful and decent citizens, says a lot about them. It says they would prefer a police state left so their children and grandchildren can also be brutalized when 'cops' like them so choose. It's disgusting and disgraceful! PEE-U! The whole police force in this country needs to be disbanded and rebuilt (at some point) because the cops will NOT COME when you call them when someone is attacking you or breaking into your home. They will NOT respond for a minimum of 40 minutes. BUT...you protest, and they are there to brutalize you. Therefore, there are no longer the police. They are Fascist foot soldiers. They are Nazis.
'Do our veterans both active and inactive need to teach the Cops a lesson?'
The military-to-civil-police connection has existed for a while now and is being strengthened by the hour. What better talent pool for police departments to draw from than the military? They come pre-trained and pre-determined to fight all enemies, foreign and domestic, so no conflict with fighting OWS protesters there. Not to mention the many veterans looking for a good paying job.
So everyone's happy: veterans get paychecks and police departments get access to an endless supply of sadists, willing and eager to do as they're told.
Thanks for your testimony, Patrick. You shine a bright light on OUR police state here in America. (Hillary is trotting the globe extoling democracy and opportunity, for some other peoples, I guess)
Lets remember these cops--willing, joyful tools of the elite. They are NOT part of the 99%, but willing appendages of the elite, and their evident wish to stand by their masters should be forever honored by the rest of us. And when we see one of our noble AUTHORITIES, nicely dressed, smiling, being limo-ed from event to event, lets see the Gestapo, Stazi, KGB officer just barely beneath the facade: these soulless smilers give the soulless goons their orders.
Lets get out our Derrick Jensen (Endgame) and rethink what our real position is here in America (Hint: Do we still think we are "citizens," with Constitutional rights, under the rule of law?).
Mr. Meighan's graphic depiction of how the LAPD perceived and treated the peaceful protestors left me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. One can tell how desensitized these beasts in uniform become. They don't see a PERSON in front of them, they see an inert being for whom accusation substitutes for established guilt. That OUR tax dollars are going into these campaigns of domestic terror ought to make everyone incensed enough to storm the Bastille!
Also, I am grateful that Mr. Meighan also pointed out the gross inequity that allows for swindlers like Prince to rope in millions while he impoverishes others, likely ruining lives in the process.
These types of inversions of Justice are indicative of the end of an era. Truly when up becomes down and down, up, the indications of Collapse are screaming all around us. Some agency of Universal Justice DOES respond... and the clock is ticking with the hour of rectification near.
Great post Siouxrose. I totally agree. I have commented much less these days on CD as it seems to me, everything has been said over and over and perhaps slowly, the message is permeating the minds of we the 99%. A great awakening is coming. Personally, I lend my support to the OWS movement by standing in the street occasionally and by writing about the efforts being made by so many. I too became physically ill reading what Mr. Meighan wrote and experienced. My bet is that those LAPD "cops" were special forces of some kind. Remember the bill Congress is trying to pass.....indefinite detention for U.S. citizens? It's a step away! They're testing the waters now.
This is the kind of stuff our corrupt US government has been doing for
hundreds of years -- to native Americans, to Africans enslaved here,
to people of color all over the world under the cloak of an evil economic
system called "capitalism."
TORTURE being reintroduced was a warning for every American citizen.
It's the way full blown dictatorships come into power and the only way they
can hold power.
This is true of the right wing in America and we've had more than 50 years of
assassinations and polical violence to arrive where we are today.
Thanks to Patrick Meighan for his sacrifice in trying to move against these
fascist forces non-violently. And for so clearly pointing to the loss of citizen
rights while corporations steal America blind. The mindset of elites/capitalists
is suicidal as we see from a half century of lying about Global Warming and
their destructive role in the death of our planet. And thanks to the 292 arrested
by the LAPD and their courage in trying to bring to light the crimes against
humanity by corporations. Many more of us need to be doing the same.
And shame on both of our political parties and our elected candidates awash
in corporate money having sold themselves and our government.
Who is Obama selling himself to today? Even at this point, Wall Street has
showered Obama with more money than they have given to all other
Republicans!
292 peaceful protesters in Los Angeles suffered crue and brutal treatment at
the hands of the LAPD whose salaries are paid for by the American public.
We have to find ways to better support and fight for the rights of protesters
and for the OWS movement.
CONSCIENCE: Great post!
Excellent post, Conscience!!
