From Democracy Watchdog Action Network a photo of the Boston Police Department using excessive force to intimidate non-violent protestors in last night’s raid in which 141 Occupy Boston protestors were arrested:
If the man were not a police officer this would be assault and battery. Instead the poor woman being assaulted has likely been charged with resisting arrest for getting her throat in the way of the officer’s hand. From the Boston Globe:
Police said the arrest of 141 in the early morning hours {Tuesday, October 11] was the largest mass detention in recent memory, and it heightened tensions between protesters and city officials trying to walk a narrow line. […]
Occupy Boston said in a statement that police had “brutally attacked’’ protesters.
“Today’s reprehensible attack by the Boston Police Department represents a sad and disturbing shift away from dialogue and towards violent repression,’’ the group said on its website.
Philip Anderson, a spokesman for the group, said police threw protesters to the ground and dragged them.
“It got kind of brutal,’’ he said.
Elaine Driscoll, a spokeswoman for the Boston police, said officers “have a right to protect themselves’’ and acted with restraint.
“We believe all our officers were respectful and proportional,’’ she said. The department had not received any complaints. […]
Urszula Masny-Latos, a member of a group that provides legal advice to protesters [Steve’s note: She’s the Executive Director of the National Lawyer’s Guild in Massachusetts, said she was arrested, even though she was wearing a green hat with the words, “legal observer.’’
“Four officers grabbed me and dragged me,’’ she said.
I guess the brutal actions of these “heroic” police officers, sanctioned and no doubt ordered by the Mayor, Thomas Menino, tells you and me that excessive force, brutality and “shock and awe” tactics are the order of the day. Funny how police had no issue people attending Tea Party rallies in which “protestors” spat on US Congressional members and openly carried guns at sites where Democrats spoke, including the President, in 2009 during the height of the health care reform debate.
I guess exercising your first amendment rights to free assembly and free speech (and of course, your second amendment rights) have different parameters depending on whether one is considered a “conservative Patriotic American” or a DFH (Dirty F***ing Hippy).
Imagine of the peaceful protestors in Boston had been carrying “weapons” of any kind, no matter how innocuous (toy guns, e.g.). There would have been dead bodies lying on those streets, not just arrests, in my opinion.
