So far, most of the newest crowd control weapons have been deployed against harmless protesters. In other words, that nasty business in Pittsburgh over the G-20 meeting was police bullying. The way you can tell is no one did anything to the primary weapons. The protesters didn’t assault the cops; that was the work of provocateurs, cops in disguise. Rather, the protesters kept trying to avoid the cops. Their only intent was to have their say, something we used to believe mattered here in the US.
Had the police been facing a real threat, I’m pretty sure those fancy toys would have been broken very quickly. For example, that super-sound-blaster could easily be defeated with a couple of sniper rounds. Shut the thing off and the police don’t have quite the advantage in assaulting First Amendment rights. So far, the police haven’t really faced any serious resistance, which proves they aren’t dealing with any real threat. It’s just naked government bullying, wholly unjustified.
A part of me wonders how long the more destructive resistance tactics will sleep. The government is arming themselves for yesterday’s battles, and what they use today is actually aimed at the anti-war riots of the 1960s and 1970s. In short order I predict those tactics will fail, as the resistance is hardly so slow thinking as government. I also wonder how long before folks realize they are under armed occupation, and what our troops are doing in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. is just a mirror image of what’s happening here. We are occupied by a foreign entity, most certainly not of us, nor operating in our interests, but an invading forced determined to destroy whatever we have so they can carry out their rape without resistance. The term “continuity of government” is just the label for it.
The system was closed long ago against external input. Those who prevent peaceful change are demanding violent revolution.