Your first paragraph reminded of this linked artwork (should anyone have not seen it yet,) not titled, but could easily be titled "Capitalism:"
http://i.imgur.com/iVjUA.jpg
Probably the most good can come from the author's writing this article if everyone who reads it opens a debate at their family's Christmas feast, with an eye toward pruning from the "family tradition" the tendency of people to blame the victim, to criticize their very own family at the holiday feast who dare to criticize the corrupt establishment, the ones who dare to interrupt the family's petro-opiate orgy that is sponsored by the criminals in Washing-town and on Wall-Struck, and criminally enforced by their uniformed thugs. Raise the issue at the family feast with an eye to extinguish the complicity with evil among your family members. Remind them that the predator really has no place on this planet. (tough to accept that dogs/cats have no place on a just planet but that's just the way it is) Occupy your family, your local community first and foremost.
And how about everyone sending this article to everyone on their mailing lists?
The 1% has always used the dregs of society as their attack dogs--the dumber, the more sadistic, the better. We are now seeing that in vivid color. I thank the author for his description of events, for the gut-wrenching reality of what we are facing. Ghandi realized that we must be prepared to sacrifice everything for social justice. Our founding fathers pledged their lives and their fortunes for freedom. We can do no less. There is nothing cowardly about being a non-violent protestor. Indeed, I am being called a hero by friends and co-workers just for supporting and witnessing the true heroes who were arrested that night. You all have my deepest respect and love.
Shame on the cowards in LAPD. Why do you tuff macho bullies need all the protective gear and weapons to manhandle a bunch of unarmed non violent protesters? Are you scared? You don't need to be strapped like the Terminator, to beat up on unarmed folks that have their hands tied behind their backs. In LA when the going gets tough the tough get going. Like the R. King riots, LAPD ran like scared rabbits. LAPD you are Chickenshit!
iwonder -- Yeah, remember that? I remember the LAPD showed their cowardice the moment the riots started after that verdict in the Rodney King trial!!! They ran SCARED for the hills and left there rest of us as victims to the violent climate THEY CREATED. I agree. The LAPD is chickensh*t!
The armor up and then beat people. What the hell do they need the armor for? COWARDS!!!
They are either born cowards, or conditioned to fear the people. When you approach an officer or try to talk to one, they just reek of fear and apprehension. They act like whipped dogs, snarling and growling to hide their fear. I'll say it again LAPD are Chickenshit. I'll bet they wear adult diapers under all that protective gear so they don't wet themselves.
I concur One-hundred percent. I'm over 60 y.o. and not very physically commanding--I walked around the chicken-coop that encloses City Hall alone on the night we walked from Pershing Square after the raid (it was very well protected that night)--you should have seen the big, bad cops tense up as I passed. Me, alone, with no protection--them armed to the teeth with riot gear--and they were afraid of me. THEY WERE AFRAID OF ME. Bullies are always scared little chickens trying to hide their fear.
And when an LAPD goon finds his own daughter sitting down, linking arms...?
Mayor Villaragosa, a former ACLU regional president, praised the actions of the LAPD, and to my knowledge has yet make a statement condemning this brutality. The President, a former community organizer, is of course, silent about the force and excess of the paramilitary police forces arrayed against the OWS movement.
In such circumstances, is there any wonder why many of us feel that the electoral process is worthles in the attempt to accomplish any meaningful change? There is no consent of the governed. The rulers are in charge by force. Brutish, naked and unswerving aggression against any and all challenge.
Ask yourself, Do YOU Consent to this violence in YOUR NAME? Do YOU Consent to the Banksters walking free? Do YOU consent to the continued wars and occupations throughout the world? The still unpunished TORTURE of the W administration, and the brutal treatment of prisoners everyday in our prisons?
Well, do you? And what are YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT? ... Occupy Now!
There is going to be a spark one day that will ignite the dry timber that is building up. One day -- these goons will go even further than they already have, and the it will be the straw that broke the camel's back, and EVERYONE will pour into the streets finally and it will be uncontrollable. Then, as the LAPD ran for cover in 1992 in LA, and the Nazis fled everywhere to escape being caught, the Fascist cops will run and hide because the people will be after THEIR hides.
The lies and hypocrisy are like termites eating away the foundations of our Govt. No need for violent revolution, it will fall on its own.
" At this late date it is difficult to imagine how Congress, much like the Roman senate in the last days of the republic, could be brought back to life and cleansed of its endemic corruption.
failing such a reform, Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits impatiently for her meeting with us."
From Chalmers Johnsons book The Sorrows Of Empire
Family Guy is a great show! It makes a lot of capitalistic dollars for its station. It is my 10 yr old daughters favorite show!
Oh I see, so you're point is that since a profit is involved in the business he is in, then he is a hypocrite? Come on now and share with us some of those profound thoughts you have!
