The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution declares:
Isn’t that quaint?
Josh Holland takes a look at what happened to that apparently antiquated notion from the document which used to carry some weight in the way this country was governed, as he notes that some 1,500 American citizens have now been arrested while peaceably assembling to petition the Government for a redress of grievances over the past month since Occupy Wall Street began.
Last night, while the GOP debated Casino Capitalism (in an actual casino!), Give Me Liberty author and reporter Naomi Wolfe became one of the latest to have had her Constitutional right to peaceably assemble for redress of grievances taken away from her, as seen in the following video (in which that “Democrat Party-sponsored” “mob” was attempting to petition Democratic NY state Governor Andrew Cuomo for a redress of grievances)…
Wolf wrote about her arrest seen above, “for standing lawfully on the sidewalk in an evening gown” at the UK’s Guardian today, noting that she explained to the NYPD before she was cuffed that she was both a “NYC citizen and a reporter”.
As her article’s sub-header notes, “Arresting a middle-aged writer in an evening gown for peaceable conduct is a far cry from when America was a free republic.”
“I became exhibit A in a process that I have been warning Americans about since 2007,” Wolfe writes. “First they come for the ‘other’ – the ‘terrorist’, the brown person, the Muslim, the outsider; then they come for you – while you are standing on a sidewalk in evening dress, obeying the law.”
This afternoon she told Huffington Posts’ Jason Cherkis, “I didn’t choose to get myself arrested. I chose to obey the law and that didn’t protect me.”
So, where are all the outraged “Tea Partiers” who used to decry supposed abuses of the U.S. Constitution under our authoritarian regime? Oh, right, they were just pretending to give a damn about any of it…like good little scammed Fox “News” soldiers.
P.S. Here’s hoping Wolf makes out as well following her inappropriate arrest as Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman did after hers.
UPDATE 10/19/11: In her Guardian piece, Wolf explained that the NYPD had told her the permit for the event she was attending (an annual Huffington Post event which Gov. Cuomo was also scheduled to attend, thus the protesters) when she came across the #OWS folks, forbade protesters from using the public sidewalks outside the building. Suspecting the claim from the police was bullshit, she says she requested to see a copy of that permit prior to her arrest, but was not allowed to.
Since posting the article above, Wolf contacted me to note that she has finally tracked down a copy of the type of permit HuffPo had last night and — surprise, surprise — the claim by cops appears to, in fact, be bullshit…
“It seems that the mysterious ominous unspecified ‘permit’ the cops referenced and used to lock us up was a RED CARPET EVENT permit that says nothing about restricting pedestrian access!!!,” she tells me.
Linking to the permit at her Facebook page, Wolf writes:
Do any of these people have any legal redress against the police department? How about civil suits? This kind of police abuse seems to be escalating rapidly. Where are the really voracious lawyers that can garner media attention and make the case about loss of civil rights? You can bet the GOP would have someone front and center. Where are the guys on the side of ordinary Americans?
I just read an article about a US Attorney, formerly a Bushie, who was fired along w/7 others, for refusing to prosecute ‘voter fraud’ cases, due to the quaint reasoning that there was NO EVIDENCE. He lives in Seattle, where I now reside, hopefully for not too much longer (bankruptcy or lack of health insurance due to inability to pay seem horrible options compared to fleeing to Canada, which my husband & I have an option to do, if all goes well). ANYWAY, I think the attorneys KNOW which side the bread is buttered, and that they are TOAST if they speak up. Now that the President has publicly, casually murdered an American citizen who was a CIA asset, we had better hunker down and realize: if we do not show up in the massive numbers that other countries have produced, and if we do not have some REALLY GOOD PLANS for taking over not just Wall Street & the banks & the White House & Congress, but ALL of the state houses, and the courthouses, and the police stations, and replace them with good people who are uncorruptible, WE are toast. The corruption is so widespread, and so many are complicit, and there are so many ways to cause ‘surprising’ deaths (heart attacks seem to just ‘happen’ to folks who speak up), that I believe we are gonna need about 20-30 years to clear the decks & create an entirely new societal system. If the Global Warming System don’t git us first, that is. Happy CultureShifting, all. Perfect Storm weather we’re having…
Time to dust off the guillotine!!!
3 reasons Wall Street banksters will likely never see jail:
1. On Wednesday, Citigroup and the SEC agreed to a settlement:
Reuters — Citigroup Inc will pay $285 million to settle charges that it defrauded investors who bought toxic housing-related debt that the bank bet would fail, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday.
The SEC said the bank’s Citigroup Global Markets unit misled investors about a $1 billion collateralized debt obligation by failing to reveal it had “significant influence” over the selection of $500 million of underlying assets, and that it took a short position against those assets.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/19/us-citigroup-sec-idUSTRE79I4TL20111019
2. Also Wednesday, Reuters announced the states and top banks are nearing a settlement in the mortgage abuse case:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Talks between U.S. states and top banks over mortgage abuses are nearing agreement on a major sticking point that has bogged down settlement negotiations for more than a year.
