Occupy Boston Watches Cops Beat Vietnam Veterans

Fascism in America took a giant leap forward Monday night, as some of Boston's finest pushed down and beat several Vietnam Veterans who were protesting as part of the overall Occupy Wall Street movement. The protest movement in Boston has grown larger over the past few days, requiring the group to move from one encampment into two separate encampments. The police did not want to the crowd staying overnight at the second park location, and attempted to disperse the crowd. When the group stayed, that's when the beatdown began. Among those beaten by the cops was a 74 year old Vietnam veteran, who was holding a flag — the symbol of our collective freedoms and rights to assemble, protest, and utilize free uncensored speech. It should come as no surprise that the police thugs knocked that flag to the ground. Overall, between 50 and 100 protesters were arrested in Boston Monday night. The move, however, does not seem to have slowed down the movement one bit. In fact, the overreaction and police brutality may have served to increase the number of protesters in the Boston movement, as well as across the country. What's crazy, from my point of view, is how controlled and penned in the protesters are at nearly every site. It is clear that the politicians in these cities do not understand the First Amendment trumps their local ordinances, or at least it ought to. Free speech and free assembly, particularly in protest of our government, is the crown jewel of the American Constitution. Even more so than voting, it is our guarantee that it is our right as human beings to come together and demand responsiveness from government. And yet, these cities, like Boston, and in New York and elsewhere, treat the protesters like a terror group waiting to spring out of control. Protesters are penned up into "Free Speech Zones", some Orwellian hellhole from which they can "legally" protest. It is the ultimate in arrogance of the government to assume it can tell the protesters where and when they can protest. It is our country. Politicians are merely stewards of the office they occupy, servants of the people...or at least that is how it was designed to work. They certainly were not supposed to be the protectors of the powerful, utilizing police (and some day in the movement, the military) to disperse free speech that they don't like. This is America, damn it. This kind of police brutality and harassment is exactly what we have seen in protests in the Middle East. Do American politicians really want to make the claim that the citizens of Iran and Egypt have more rights and freedoms than we do? Do the powerful really want to spark this movement from a large protest movement into a nationwide, "let's start hanging the bastards" movement? Because right now, the line is drawn at around 99 percent us, 1 percent them. You don't need to be Stephen Hawking to see who is going to win that one. And yet, the politicians act as if they have the power to either allow or disallow the free speech and assembly rights of millions of Americans. Boston straight up beat their protesters, while on Wall Street, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg acts as if he is doing the protest movement a favor by "allowing" them to stay and protest. “The bottom line is – people want to express themselves. And as long as they obey the laws, we'll allow them to,” said Bloomberg. “If they break the laws, then, we're going to do what we're supposed to do: enforce the laws.” Gee, Mike, that's kind of you. Nice of you to ignore that many of the laws surrounding protesting and assembling, as well as utilizing free speech to protest the government, are themselves part of the problem. It's so kind of you to "allow" us free speech and free assembly. This is the kind of corporate-government elitism that feeds the movement. This is exactly the attitude that we're fighting; that there are somehow two Americas — one where the elites, like Bloomberg, can do as they please and lord over us, and another where We the Peasants are "allowed" to "have" our basic civil rights. What the Michael Bloombergs of the world do not yet realize is that this movement is strong, and getting stronger every day. Americans are fed up with the rigged system, and they are taking to the streets to protest. When every election is rigged and the entire system is designed to protect the elites, and when the voice of the citizen is drowned out by the billions of dollars corporate America spends to buy their favored politicians, marching in the streets is the only tool we have. Well, that or the guillotines. Your call, Michael. Choose wisely. You can reach the author by email john@benzinga.com or on twitter @johndthorpe. To comment on this (or any of my columns), visit my user page at Benzinga.