(no subject)

[polerin]

RNC protest videos and links, I'm going to update this as I go along, but I had to at least post a few of these now.

Last update: 2:17 am 8/7

Story and text links
RATM story

Taking steps post about the targeting of street medics

Coldsnap legal collective (awesome people) They have a twitter as well

Twin cities indymedia

Brown femipower on Why That Police Brutality Stuff Matters and some video from the opening days of the convention.

Taking Steps on police brutality inside the jails. (!!!! MUST READ, this is Elliot Huges, who was arrested in the video below the staged un-arrest !!!!)




Agent Saboteurs:

The supposed black block never gets sprayed, in fact the cop never really aims at them just at the other protestors. After he gets tackled, he makes a quick move to look like he's going for a re-arrest, and then walks off. Not surprising. What is very interesting to me is the very tentative way in which the arrest happened, and the fact that the bike cop didn't move to assist a fellow officer under attack.

For perspective, here is a good example of how the police REALLY arrest an individual person.

Teargas and flashbangs used against a peaceful protest:

No explanation needed for this one.

Smokebombs, teargas, and rubber bullets:

Close range direct fire of rubber bullets into someone walking away. Note that the manufacturers of rubber bullets and say that they are not intended to be fired directly at someone, but rather banked off of the ground to lessen the speed. Rubber bullets hitting a human directly can still cause major lacerations, broken bones, and can kill. They are no joke. Also note that the cops are being very indiscriminate about their gas.. attacking street medics? Come on.

More later.

Comments

[evildagmar.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's no doubt that the police acted like thug squads throughout this entire week. There's more than ample footage around showing them using excessive force at almost every opportunity. I could go to a few sites and find at least a dozen similar videos of the cops just up and firing rubber bullets at people, as well as using the guns that fire them as intimidation. I'm pretty damn sure that they're not supposed to point loaded lethal weapons at unarmed and peaceful civilians, so the same should be holding true for their nonlethal arsenal. That crowd that "advanced on the police line" with their anti-capitalism banner were being stupid, but they were more than amply antagonized by multiple officers pointing their guns at them from across the street, and at the turtle-like speed they "rushed" the cops, you'd be hard pressed to say the cops were actually threatened by some kids holding a sheet of painted bedlinen. Considering that LA's police chief got more than a bit irate at his own people for indiscriminate use of rubber bullets during one of those immigration rallies last yearish, I'll be interested to see if the nice police chief who was painting such a pretty picture for the press during the convention has the balls to actually take steps against his overzealous thugs. Absolutely there's no excuse for firing rubber bullets at people when they're peacefully walking away, and that goes double for the f**king teargas they were forcing people through.

As to the black bloc guy in the first video, I didn't even notice the other cop when I first watched it. At any rate, it's a little pointless since clearly no one taking initiative warned these guys that anyone with their faces covered needs to be staying 100% out of anything that could get them arrested, because that kind of cover is how agent provocateurs get away with making it look like a crowd has turned violent. One of the protesters should have grabbed that black bloc guy and shook him until he got the clue or threatened to arrest them (ha ha), because it was in the best interests of the protesters to stop him, be he cop or deluded twit.

[evildagmar.livejournal.com]

Oo... I will say in defense of the cop, that he might have just made a bad call (it's not clear what the guy he was about to arrest was doing, if anything) and been on the fence about it himself. If one is half-convinced someone might have been tying their shoe, but thinking you should grab them because it looks like they might be trying to slash a tire or something while pretending to tie it, and your options are to a) just let the wanker go or b) face off against an angry mob, one might actually elect to give the guy, having been for certain prevented from doing "whatever" the benefit of the doubt and let him go.

They're supposed to keep the peace, and while he did spray a whole bunch of people with pepper spray, he did at least allow the situation to go back to more peaceful levels with his actions, so, thug or not, he didn't eff up completely. (Wow that sounds wishy-washy)

[eclexia.livejournal.com]

oh by "not surprising" I wasn't referring to the whole thing being a setup, hell, *I* would have walked away in his place. Not that I would have been in his place, but .. oh hell you know what I mean.

[evildagmar.livejournal.com]

What beefs me is that with all this fodder, they've got no need to make stuff up, yet they've got a rather ludicrous clip on Indymedia of them outing two "provocateurs". Words fail at how unconvinced I am. I can think of lots of words to describe specifically what's wrong with their "evidence", but if you actually post these (perfectly G-rated) words on their site, they delete the post. Yay for free speech.

It's just great how they can have all the elements for a complete win, and then noob it to pieces in an eyeblink.