Family Guy is a great show! And I'm looking forward to the, hm, shall we say, not to slight of parody about the interesting experiences the show's writer just had recently in LA. Truly, it will be for the adults though. (Your 10 year old watches pretty risque stuff dear parent of a not-yet-adolescent 10 year old.)
Good point and thought, Genicon. Thank you for reminding me. "No need for violent revolution, it will fall on its own."
That's what I learned in Judo many years ago. If a big bully is coming at you (like this empire), all it takes is for you to let it's own energy and weight bring it down as you move aside at the right moment -- and down it comes. The more force it used to come at you, that's the same amount of force that brings itself down. So you are right. This fascist empire will fall on its own. It's closer to that point than it thinks, I believe.
He deserved it, Family Guy sucks.
If only he could write as well as you.
You should be posting on CNN
Compare Patrick Meighan's description of the arrests in this article to Tom Hayden's earlier article "Why Naomi Wolf's Occupy Conspiracy Theory Can't Explain Occupy LA" published here on Tuesday, November 29, 2011.
In Hayden's article, he tells us how gentle the LAPD are ("So far the clearances in LA have been peaceful"). So far, Obama hasn't ordered a hit on me, so I guess everything's honky-dory.
Original Hayden article:
http://www.thenation.com/article/164851/why-naomi-wolfs-occupy-conspiracy-theory-cant-explain-occupy-la
The Common Dreams version:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/29-8?page=2#comment-2001614
Patrick, you telegraph your hurt and anger...and rightly so. I am on your side.
Still, I would love to think that another narrative is possible; one, that is, where the police actually refuse orders from theirs supervisors and side with the non violent protesters (after-all we are the taxpayers). Do you remember writing exams that were multiple choice based? I do not know if it was just me, but there were times you knew the answers had more than one solution but offered the one that was taught as to receive the grade. I use to feel cheated then as I am now. We are seeing before us the repercussions of this method of education. Wouldn't it be nice if the officers exercised their conscience as not to be disrespectful to the lives that were sacrificed to gain the freedom we have today?
Give your head a shake.
Laws exist to protect the Elite, the owners of wealth and financial capital from the commons. The Police are employed to enforce those laws.
Police over the last ten years have been very carefully selected, vetted and trained to protect the Elite property owners. Not you, and not me. If you doubt me, look up the response times in well-to-do upper class neighborhoods vs urban and suburban areas, or the difference in efforts made to locate an upper-class white, blond child compared to a poor black or brown child (think the circus devoted to Jon Benet Ramsey vs the child fatally shot by Police as they stormed her home while searching for her mother's boyfriend)
Police officers with conscience have been gradually but deliberately removed from the various city, State, Provincial (in Canada), and National forces.
All that are left are the ones who will follow orders.
You're right, Galen. I have looked into their eyes, asked them if they know right from wrong--and you know what--it wouldn't matter if they did, they would still beat the crap out of you just for a laugh if they thought they could get away with it. It's hard to imagine, but we have to accept that there are some people who enjoy being evil, who choose wrong over right willfully--most of these people end up in jail, the ones that don't become soldiers or cops. As you pointed out, those that can't stomach it, get kicked out or side-lined.
Those who think as cops do or champion their cause are deluded individuals who believe they are serving themselves better by supporting the 'winning side'. A lot of middle class people fall into this trap because they refuse to stare down the real conditions of their lives: living on the terms dictated by banks and corporations; subsumed in their professions to the point where no other ideas or interests have any relevance for them. Those who understand this but who continue to accept authority [i.e. just about every working person i know] are those who feel like losers for standing outside of the herd, in which case it's easier to identiify with power and ignore the loss of control one has over one's own life.
This sickened me all night to my core!!
These peaceful protesters forced to kneel on the garage floor for SEVEN HOURS may as well have been wearing ORANGE SUITS!!! This proves that it is true that whatever a government will do to citizens in other countries, it will not hesitate to do to its own citizens. Those 'cops' were Black Water FASCISTS. It's no stretch we are fighting Nazis here.
Just because the use of extreme and tortuous brute force has apparently been codified into LAPD's training manuals (I'm assuming they're following their training) for effecting an arrest does NOT make ANY of it legal.
The treatment/conduct Mr. Meighan describes here SCREAMS for a legal remedy, and it will ONLY be when the City of Los Angeles is required to pay out tens of millions in damages for this kind of outrageous conduct that it will ever stop.
This story is the truth that doesn't make it into the Los Angeles Times. Quite frankly, I am tired of the LAPD acting like a gang year over year, with blessings from elected officials and a blind eye from the corporate press. And this violence is truly bipartisan: Villaraigosa is like Republican Major Riordan before him, who ordered the thuggish LAPD out to beat up the Democratic National Convention 2000 protesters (what irony).
