Police and government are inherently hostile towards activists

While I admit that at times there is a fine line between what separates a protest and a riot, I don't have to get remotely close to it to demonstrate my point. When I said the government was "hostile" towards activists, I didn't just mean by acts of violence. The three main injuries that the government inflicts upon law abiding activists are:1) Intelligence gathering: The gathering of information to ascertain the motivations, contacts, or threat level of an activist or group of activists.2) Investigations: The harassment of activists through searches of their home or person, court summons, confiscation of property, and IRS audits.3) Physical retaliation: The unnecessary, intentional physical injury or intimidation of an activist.Note: I'm not talking about armed militias or groups espousing the violent overthrow of the government. I'm talking about groups like the Tea Party, COPBLOCK, OCW, or even Ron Paul supporters. While those groups are certainly angry about recent government actions, they have made it clear that they want change at the polls with a ballot, not in the streets with blood. All of this of course comes in the wake of 9/11, where if the government manages to associate you with the word terrorism even in the slightest way possible, they will make every effort to erase you from the face of the earth, or at the very least make you feel unwelcome in your own country. Video 1: Palestinian rights activist visited by FBIhttp://www.youtube.com...Video 2: Anti-war activists raided in early morning by FBIhttp://www.youtube.com...Video 3: Peaceful occupy protesters macedhttp://www.youtube.com...Even when the government has been caught red handed, there's nothing to be done. At worst, a fall guy is selected and fired or a small settlement is doled out, but the actions continue. There is little to no civilian oversight into the actions of most law enforcement agencies in the United States. The FBI, DHS, NSA, etc, are all shielded from public eyes by federal laws. People brought before these agencies are bound by gag orders issued by secret courts. And at the state and local levels, most prosecutors wont charge LE personnel for fear of setting cops on edge and making them over cautious. Police have literally gotten away with murder, while being filmed, with no consequences. The belief that prosecuting cops who commit horrible crimes could somehow make other police too cautious to carry out their duties is, I believe, patently false. If Law Enforcement are acting outside the scope of the law, they need to be reigned in, and if necessary the worst should be made examples.Video 4: BART execution of handcuffed manhttp://www.youtube.com...Some of these instances are just the residue of how police agencies work, which is still no excuse, but many have unjustified political agendas behind them. As long as LE agencies are given blank checks to "do what they need to do"; suspects will continue to be burned to death in their dwellings, peace activists will continue to have their doors kicked down at five in the morning and be placed on no-fly lists, civil rights activists will continue to be strong-armed by civil servants. I wholeheartedly agree that the United States still puts other nations to shame when it comes to personal freedom and public corruption, but the ongoing trend for the last 80 years has been to shoot first and ask questions later. Ever since the bonus army protests of the great depression, protesters have been met with batons instead of public discussion. Our founding fathers thought that the right to demonstrate was so important, they made the issue #1 in the bill of rights, second to none. Rather than embrace that ideology, the only thing the government has been able to will itself to do in recent memory is find ways to work around those freedoms! By creating and passing laws like the National Defense Authorization Act, which renders Posse Comitatus dead and allows the military to be used against American citizens affiliated with "terrorist forces" (a term which isn't clearly defined), and the Patriot Act, which allows the government to wiretap anyone for anything, the government has created enough loopholes to detain anyone they want to indefinitely, inside secret prisons, without even being charged with a crime. The British used nearly identical laws to arrest and disappear American patriots, in fact it was one of the main grievances listed in the declaration of independence! This isn't in the land of theory any more, it's happening right now:http://october2011.org...In closing I would like to reference the 5th and last video I've posted. Until things like that stop happening, America will never be safe from tyranny.http://www.youtube.com...