It's disturbing enough when police push regular people around for doing nothing more than exercising their First Amendment rights to speak, assemble and petition government officials. It's worse when law-enforcement authorities don't seem to care who's watching.
This week, at the Democratic convention in Denver, we've already seen a mass arrest of almost 100 people, which is expected to result in a lawsuit against the authorities.
We've also seen Code Pink demonstrator Alicia Forrest assaulted by a police officer before being arrested and dragged away even as cameras were very obviously recording the incident.
Are the police getting more comfortable throwing their weight around, no matter who's watching?
They must be, if they're willing to roust network news producers accompanied by camera crews that are guaranteed to get their footage on the evening news. ABC's Asa Eslocker, who was standing on a public sidewalk, was forced into the street by officers before being wrestled into handcuffs and hauled off. His crew captured the whole incident on video.
That demonstrates a remarkable lack of concern about being recorded while violating people's rights.
No, I'm not saying that it's worse to harass professional journalists than it is to assault college kids and average people walking down the street. I'm saying that it should be assumed to be incredibly stupid to attack people who have access to satellite transmission facilities and teams of lawyers.
But the police in Denver seem perfectly comfortable doing their worst in front of camera lenses.
Do they not get it? Or do they just not care?
We'll have to watch events at the Republican convention to see if this is a trend.
Comments
If the Dems asked for this, I'm changing my party registration. This is not the America I thought they wanted.
well, they don't do their worst in front of the camera, sadly. I was on a critical mass bike ride last night, and saw a cop on a motorcycle, going the wrong way on a one-way, hit a couple bikers, then take off. A clear hit and run, but no one got it on tape.
This crazy stuff has been happening all week. Far worse than what has actually been successfully captured.
Sunday, I saw a cop on a horse beat a guy back using his horse's head as a weapon. I bet that would have gotten some youtube hits.
These cops are violent monsters here. I used to believe cops were good people with hard jobs, now I am questioning the good people part.
They should have kicked that weenie's butt.
He showed no respect for the law or the police. But, that wasn't about his freedom of speech, it was an intentional confrontation and he wanted to get arrested. The folks behind the camera were working for him. Freedom of speech as a public forum does not allow for anywhere, any time. For example, as part of a public demonstration I can't pull down my pants, take a crap in the middle of the street and get on the cell phone. If the police need you to move on - you need to move on. You don't dismiss them with "wait a minute I'm on the phone".
For the freedom of speech morons out there it is actually only fully protected on the public "Commons", you know, those cute little parks you see in cute little American towns? They were erected for free assembly. You just can't protest anywhere you want, it ain't protected in any amendment in that fashion. And by the way, if you trash a public commons, you can be removed so don't try hiding behind the constitution when your contempt, arrogance, and stupidity gets the better of you.
Freedom of speech morons? Really? Wow. people like you should move to China since you care for it so little.
A question to your topic question...What do you say about guys like this?
Look at pic#13 in the slide show if the link doesn't go directly to it.
http://www.timescall.com/multimedia/20080824_DNC/
Like Robert said your right to freedom of speech and assembly only go so far. You say for him to move to China since he cares so little? I think he cares plenty and has concern about the system. If people like Obama get in to office we will be closer to China than you can imagine. If you think your freedoms are restrained now just wait until another liberal moonbat like him gets in the office. The constitution can only protect you so much. States don't even observe every aspect of it equally. Just look at the second amendment and the variations in laws form state to state and you'll see how the country really works.
Cops do this because they do not get in trouble or fired.
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