The Judge RANTS!
Date: 29/09/11
Black, Brown, White - The Colour Of The Shirt Doesn't Matter
You may have been unaware that over the last week or so, thousands of people have gathered in New York to protest against the effective takeover of the political processes of the USA by corporations and their hired politicians.
You may have been unaware because - with the odd honourable exception - the media (owned by much the same corporate interests as those being complained against in the Occupy Wall Street campaign) have either studiously ignored the protest, or have slanted what little coverage they have given to it in such as way as to portray the protestors in as malign a light as possible (they haven't yet claimed that Occupy Wall Street is an Al Qaeda front, but maybe they will given the time).
It is in some strange way gratifying that the New World™ can still learn from the Old. We have seen here over the past year or more how protests can be totally neutralised in the eyes of the Great <insert name of country here> Public™ by deliberately skewed media coverage. We have also seen here in that same period how the judiciary can always be depended upon by the powerful to play their part in chilling and canning anything which smacks of effective dissent against That To Which There Is No Permitted Alternative; that has not come to the US yet, but when the first arrestees finally get their day in court, I'm sure that American judges will not be found wanting in that regard.
And we have also seen elements in the police being allowed to use disproportionate action against non-violent demonstrators, and for such extreme conduct to be excused or even condoned by their commanders and political bosses.
How nice to see that we have managed another successful export to The Land Of The Free-If-You're-Rich-White-And-Fundy:
Kudos here to Lawrence O'Donnell for bringing this to a wider public, and to MSNBC for giving him the chance to do so - it goes a little way towards making up for their cowardice in sacking Keith Olbermann last year.
And for further comment on how the USA is turning into the worst sort of police state, that is, one where there is no one huge step towards tyranny but where the change is incremental, rather like the famous Boiling Frog analogy, then read this piece by John Grant in Counterpunch.
