holy s*&%^ the chicago cops were beating the crap out of people - even don lemon just made the point

[arely staircase]

that they were "just wailing on people" and 'we do have a right to protest" in this country.

[Drale]

1. The police are wrong with what they are doing but

I'm watching a live feed on our local news and I can see protesters throwing stuff at the police, which is not right. If you throw something at a police officer that is a way to 100% guarantee that you will at least be arrested if not and and it would be justified.

[arely staircase]

3. yeah some idiot threw an empty bucket - which didn't hurt anyone and then the cops

started beating the crap out of everyone in the fron row. disgusting.

[Saturday]

7. Police are NOT beating protesters. nt

[WillyT]

11. Apparently You Are NOT Watching CNN...

Saw it with my own eyes...

[Dragonfli]

13. Um, the sky is plaid not blue, rain falls upwards, the earth lights the sun.

Anything else contrary to directly observable phenomena that you would like to offer?

You are like my sister when we we pre-pubescent, she would punch me in the ribs and then say "I didn't hit you liar", then do it again and claim again it never happened.

[Zalatix]

49. LOL!!! Well said!

[yodermon]

52. OT, but holy shit, that 1-sentence anecdote sums up the entire GOP. Damn.

Only difference is if she also managed to get you to agree with her, out loud, and convince the kid next to you how great it is to get punched

[Dragonfli]

54. It's not that she didn't try for those bonus agreements or enthusiasm,

It's just I was too stubborn to play along, much like I am with right wingers to this day.

Oddly enough she grew out of that rather quickly, unlike the GOP that appear to be permanent 9 year old bullies.


If one can understand an entitled nasty little 9 year old brat, one will also have mastered understanding Republican psychology.
Or am I being too harsh?

(to the bratty 9 year old )

[arely staircase]

17. i saw it with my own eyes and so did cnns don lemon who called

It disturbing how the police were "wailing on people."

[Fire Walk With Me]

35. (((infinite facepalm))) GRAPHIC, because they were BEATEN BY COPS

https://twitter.com/#!/AmberLyon/status/204368553502179328/photo/1





Cop hitting a protester:



Don't you dare alert on this because it's proof the poster is horribly incorrect.

[arely staircase]

37. thanks for posting

I wish someone could post the CNN coverage I saw live. I'm on my phone and don't know how. It was aweful and as lemon said the cops were "just wailing on the protestors "

[Fire Walk With Me]

38. It was terrible to watch on OccupyFreedomLA's ustream livestream.

She stood her ground against a line of cops five deep and everyone got the shit shoved out of them.

CNN said that? GOOD. UC Davis. Anthony Bologna. We win hearts and minds because cops and the 1% are so obviously in the wrong.

[pinboy3niner]

39. CNN: Police, protesters clash outside NATO summit

I don't see a video from coverage on Lemon's show posted yet, just this report:

From Elise Labott and Mike Mount, CNN
updated 9:06 PM EDT, Sun May 20, 2012


Chicago (CNN) -- Protesters and police clashed Sunday outside the NATO summit in Chicago, where world leaders met to discuss the way forward in Afghanistan.

Police hit protesters with batons as they pushed against a line of officers, video from CNN affiliate WLS showed. The clashes came toward the end of a day of peaceful protests.

Occupy Chicago, one of the groups that helped to organize the demonstrations, reported some people were injured.

"The police have several demonstrators detained behind their lines, calling for medics. Bloodied protesters being dragged out of sight now," the group wrote on its Twitter page.

...


Story and slide show:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/20/us/us-nato-summit/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

[arely staircase]

45. what a

misleading headline. More like police batons clash with peaceful protestors' skulls.

[Fire Walk With Me]

40. Here is extremely clear video of cops using protesters as pinatas.

[randome]

47. It looks like unnecessary force to me.

But the video can't capture everything that happened along that line. The protesters had sticks, too, and they were trying to break through a line that the police were instructed to hold.

I'm not saying that the protesters were at fault here, but with that many people and that much tension, it's inevitable that stuff like this will happen.

That being said, as I've stated, it looks like some of the police were not pushing back but were trying to injure some of the protesters. Not a good tactic. But also not evidence that the police are, as a group, out to brutalize innocent people.

[EOTE]

53. Well, so long as I have the word of some sad rando on the internet.

I could have sworn that I saw police beating protestors with my own eyes, but so long as I have your word on it.

[kardonb]

18. some idiot

Cold it be the bucketeer was a plant to stir up trouble ? Wouldn't be the first time .

