This Is What A Police State Looks Like

[Mammon]

This is a video that surfaced on the Internet. I'm rather skeptical of the claims made in the video, but you should watch and make up your own mind about it.

(Part 1)

(Part 2)

[Benpercent]

I hate the speaker's voice: it sounds as if she's laying in bed with the microphone and going off to sleep. Anyhow, I couldn't make it all the way through.

From what I have seen, it seems improper to draw any conclusions since all the information isn't present, though I do find myself agreeing somewhat with some of the "unfavored" comments.

Yeah... cuz protests have ever done something.

You might be able to stop a forest from being logged by using a lot of legal knowledge and intelligence. But protesting won't stop it.

So protesting against the government, president, whatever... well in a century has standing on roads yelling with a sign ever done anything? It's for those with no brain or will to do something REAL. It's an expression of hate and far from any attempt to fix.

Use that energy else where. At least you won't get hit.

Even Ayn Rand has said it: "Have you ever seen advocates of reason standing out in the streets in the hopes their bodies will stop traffic?" (May not be exact quote.)

This protest ran for 14 hours across the city of Portland, this video is 6 minutes long. Shit happened and I doubt you were there. If you want to only believe what the folks at Shoot the Pigs Productions want you to believe then be my guest. This has nothing to do with the mission and its already taken up to much of my time.

And this is what has brought to my attention there may be some pieces missing. The woman narrating the video keeps saying over and over again that the police were doing all this just because a bottle was thrown, but of course perhaps the bottle could have started a brawl, or maybe it wasn't even the bottle to begin with.

And this next quote was a response to the one above:

Despite what you may think or say: THIS IS EXCESSIVE FORCE. With the level of technology they posses they could have picked out a SINGLE instigator rather than punish the entire dissenting crowd. Why do you insist on keeping your eyes closed to the fact you are cannon fodder? Guber-mente = Mind Control.

As the previous quote has pointed out, this protest has gone on longer than six minutes, so how can he say this is excessive force? I suspect a dropped context. And his "Guber=mente" point is irrelevant. Words do have meanings (sometimes multiple depending on the context) and etymologies, but they aren't always properly applied.

Before I turned the video off, I noticed that the narrator has brought up the issue of free speech and said that these protesters were just exercising their first amendment rights. Again, more information is needed here. Since free speech means you are only free from governmental censorship, the police could have been acting on complaints sent in from the buildings the protesters are in front of.

So until I am able to see the whole situation, I am unable to side with anyone. Right now I suspect the narrator is context-dropping. Might I be able to ask for further reading on this?

Edit: Gosh, after reading some more of the comments, it appears that quite a bit has been left out. There is mention of shop windows being smashed and stuff being set afire. It's quite sad also to see some people say how they want to move and how they hate America. More information is definitely needed.

Edited February 24, 2008 by Benpercent