I have absolutely no sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street protests (OWS). None. It wasn’t the Banks that crashed the economy. It was Congress under the auspices of Chris Dodd and Barney Frank who set up the rules that the banks HAD to operate under. The banks were forced to write mortgages that were never likely to get paid off. Remember NINJA loans? Congress then let the bankers off the hook by making Fannie and Freddie take these loans into their portfolios so the banks got paid for originating these loans and the government got the liability. Which is to say in a roundabout way Congress bribed the banks to do its bidding.
But I have to say that this action by the police was totally uncalled for under the circumstances. What ever happened to:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I seem to recall that being the law of the land. Once upon a time anyway.
I have a friend (who I’m not going to name or link to or even quote directly) who thinks and has stated publicly that the OWS protesters should be shot on sight. This is not quite shooting on sight buddy. But it is a start. Happy now my friend?
There is a whole police state mentality going down among law enforcement that makes them minions of the oligarchs now ruling the country. My friend also thinks that dopers deserve no protection under the law. Because, since the state pays welfare to some, no one has a right to his own body. Dopers subsisting on welfare make taxes go up and he hates paying them. Fine. So why not go after the welfare state? I guess there would be no one to beat up on if we all lived free (which does not mean at someone else’s expense). But that attitude makes him objectively a supporter of the oligarchs. My friend claims to be a supporter of the Constitution as written. And a supporter of Christian values (Southern style to be sure). Evidently neither of those values precludes a police state. According to him. Objectively.
Where will it all end? Not in a good place. For anyone. Including my friend.
H/T Reason Magazine