[arely staircase]

19. sure

[sabrina 1]

8. Oh please, there are hours and hours of footage from hundreds of protests, almost all of them

peaceful despite which the Cops have brutally beaten people consistently since last Fall, nearly killing several peaceful US Citizens and so far, with no consequences.

So one guy out of tens of thousands of people finally got angry enough to throw a bucket and YOU use that to excuse the brutality that has been so bad, the UN even got involved.

I could post footage all day of protests, and you would not see a single protester doing anything other than marching peacefully.

But if I did that, you would see incident after incident of US Citizens being brutalized by the police without me even trying.

Scott Olsen eg, can you excuse was done to him? Or Kayvan Sabeghi? Or the 80 something year old who was nearly killed by brutal cops and saved only by other protesters?


I am in awe of the protesters for remaining peaceful in the face of the outrageous brutality by they police directed at them since the beginning of this movement. That must be very difficult.

Almost all violence at these protests has been caused by the Cops. There is simply zero excuse for it.

[Drale]

9. Did I not say the police were wrong?

That does not excuse the violence against the police. An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. I know its one in ten thousand but that one guy give the entire movement a bad name. If you see someone throwing stuff at the police, the group should stop him and hand him over because he's blatantly breaking the law and is trying to start violence.

[Dragonfli]

10. You are missing her point, the police are taking an eye for an eyelash

It is not a reciprocal beat down, the cops are using far more violence than throwing a cup that causes no physical injury, they are beating the shit out of people, also the ratio of violence (even using the "they threw an empty cup" as a violent act equal to bruising ribs, breaking bones and dislocating joints) is like 1:100, one bad protest act to 100 very violent police acts.

Does her post make more sense to you now that I clarified what I thought was the obvious point?

[sabrina 1]

50. Thank you, not to mention that the police always initiate the violence.

And there is rarely any retaliation, very rarely because the protesters are instructed on how NOT to react to the brutality of the police. So to find this incident someone had to be searching for it. The police violence however, you can count on it, every single time.

[randome]

14. Except even the group may not be aware of who is doing what.

Not when they are all pressed tightly together in a march. And what if the perpetrator doesn't want to be handed over? And how are the police going to calmly wait until someone stops the perpetrator?

I understood your point.

Shit happens.

[ancianita]

22. You prove that you know nothing about 'due force.'

[sabrina 1]

48. No, that 'one guy' does NOT give the movement a bad name.

Not unless someone is searching to do just that. Eg, I have followed this movement closely from the first day and I never say that incident. So someone obviously had to search to find a single incident, a totally minor incident, while ignoring ALL the major crimes committed by the police at every protest. It's a bit odd frankly, sort of like looking at a field of grass, acres and acres, and searching to find one blade out of millions that is shorter than the millions of others. Like a needle in a haystack, hard to find, unless you really are looking hard to find it.

And no, the group should NOT 'hand him over'. There is a word for people like that.

Funny how you have no comment about the fact that none of the criminal, brutal, murderous police officers have even been named after months of so-called 'investigations'. Now they should 'be turned over' considering they nearly killed peaceful US Citizens.

How come not one has been named, not one has been removed from duty after proving beyond a doubt that they are threat to the public?? Why is that? Who shot Scott Olsen, who fractured the spleen of Kayvan Sabhegi, respected businessman in his community, Iraq War Veteran, left to die without medical treatment for 18 hours after been brutally beaten by not one, but by several cowardly thugs wearing uniforms.

They deserve zero respect and by now several of them should have been fired for the safety of the public and some of them should be in jail. But you choose to focus on someone who threw a plastic bottle, NOT a deadly weapon, and not a word of anger for the cops.

Their brutality was noted even by the UN who attempted to intervene on behalf of the American people whose lives are placed in danger each time they go to a protest and exercise their 1st Amendment rights.

Did you say they were right? How could ANYONE say that, how could anyone in any way equate this minor incident, no highlight it, in light of the criminal behavior of the police who are the sole reason for any violence at these protests.

[SammyWinstonJack]

46. +1

[backscatter712]

33. Oh, I'm sure the little plastic bottles will really hurt the guys in the heavy Stormtrooper armor.

I don't see that as justifying police brutality.

[Puregonzo1188]

55. I am not going to defend throwing things at the police, but seriously they're riot cops

in shields, helmets, etc. A empty bucket isn't going to hurt them (not that it's riot). Beating an unarmed civilian bloody with a a club is going to hurt them.

Throwing things is stupid and it only feeds into the cops's wishes, but it in no way justifies the state sponsored terrorism we are seeing.

I am going to reiterate for the last and final time--I enjoy support or condone throwing a bucket or anything at the police.