I am truly sorry that Patrick Meighan experienced what passes for policework these days, but it has going on like this for decades. Each law-and-order Democrat/Republican elected to office is a blow to the head. The only practical way to address this problem is at the political level, and I dare say that means pushing for third-party control. There's only one thing the cops in their padded riot gear fear and that's the stripping of their budgets. Let's work to do that. Crowd control weapons and training need to be prohibited. U.S. citizens have a Constitutional right to rebel. It's not the cops that keep protests peaceful. Cops should be prohibited from overseeing or spying on any protest, since we are free to do it as we please, and since the police cannot control their own violent predilections.
It actually takes a lot for people to put their energies into attending and participating in a protest. There should be no interference when the people speak.
Attitudes must change. One of the greatest forms of propaganda in the United States are the cop-show programming beamed into people's TV rooms night after night, serving up a steady diet of fear as actual crime shrinks year after year. People have no idea about the nightmare of the U.S. prison system in a country that puts more people in jail (for nonviolent drug offenses, mostly) than any other on earth.
Once again, all of this is just a clear sign that the republic is a mockery, and that broad sweeping political change, or even revolutionary change, will be required. There are no possible two-party incremental changes that can make such a system right. Occupy LA and the others are actually doing the correct thing - slowly building a movement. However, institutional treatment of civil disobedience is now a process, which shows that the system cannot be reformed. The truth is that this cop violence seldom gets reported, and the LAPD took care to exclude journalists from the scene beforehand. Moreover, the court system never changes this institutionalized police violence, which gets off lightly or with a taxpayer payout in the form of court-awarded damages at best.
When the police are spoiling to crack heads, it's probably best for protesters to just to return another day. Unfortunately, for Mr. Meighan, the police wouldn't even let him leave. Let's work to build a movement, despite the police.
Let's have no more heros to the cause - just good organizational efforts and strategy. At a certain point, Occupy Wall Street efforts must turn to the inevitable conclusion: third-party political control and massive reform. That's the scope of the battle. But even Common Dem readers will still vote party line each election, rather than third party. There's a real lack of understanding about the nature of the battle. Let's hope Occupy Wall Street is in it for the long haul.
Thank you Patrick for being a part of the Occupy movement and for sharing your moving and heartfelt story. You have cast a gimlet eye on the truth of our nation's state, police and otherwise, for they are acting at the behest of others, and made it clear to all.
Patrick - I heard your interview on KPFK about your arrest as part of the Occupy L.A. movement and your subsequent maltreatment (or perceived so) by the LAPD. As a former cop in Los Angeles and current homeland security instructor who teaches use of force, I must say I was stunned by the minimal amount of force the LAPD management choose to use to remove those (like you) who failed to obey a dispersal order.
When peace officers in California are confronted with a person(s) who will not obey a lawful command, the law says, the officer may use that amount of force which is reasonable to affect their arrest. The LAPD, unlike the UC Davis Police Department (mostly due to the bad press UCDPD received is my guess), choose to use pain compliance holds rather than pepper spray to have protestors unlink arms, and then to my amazement, actually carried law breakers to their arrest location.
There is an old saying in police work about use of force, it’s ATM. When an officer is confronted with a non-compliant law breaker, as cops we, Ask them to comply; Tell them to Comply; Make them comply…ATM. The dismantling of the Occupy L.A. camp became…ATC…Ask them, Tell them, Carry them. Unbelievable.
I realize civilians (especially activist types) have no knowledge of the dangers of law enforcement, nor do they really understand use of force. If a person chooses to take action that will result in their arrest, they should know that law enforcement isn’t going to be nice about it. To a cop, a “non-violent” passive protestor and any other law breaker are all the same. Non-violent people can become violent just as quick as anybody else…cops don’t get paid to get punched, kicked, or spat upon.
While the OWS movement may believe they represent the “99%,” the truth is they don’t. If the top 3% of the population control most of the wealth in this country, the majority of people who are not activist types are too busy working, raising kids, paying taxes, going to the movies, having dinner with friends, and don’t have time to go camping in city parks with homeless people during normal working hours.
When we hear chants like, “from Davis to Greece, fuck the police,” the real 97% turn you off. The truth is the “99%” only represent about 10-15% of the real 97%. The OWS action in Los Angeles cost Los Angeles taxpayers millions of dollars which could have gone to other things rather paying cops O/T to baby sit OWS & homeless people.
So, as a fellow writer, award winning journalist at KPFK, and current use of force instructor, may I politely suggest you learn to obey the law, stop whining about the cops, and go find another place to camp…Lake Powel is nice?