Occupy... I Wonder If Secretary Kerry Even Gets The Irony Here...

[ljm2002]

36. When "local police sometimes behaved barbarically"...

...it would have been nice if some of our national leaders had scolded them in the same way that Kerry scolded the Ukrainian government. Kerry and almost all of our national so-called leaders were okay when our own highly militarized police forces cracked down on peaceful protesters, using violence far beyond what was reasonable; yet they are quick to scold another government when they engage in such behavior.

The crackdown on OWS was coordinated nationally. We KNOW the FBI infiltrated them and tried to get them to engage in violent tactics. The FBI is an arm of the Federal government. We KNOW the NSA -- another Federal agency -- feeds data to local police when it suits their purposes to do so. Does anyone really believe that OWS was not targeted at the Federal level? Really?

I don't know whether those Ukrainian police were federal or local in their country either. We are a huge country with separate states, so a lot of the on-the-ground action here will involve local or state forces rather than federal forces. Other countries are structured differently. I do know that bashing peaceful protesters is supposed to be un-Constitutional in this country, where freedom of speech and the right to petition our government for redress of grievances is enshrined as the First Amendment to the Constitution.

BTW, if protesters in this country were to topple a large statue of some historical figure, a lot of people -- including DUers -- would say the protesters incited the violence and deserved what they got.

In answer to your question: No, the entire country need not and should not stay silent regarding the crackdown in the Ukraine; but our so-called leaders ought to practice some ethical and moral consistency and speak up when our own militaristic police forces are out of line. I'm not holding my breath.