New York, NY - An arrested Occupy Wall Street protester obtained a piece of paper he allegedly found in the back of a police van.
The 19 guidelines range from advice on proper attire to stressing the need to act as a team in chaotic situations.
Noting that having “helmet and baton, ready for immediate use” is “critical,” the memo advises, “A strong military appearance, with sharp and precise movements, is a force multiplier and a psychological advantage to us.”
In our experience, witnessing hundreds of police in riot gear holding batons is certainly chilling, but it may in fact exacerbate the tensions between unarmed protesters and heavily armed police, making an already adversarial situation more hostile.
Other guidelines make terrific sense, such as “use minimal force necessary to achieve the objectives,” “be tolerant of verbal abuse,” and “maintain firearms discipline.”
I witnessed the NY Police clear Zucotti Park last week, all without bloodshed and injuries.
ReplyDeleteI commented to a cop, that they should now be sent to CAIRO; TUNIS; DAMASCAS; TRIPOLI, SYRIA and all over the Arab world (where the US encourages these protests) and we would still have BLOOMBERG; MUBARIK; GHADAFI; ASAD. BEN ALI, ETC.
It is unbelievable that in the good old US of A; legitamite protesters who have legitamite grips are not allowed to assembel peacefully (GIVE THEM JOBS AND THEY WILL NOT COME TO PROTEST) to protest, while we DEMAND that other countries MUST allow these SAME protests.
Wait another couple of years and you will see the most drastic switch of "DEMOCRACY". There is MORE freedoms now in RUSSIA than in AMERICA.