Here is how Senator Robert Kennedy reacted to the notion of "proactive arrests."

[thucythucy]

[pazzyanne]

1. What we could have had if Robert Kennedy had lived! nt

[thucythucy]

3. Absolutely.

[jaxexpat]

2. Read the constitution?

You can plainly see that this was before everyone had a document shredder.

[bronxiteforever]

4. Kick and recommend. Excellent post!

[bobbieinok]

5. When was this? What was the occasion?

[thucythucy]

7. I'm not certain of the date.

Kennedy was in California meeting with Cesar Chavez and investigating conditions of farm workers trying to organize a union. Specifically, he was confronting local authorities on their harassment of union organizers.

I'll do a Google and see if I can find the date. My guess is 1966.

Edited to add: It was March 1966.

[Grins]

16. Kern County Sheriff. A county with a history.

Serious California farm county.
And very Republican.

This is the county where most of the action in Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” was based. And one of those who knuckled the “Okies” was the county sheriff who deputized thugs to beat up those who resisted.

[appalachiablue]

17. Very interesting background, thanks.

[BComplex]

6. I miss having real statesmen that will actually FIGHT back in real time.

Democrats have been beaten down for so long by the damned republicans that they have become cowed and way too polite for waging a war. THAT is why I love Maxine Waters, AOC, Katie Porter, Elizabeth Warren, and a few others; they know what they're fighting for, and they aren't worried about losing their jobs over saying things that need to be said IN THE WAY they need to be said.

[elleng]

9. Yes

[Srkdqltr]

8. I think I remember seeing this on TV back when.

No wonder "they" killed him.

[CaptYossarian]

12. "Rafer, grab the gun."

That was on the recording of the assassination. Just after the gun had fired, LA Rams' Rosey Grier grabbed Sirhan Sirhan and calmly instructed Olympian Rafer Johnson to secure the handgun used to kill Bobby.

It's as chilling as the Zapruder film.

[Ligyron]

19. I didn't know that, thanks

That's very, very interesting.

PS: I always wondered what the recipe for the kebab marinade consisted of. I love kebabs...

[Srkdqltr]

20. Was a very difficult few years.

It is not surprising that that generation is open to conspiracy theories. We never got full answers for either of the Kennedy assassinations and even King was in question.

[CaptYossarian]

24. Nixon and his shadow government had some to do with that.

So did Hoover's FBI, people infiltrating the Nam protesters, and even Nam itself.

Some sailors finally admitted that in the Gulf of Tonkin, two warships were positioned off the shore of Vietnam. There was extremely dense fog one evening when one nervous sailor thought he heard something and began firing.

The neighboring ship's crew thought they were being fired upon from shore and also began firing. It sounds as if the war was started on accident.

I saw the interviews of the surviving crew members sometime during the late 80s on a 20/20-type show.

And then there's the whole Agent Orange thing...

[B Stieg]

10. My guy!

RiP, Bobby.

[bucolic_frolic]

11. Being arrested for the thoughts in your head

How would they know your thoughts if you hadn't told them?

[erronis]

13. Thanks for posting this! Another era.

I had the honor to meet both Jack and Edward way back when. So long ago that there was still a sense of decorum in Congress. Before the repuglicon party was totally taken over by lobbyists and zealots.

[Upthevibe]

15. Thank you for this post. n/t

[Liberal In Red State]

18. I weep to hear the voice of sanity from so long ago. Where is such a leader today?

[thucythucy]

21. Well, there is President Obama and Vice President

and hopefully soon to be President Biden.

I'd also include Elizabeth Warren, who can be quite cutting when she has to be.

But yes, Robert Kennedy was one of a kind, especially those last two years of his life.

He would have been one of our greatest presidents.

[Ligyron]

22. I used to see him and his brother John and Jackie when I was a kid.

They'd go to church on Easter and at other times as well in Palm Beach. You'd even see them occasionally around town at a restaurant or such as it was imagined you could do so safely back then. SS would have a fit now.

One time I saw JFK sitting up on the trunk in the back seat of a Lincoln convertible waving to everyone gathered on the sides of the road and us in the A&W Root Beer stand as they drove from the airport over to the island.

Couple months later he was shot dead in the back seat of another Lincoln. Then his brother here shot dead a few years later.

It's almost enough to let one believe in a conspiracy against the Kennedy's and Democratic leaders in general.

Almost.

[soldierant]

23. Does a "Wink wink nod nod" conspiracy qualify as a conspiracy?

Or maybe even as a "hopeful" conspiracy? If it does, I think we may be certain of it. But not a conspiracy which could ever be traced. Nor prevented, unless we would be willing to arrest people for what they are thinking, and I couldn't agree to that.