[WillyT]

2. Yep... CNN Seems To Be Staying With This Story...

Crap...

[arely staircase]

6. looks

Like the cops are moving back and hopefully calmer heads will prevail.

[Saturday]

4. I'm watching it live and

CNN is embellishing it. Sounds like they're trying to make a story to report on. I remember CNN sitting on the beach waiting for a war...they got one. CNN sucks.

[frazzled]

16. I'm in Chicago watching all the local coverage

Better vantage points than CNN, and with reporters in the mix (NBC Channel 5 especially good: right on the front lines between protesters and police), and from everything I can tell, the cops are doing a magnificent job of staying calm.

The vast vast majority of the protesters left at the end of the march. Those who are confronting the cops (a couple hundred at most) are clearly trying to provoke a big response: so far, they're not taking the bait. CNN must be hyping the story.

PS: It's supposed to thunderstorm here. I'm not sure what will happen then.

[ancianita]

25. 'Magnificent' job? They don't deserve praise for staying calm when

that's what they're supposed to do.

[pinboy3niner]

5. Lemon also notes police are wearing "full combat gear"

And he says, "There is a difference between full combat gear and riot gear."

[TBF]

30. Lemon has been a good announcer since he started -

I wouldn't be surprised if TPTB come down on him for this though.

[arely staircase]

36. i know he expressed his shock many times nt

[G_j]

12. the"right" to protest unfortunately seems to accompany

their right to brutality against citizens

[marmar]

15. Wow. The headline from the SunTimes homepage:

[font size="5"]Riot gear cops rain down blows on protesters[/font]


http://www.suntimes.com

[L0oniX]

32. Uhm ...protesters are "terrorists" now.

Is it fascism yet? Hell ...I don't know what it is but I do know it's wrong.

[Dawson Leery]

20. We know who the coppers work for.

[butterfly77]

21. Even Don Lemon said..

the protestors are breaking the law. Lemon also said that people in their homes shouldn't have to put up with protestors.

Whose streets?

[sulphurdunn]

27. Yes,

people exercising their constitutional rights are such a nuisance. Homeowners really shouldn't have to put up with them.

[pinboy3niner]

29. Lemon was summarizing the view of the authorities

In showing the video of police pummeling protesters with their batons, Lemon also said that, "From our vantage it looks completely unprovoked," and he asked, "Does anybody deserve this?"

[malaise]

23. And the same M$Greedia will give hours and hours of coverage about

the rights of people in other countries when they are attacked during protests.
Do we still have rights in so called Western democracies?

[We are Devo]

24. Watch Ustream

Citizen journalists are on the front lines. Timcast is good.

[kas125]

26. I was there, walked the whole march and saw nothing like that until I got home and saw it on tv.

We did see two big lines of squad cars and buses that have been converted to paddy wagons speeding down the street toward where the march ended, so I knew something bad was happening or about to.

[L0oniX]

28. Good ol Chicago cops ...doing what they have always done.

Brings back old memories.

[liberalmuse]

31. Hello?

This is what most cops do. Do you think enlightened souls become cops? Once in awhile, yes, but most of the time...no.

[Ken Burch]

34. FUCK YOU, RAHM EMMANUEL!!!!!!!!

You're screwing it up for Obama just like Daley screwed it up for Humphrey in '68.

There was no reason for you to EVER run as a Democrat. You've betrayed everything your activist mother ever stood for.

Just go away, Rahm. You can't ever do any good for anybody after this.

[PufPuf23]

44. Emmanual (and his brother) were favorites of POTUS Obama

and shaped Obama's first term and medical reform.

They are unwiped assholes.

I plan to vote for POTUS Obama because I have no other choice and if anyone has the power to check ty record, I have voted straight Democratic in final elections since of age in 1972.

I supported LBJ/Humphrey in 1964 and McCarthy, RFK, an ultimately LBJ in 1968 before I was of age but was active as a teen in politics and anti-war San Fransisco/Berkeley late 66-71.

[99Forever]

41. I lose more respect for cops all the time.

These are little more than gangs of thugs with badges. They should be locked behind bars with their brethren, the prison gangs.

The impending storm gathers strength with each new atrocity.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

42. Big dumb animals with big toys. What could go wrong? nt

[PufPuf23]

43. I do not believe in capital punishment.

But if a cop was to be killed in current global (OWS, NATO, Syria, Etc) demonstrations, I would consider the death self-defense because of the context and illegal militarization of civil peace keepers.

[Bake]

51. Way to go, Rahm, you piece of sh*t!

You're no better than NIXON! Hell, you make Nixon look GOOD!

Bake