We all live in a military state
Posted by Vox on 3 May 2007
The first time I heard this sung (to the tune of “Yellow Submarine”) was Feb. 15, 2003. I was in a group of thousands of protesters, bullpenned a block away from the anti-war protest in NYC. There were a ton of us, POC, holdover hippies, college kids, etc., facing off with the NYPD in riot gear. Eventually, though people were prepping for tear gas with watered down bandanas and scarfs, the police a few blocks up decided to let people through. The protest went on, peacefully.
That wasn’t what happened at MacArthur Park in L.A. on Tuesday. Instead, the police not only refused to back down, they fired tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds of unarmed men, women and children. They manhandled reporters and cameramen, and they followed the protesters into the streets, firing rubber bullets into crowds that included shoppers.
Of course this is bullshit. And of course there will be people who argue that the police were right, that the protesters deserved it, and that it would never happen to “good” citizens (i.e., them). Also bullshit. Who keeps the police in check? Other police? The government? Yeah right. Why would they check the police when the cops are doing exactly what they want, keeping the uppity [insert race/class/gender here] down?
I’d make the connections to the police setting dogs and turning fire hoses on Civil Rights protesters, the Mexican police stomping through Oaxaca, and the rest, but all these folks have already done it and better. Please check them out.
- Watch and Read at The Anti-Essentialist Conundrum
- The Right of Peaceful Assembly. Gone. at The Unapologetic Mexican
- brutality is not an anomaly at Women of Color Blog
- May Day Violence at Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park at ¡Para Justicia y Libertad!
- WTF??? at The Mex Files
- LA cops beat down immigrant rights marchers at Power and Politics
- macarthur park brutality at Women of Color Blog
- celebrating May Day, LAPD style at Angry Brown Butch
EDIT: And holy shit, a mainstream feminist blogger FINALLY noticed that hey, immigrant women have vaginas too. I almost pinched myself when this hit my feed reader. The entry actually talks about children imprisoned in Hutto; no new info (hell, this is stuff I know most of the folks on my blogroll posted about back in January and February), but, well, it’s a start.
EDIT 2: An activist told CNN that the LAPD division who “cleared” MacArthur Park is trained to handle riots and terrorists, and that they may have provoked the violence in an excuse to use their training. [Source]
5 May 2007 at 14:57
This person is the typical liberal who, and liberals like him, who ultimately will be the down fall of this country. Bet you anything he has never been in the military. Bet you anything he has never served his country. Bet you anything the only thing he has serv ed is himself.
As for the Mexicans demonstrating, just who in the heck do they think thay are. They are illigals. For those who don’t know, illegal means break the law. I am so tired of people from Mexico and South American countres whining about their rights in America. BULLSHIT. They have NO rights. They are breaking the law by being here. Yet they constantly talk about their BENIFITS. What benifits. You got to earn benifits. Not cross some river and then DEMAND the country you are illigally in GIVE you this and that.
Get the hell out of our county. NO spanish as a second language, no foreign flag flying next to the American flag and most of all, NEVER EVER SHOULD AN AMERICAN HAVE TO PRESS ONE ON THE TELEPHONE TO HEAR THE MESSAGE IN ENGLISH and than the option to PRESS TWO TO HEAR THE MESSAGE IN SPANISH. Mexico my ass. Press your azz right back to Mexico.
5 May 2007 at 17:05
As for your first strawman argument, I’m a “her,” not a “him,” and I’m also a conservative, not a liberal. A traditional conservative, that is, not a neo-con; you know, the ones who believe in individual rights and keeping the government out of people’s business, and not the ones who believe in a theocratic government controlling all aspects of life everywhere?
And if I were a liberal, would it matter? It’s just a label without any real meaning; most people are liberal on some issues and conservative on others.
You’re right that I haven’t served in the military — I wasn’t cleared for Air Force or Army enlistment due to health — but I come from a military family and have family members who are veterans, reservists, and active duty in every branch of the U.S. service right now, and on mom’s side this has been true for about 230 years now. In fact, I believe a couple kicked some rebel ass down in Virginia back in 1864. And even if that weren’t true, the right of U.S. citizens to voice dissent is not reserved for veterans, but is granted to everyone (see the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights; you know, the one that the Second Amendment provides protection for?).
As for serving others, well, I’m not going to bust out my volunteering credentials. This isn’t about a pissing contest, this is about you being a shitheel. So let’s move on to that.
The “Mexicans” who were demonstrating (many of whom were not Mexican, but I guess all brown and black people look the same to you?) DO have rights. You may have heard of these things called human rights? Those aren’t solely reserved for U.S. citizens, but are global rights that are supposed to be available to everyone. One of those rights is the right for little kids to not have rubber bullets and tear gas shot at them, for example.
Oh, and plenty of “the Mexicans” are U.S. citizens and U.S. born and raised, which means that they are also afforded all of the rights and privileges of non-Latino U.S. citizens. In fact, I know of at least one family who were protesting on Tuesday descended from californios who never left after the Mexican-American War. That would mean the family has been U.S. citizens for over 150 years now. And yes, some of them are veterans, since that seems so important to you.
Guess what. Jumping to conclusions about people because they are Mexican? That makes you racist. Now, normally I would write you off at this point, but let’s go through some of your other ridiculous statements, since this is the only comment of this type I’ll be approving.
Not cross some river and then DEMAND the country you are illigally in GIVE you this and that.
Because no one has ever done that before. *cough* Mayflower. *cough*
I see your name is “Ken Woods.” I assume, from this, that you’re not Native American? Well, since you live in Virginia, you’ve assimilated, right? I mean, you speak Virginia Algonkian and eat hominy and are an active and welcome member of the Powhatan community and all, right?
No?
Well, there goes that argument.
NEVER EVER SHOULD AN AMERICAN HAVE TO PRESS ONE ON THE TELEPHONE TO HEAR THE MESSAGE IN ENGLISH and than the option to PRESS TWO TO HEAR THE MESSAGE IN SPANISH.
Take that up with the businesses who choose to attract more customers by offering service in multiple languages. Are you really arguing to restrict trade and the rights of businesses to offer service however they see fit? You don’t like it, start your own monolingual company and drive them out of business. If you’re going to offer service in English, though, you might want to brush up your skills; your grammar and spelling is atrocious (that means really, really bad).
Maybe you’d know about the First Amendment, human rights, economics and spelling if you’d paid more attention in school.
Buh-bye now; any future comments from you are set to go right into the spam filter, so you may as well not bother.