Comply or Die: the Police State's Answer to Free Speech Is Brute Force

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/12/comply-or-die-the-police-states-answer-to-free-speech-is-brute-force/
Date Written:  2017-07-12
Publisher:  CounterPunch
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21050

Forget everything you’ve ever been taught about free speech in America. It's all a lie.There can be no free speech for the citizenry when the government speaks in a language of force.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Militarized police. Riot squads. Camouflage gear. Black uniforms. Armored vehicles. Mass arrests. Pepper spray. Tear gas. Batons. Strip searches. Surveillance cameras. Kevlar vests. Drones. Lethal weapons. Less-than-lethal weapons unleashed with deadly force. Rubber bullets. Water cannons. Stun grenades. Arrests of journalists. Crowd control tactics. Intimidation tactics. Brutality.

This is not the language of freedom.

This is not even the language of law and order.

This is the language of force.

Unfortunately, this is how the government at all levels--federal, state and local--now responds to those who choose to exercise their First Amendment right to peacefully assemble in public and challenge the status quo.

This police overkill isn't just happening in troubled hot spots such as Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, Md., where police brutality gave rise to civil unrest, which was met with a militarized show of force that caused the whole stew of discontent to bubble over into violence.