DO WE LIVE IN A POLICE STATE?
Channel: tripfunkmonster
Date: 2011-12-21

Do we live in a police state? It seems that U.S. citizens can now be detained indefinitely on U.S. soil by military personnel and can be arrested for "loudly dissenting" from U.S. policy. The Obama administration furthered the corporate war on the Constitution by signing into law an unprecedented National Defense Authorization Act savagely unfriendly to civil rights. It supposedly "clarifies" the long argued gray area of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists Act (An amendment that would have exempted U.S. citizens from indefinite detention was defeated by a vote of 60 - 38). This noble piece of paper seems to scare the hell out of the power hungry members of the Corporate Oligarchy running the country. 
Occupy Wall Street asked Trinity Church if they'd allow protesters to occupy a small parcel of vacant land @ Juan Pablo Duarte Square in the TriBeCa section of Manhattan. After initially showing compassion for a grassroots movement based on peaceful, non-violent tactics; the Church reversed it's understanding attitude and chose not to allow it {despite being one of the largest landowners in NYC} In response, OWS, along with Episcoplian Bishop George Packard & members of the National Lawyers Guild, decided to hold a protest at the park which drew about 2,000 people on Saturday December 17th, 2011. Because of the infamous reputation NYPD has crafted for itself in battling Occupy Wall St. since it's creation, Bishop Packard declared that if NYPD intended to beat & arrest protesters that day, they would first beat & arrest a Bishop. Well, things started off peacefully enough. It was an atmosphere of lively discussion and cheerful reunions for members of the movement who hadn't been in actions lately. Then, protesters brought a home made set of stairs into the park, set it up at the fence and Bishop Packard made his way over. About 50 or 60 other protesters followed the Bishop as the rest watched from outside the fence. Hundreds of police moved in & circled the crowd outside the fence as other officers stormed the unarmed protesters in the vacant lot. Some people escaped under the fence, but 49 were arrested - including Bishop Packard & attorneys from the Lawyers Guild. The police used batons to forcibly push protesters back from the area in an intimidating fashion. Though it seemed as if NYPD wanted an altercation, protesters de-escalated the situation. Is Trinity Church the church of the one percent?
(By the way, how about showing a little LOVE for Chelsea Manning - a true American hero?)