A deal could be reached by the end of the month, according to three people familiar with the talks.
Under the proposed terms of the settlement — which could total $25 billion — banks would get broad legal immunity from state lawsuits in exchange for refinancing underwater loans, those mortgages where borrowers owe more than their homes are worth, the sources said.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/us-financial-regulation-mortgages-idUSTRE79H7P820111018
3. My favorite — Kay Hagan and John McCain’s bill to allow U.S. companies to bring back $1.4 trillion from overseas accounts home during a corporate tax holiday that would forgive the 35 percent corporate tax rate for one closer to 8 percent. It is supposed to entice companies to create jobs.
–Published October 05, 2011 | Dow Jones Newswires
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–A bipartisan pair of senators plans to introduce on Thursday a bill proposing a tax break for U.S. companies that bring home foreign profits.
Sens. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Kay Hagan (D., N.C.) will co-sponsor legislation that would create a repatriation tax holiday, reducing the corporate taxes that U.S. multinationals would pay when bringing home overseas profits, in an effort to boost the economy. Their bill, called the Foreign Earnings Reinvestment Act, would create an incentive for companies to bring back an estimated $1.4 trillion currently kept overseas, according to an advisory from their offices.
Congress previously passed a repatriation tax break in 2004, billed then as a one-time fix.
I think she needs Gloria Allred
Strange things are happening on Highway 61 these days.
One wonders when it will take a turn for the worse.
I hope they sue the living hell out of them, THAT will slow down these Gestapo tactics faster than anything is to get sued and lose for Millions.
That the Reich wing understands
Sophia @2 wrote:
Oh, Jesus! I better start looking for butter that I can spread all over myself. I mean, no one really wants dry toast.
In the late 1980s, I was arrested for civil disobedience in a Wall Street blockade event (a Green Party action on Earth Day of 1988 or 9?). The late great William Kunstler represented the whole group of protesters, and bargained the charges down to “adjournment in contemplation of dismissal” (stay out of additional trouble and no trial or record of arrest).
Like Naomi, I was dressed up for the occassion. A friend and I decided to come in suit and tie rather than jeans and tee-shirt. Even though we were college kids without credentials, we walked through every police checkpoint unchallenged. At one point I decided to cross the street, and a “helpful” police officer rushed up to shove a bunch of less-well-dressed protesters out of my way. When we joined the sit-in, the cops asked us THREE TIMES if we “really wanted” to be arrested, even though everyone around us was being whisked away with no warning whatsoever.
It was an eye-opening experience on the reality of “class privilege” in America.
“Here’s hoping Wolf makes out as well following her inappropriate arrest as Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman did after hers”
That may be the only way they will comprehend their own violation.
brad,
thank you once again for your coverage of the news and thank you for your liberal policy on commenting…..i mention this today because many times i learn as much thru other commenters links as i do thru the article…..raw story seems to have stopped posting comments recently,which saddens me because i have long said “they”(insert your fav name for the ruling class)do not want “we the people” to openly communicate
I’m amazed that there haven’t been calls for NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly to resign. The NYPD violated the Constitution in an estimated 14 different ways during the 2004 RNC protests. Since then, the NYPD’s been up to its neck in creating fraudulent crime stats, racist profiling, framing innocent people in drug arrests and convictions (to keep up the crime stats), cooperating with the CIA to spy on entire communities, assaulting nonviolent protesters and citizens in general, the Adrian Schoolcraft scandal, covering up a murder that NYPD detectives may have committed (Sunny Sheu), as well as a myriad of other crimes. Apparently, Kelly’s not responsible for the NYPD’s crimes, even the ones he’s ordered.
The Schoolcraft and Sheu cases are particularly shocking.
Brad,
I have never seen a permit in which the instructions and warnings (on where and what you can do when assembling) were on the permit itself. They were always on a separate sheet. Did Naomi check past the permit sheet itself to see if such a document exists and whether it was actually given to the permit holder? Or was her purpose simply to hold the police to what they literally said (about the permit stating no congregating on the sidewalk) and show that the face of the permit itself had no such language. In other words, is it an ordinance that actually exists and is distributed in written form to permit applicants sometime during the permit process, even if the language is not on the permit face itself?
Waiting for the blue shirts to rebel against their white shirt bosses on account of these antidemocratic tactics. All of the NYPD is being disgraced. They look like a bunch of thugs.
Dred,
nice highway 61 reference. Wall Street is part of 61. looks to be spreading too. the co-opting begins in earnest now. (sorry ernest).
someone wrote about co-opting earlier?
http://thedailybell.com/3126/Occupy-Wall-Street-to-Attack-US-Freedoms-With-Constitutional-Convention
And Brad,
ditto on the thank you for open posting here. Not many other sites have the cajones to allow for such.
R