Antiwar vets attacked by police outside debate

[2QT2BSTR8]

Source: Stumble

WHILE BARACK Obama and John McCain were getting makeup touchups for their Wednesday night debate at Hofstra University, in Hempstead, N.Y., police outside made sure that the voices of antiwar veterans wouldn't be heard.

Officers of the Nassau County Police Department reacted with reckless violence to a protest organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) outside the debate site. Among several people injured in the assault, former Army Sgt. Nick Morgan was knocked unconscious and his cheekbone broken when he was trampled by a police horse.

Read more: http://socialistworker.org/2008/10/17/antiwar-vets-attacked

[peacetalksforall]

1. I cry for my country. Republicans = police state.

[2QT2BSTR8]

2. Don't loose your resolve!

It is important that when we see stories like this that we do not loose our resolve. You do that, and they win! This is our country! We will take it back!

[SpiralHawk]

25. Republicons are out to crush our veterans

and prevent our US veterans from having a voice in US politics.

What is it with republicon chickenhawks and their pervo-patriotism?

[mrbarber]

3. Obviously the protestors must be anti-American traitors....

To dare stand up and want to be heard.

Here's to hoping those jackbooted thugs get what's coming to them. Pigs.

[wordpix]

6. jack booted thugs is right

[The Brethren]

4. The Nassua County police

should be ashamed of themselves! The IVAW not only have a right to protest, they have served our country and are standing up for us again. They deserve to be respected, not beaten up.

[spag68]

5. vets

This is so fucked, it's almost unbelievable. I live here 5 minutes from Hofstra, and was at a rally so close that if you were 30 feet up you could see Hofstra. There has been not one word of this in any local paper. This is the first I have heard of it. Earlier in the day I spoke to one of the cops stationed with a squad car blocking a road leading to Hofstra, and he told me "don't even try to get in there tonight". Now I know he was doing me a favor, but if I had known of the protest I would have gone anyway. I am totally sick that I live here, but I do know some cops and they are not all that way. I'm not defending them, but maybe there was some special team that was that close or maybe they were actually something else entirely, who knows? I will do my best to root something about this out and report back. I personally have to be very careful, because of prior stupidity on my part, but this is too important.

[burrowowl]

7. K&R!

[Laelth]

8. That's unacceptable.

I want to thank each and every veteran for their service to our country. Their voices especially deserve to be heard.

-Laelth

[Dystopian]

9. KandR

This makes me sick
http://ivaw.org/node/4405


more with video:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/16/15_arrested_outside_presidential_debate_in

peace~

[Dystopian]

10. Thank you....just found video & posted.

It went up about 2 hours ago on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2twzMhg16f0
peace~

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

26. I feel sick to my stomach.

that was horrifying to watch.

[OneBlueSky]

11. this jack-booted harassment of protesters is becoming the norm . . .

throughout the country . . . and someone made a whole lot of money selling police departments the Star Wars outfits they seem to wear so proubly while cracking heads . . .

there was a time -- I remember it, I was there -- when you were actually allowed to protest in this country without getting your head bashed or your butt tased . . . seems these days that ANY assembly of people for the purpose of expressing their displeasure with the government is met with violence and repression . . . kinda like in Nazi Germany . . .

where did we go wrong? . . . and who's going to fix it? . . .

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[sce56]

14. AMEN!

http://web.archive.org/web/20030602211200/

[LeftCoastNinja]

13. Police State

I can't believe this thuggery being inflicted on protesters, especially vets. How despicable.

[orleans]

15. ! n/t

[panzerfaust]

16. ... and nothing will happen to the cops

[machI]

17. Kick

[Echo In Light]

18. And to think, this is how they treat 'their own,' so to speak ...

Imagine what thrills and sexual pleasure these WAR PIGS will get from clobbering civilian skulls

[pleah]

19. NY police to war vets,

Thanks for your service, now sit down and shut up! Unbelievable!

I hope the vets can take some sort of legal action against them.

