Take a look at this BBC video of the clashes between G20 protesters and cops.
The feel of the video eerily reminds me of the Peruvian nightly news that I used to watch in the 80s and early 90s when the military/police would crush protesters (and non-protesters). It was a time of curfews, searches and seizures, and road blocks. Freedom of speech, and especially of assembly, were barely tolerated but usually abolished. The cop and the soldier become one and the same. And in its efforts to eradicate terrorism (funded by the global U.S. war on drugs of course), the national government, then a military/left-socialist/right-nationalist mix, itself become another source of terror for the average citizen. One wrong move and the police had the legal authority to execute you on the spot. For your own good.
So when I hear an aggression bureaucrat declare an assembly to be unlawful (about 15 seconds into the video), it brings back memories.
It’s a shame that it is all happening in the land of the “free” now. What we call the “police state” should from now on be called the “military state” instead.
Just for kicks, here’s another video, this time by CNN. You can hear the same creepy voice in the background.
10:48 am on September 25, 2009
