Adding my voice: Occupy Wall Street

I'm not the first nor, I hope, am I the last to add their voice in protest against the shameless and criminal actions of the police state currently occurring taking place against those who would peacefully seek a way to have their voice heard by a rapidly unlistening governmental system.

The actions of UC Davis Campus Police Lieutenant John Pike and his ilk are deplorable and criminal. While this incident may have occurred at UC Davis, it is not an isolated incident nor is it solely an American issue. Crimes like this are being committed by governments against their people in the US, Canada, Europe and elsewhere.

The people have gone along with the notion of our democracies actually being democratic long enough. They are tired of the lies, the deception, the corruption, the theft and the abuses of power that have come with increasing regularity by those who are meant to serve the people, not rape and pillage them.

Their criminal actions have not stopped at assault with pepper spray, but have escalated and now include murder.

“I was standing in the middle of the crowd when the police started moving in,” she says. “I was screaming, ‘I am pregnant, I am pregnant. Let me through. I am trying to get out.’” At that point, Fox continues, a Seattle police officer lifted his foot and it hit her in the stomach, and another officer pushed his bicycle into the crowd, again hitting Fox in the stomach. “Right before I turned, both cops lifted their pepper spray and sprayed me. My eyes puffed up and my eyes swelled shut,” she says.

From Forbes Magazine:

The point is, I think, that the police have been operating pretty indiscriminately in their response to these protests. It doesn’t matter if you’re pregnant,elderly, or just sitting there, the cops have been responding to protests with overwhelming and entirely unnecessary force.

The powers that be don't want to listen to the people and this can be clearly demonstrated by the actions of those in power to the simple actions of those protesting here in this video and elsewhere. The right to assembly, the right to free speech, the right to speak truth to power are all being trampled under the boot of power, greed, and arrogance.

We are increasingly living in a police state, where there is 24 hour video surveillance on every street corner in major cities, where your internet activity is monitored, where your emails and phone calls can be recorded and traced, where censorship is on the rise and where peaceful protest is met with violence.

I think Orwell was prescient when he gave O'Brien these words, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever."

Whether you agree with Occupy Wall Street or not you should not be able to sit back and calmly see the actions that democratic governments are taking and be okay with it.

These actions are wrong and people of conviction need to make their voice heard that such actions will not be tolerated.

I'll leave you with two quotes. You might be tempted to simply brush them off but don't. Think about them and then think about what is happening. In a world where Muslims in Cairo, Egypt can be protected by Christians while they pray, shouldn't the people of America have their constitutional rights respected by the very powers who are sworn to protect and uphold that very same constitution? Shouldn't the people of any democracy be safe from the oppressive powers of their governments?

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." Desmond Tutu

"In order for evil to flourish, all that is required is for good men to do nothing." Edward Burke