Is it time for a moratorium and national review of police intimidation vs 'liberal' protesters?

President Obama, it's time to protect our 1st Amendment right to protest.

Is it too much to ask to expect that from a Democratic President?

and love it when cops beat the crap out of 'em.

(Which, of course, is projection on Rahm's part).

The soon-to-be-defeated "New Labour" government has been anti-protester too. That derives from Blair and Brown's obsession with being nothing at all like Labour was in the Eighties and actually stood for things.

American Crusade 2001+ is still going strong. :(

http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/img/card-liberty_officers.jpg http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/img/card-serf_management.jpg
http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/img/card-panopticon_state.jpg http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/img/card-peasant_control.jpg

Those who demonstrate AGAINST the capitalist overlords are roughed up and arrested for no reason at all. I live in Pittsburgh and saw it happen time and time again during the G-20.

Those who are APOLITICAL are more or less allowed to do what they wish until they begin breaking things. In the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, unlike during the G-20, the riot cops weren't called in until people were flipping cars over and breaking windows following the Steelers victory in Super Bowl XLIII and the Penguins victory in the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals. However, this is not always the case; an apolitical Mardi Gras riot which became extremely violent in Seattle in 2001 was left alone by the Seattle Police, while two years earlier, peaceful anti-capitalist demonstrators were arrested for no reason.

Those who demonatrate IN FAVOR of the capitalist overlords are pretty much allowed to do whatever they want. On one occassion, a Congressman was assaulted at a town hall. Racial slurs and threats of violence occasionally break out. Many went to town halls, a form of democracy that dates back to ancient Greece and before the birth of Christ, with no intent to debate, but simply to shout people down and derail them. On one occasion in Milwaukee, several right-wing demonstrators turned violent and beat up people they didn't agree with. And in all of those cases, the cops did absolutely nothing.

Harassment of antiwar protestors in 2002, 2003, 2004 and beyond.

There were no real consequences ( The city had to pay $$$ damages to people illegally arrested and/or injured but that's the TAXPAYERS paying .....not Bloomberg himself.) for the violator

Consequence of no consequences: he ( Bloomberg), in 2010, thinks it's OK to have his NYPD taking pictures and videos of citizens legally and peacefully protesting his educational privatization schemes near his mansion on the upper east side.

Point: this sort of thing really is the proverbial "slippery slope". If the media and the politicians look the other way for some constitutional transgressions it emboldens those would scuttle civil liberties *whenever* they get in the way.