[Echo In Light]

20. I'm sure they will!!!

[MrsBrady]

21. this is how america treats its veterans -- shameful n/t

[cyberpj]

22. Wonder if they're on the updated Blackwater police training list?

This article is from 2007, I'm sure they've spread their tactics far and wide since then -

Blackwater Training US Police

snip-
On October 14, the Washington Post ran a story, which included photographs from Blackwater's Moyock training center. However, what was most intriguing was a photograph of a police and military patch board at Blackwater's headquarters that indicated the police agencies that have sent their officers to Moyock for training.

Blackwater is secretive about its non-federal, as well as its foreign clients, which the Post pointed out includes Jordan, Azerbaijan, and Burkina Faso, but a WMR inspection of the photograph of the police agencies has yielded the following list of agencies that have used Blackwater for training:

1. Iowa Department of Natural Resources
2. Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff's Department
3. Matthews, North Carolina Police
4. Atlanta Police
5. Chillicothe, Ohio Police
6. Charleston, South Carolina Police
7. Port Chester, NY Police
8. Highland, Indiana Police
9. Unalaska, Alaska Police
10. Metropolitan Washington, DC Police
11. Charlottesville, Virginia Police
12. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (Dulles and Reagan National Airports)
13. St. Louis County Police (Missouri)
14. Queen Anne's County, Maryland Police
15. Prince George's County, Maryland Police
16. FBI SWAT Team
17. Gloucester Township, New Jersey Police
18. Tempe, Arizona Police
19. New York Police Department
20. Yonkers, New York Police
21. Fairfax County, Virginia Police
22. Maplewood, New Jersey Police
23. Gastonia, North Carolina Police
24. Tampa Police
25. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
26. DeKalb County, Georgia Police
27. Arlington County, Virginia Police
28. Baltimore Police
29. U.S. Coast Guard
30. Suffolk, Virginia Police
31. Franklin City, Virginia Police
32. Milford, Delaware Police
33. University of Texas Police
34. Norfolk, Virginia Police
35. Ottawa-Carleton, Canada Police
36. San Bernardino County, California Sheriff
37. Plattsburgh, New York Police
38. Chicago Police Department
39. Oregon State Police
40. Los Angeles Police Department
41. Tonawanda, New York Police
42. Special Forces of Colombia
43. Jacksonville, North Carolina Police
44. Harvey Cedars, New Jersey Police
45. Elmira, New York Police
46. Department of Corrections, New Jersey
47. Lexington, Kentucky Police
48. Willimantic, Connecticut Police
49. Georgia Department of Law Enforcement
50. City of Fairfax, Virginia Police
51. Alexandria, Virginia Police Special Operations
52. Illinois State Police
53. Dallas, Texas Police
54. Hamilton, Ohio Police
55. Morganton, North Carolina Police

A number of the police departments that have been trained by Blackwater have abysmal civil rights and police brutality records, most notably the Chicago Police and Illinois State Police, both cited by former Illinois Governor George Ryan as being guilty of police misconduct in his decision to commute the death sentences of Illinois' death row inmates. It was a decision that likely had much to do with his indictment by the Bush administration on corruption charges -- political misuse of the Department of Justice that has been seen in the indictments and investigations of Alabama former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman and HealthSouth former CEO Richard Scrushy, Qwest's former CEO Joseph Nacchio, Democratic campaign contributor Martha Stewart, Coastal Corporation's former Chairman and Democratic contributor Oscar Wyatt, and Democratic-leaning trial attorneys around the United States, as well as the firings of several U.S. Attorneys who refused to engage in political prosecutions, and a Justice Department workup on North Carolina presidential candidate John Edwards in 2004.

snip-

Citizens have a distinct opportunity of confronting their local elected city, county, and town officials over Blackwater training of their police officers. Local officials should be pressured to reveal the numbers and identities of officers trained by Blackwater, the subjects covered by the training, the revenues spent, and a public demand should be made to cease and desist in such training.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f0b_1192588579

[eagertolearn]

23. How can these police live with themselves? Are they local police

or are they trained and brought in from elsewhere? If this election is stolen again everyone must hit the streets! We can not allow our government to suppress our freedom of speech! What has our country turned into?????

[Indenturedebtor]

24. Utterly Revolting. There are no words n/t

[babydollhead]

27. kick