Al Jazeera: Police arrest hundreds of Occupy LA activists
Huffington Post: Occupy LA Raid: Police Arrest Protesters Who Defied Eviction Notice
The right to freedom of assembly is constitutionally guaranteed in the US — unless it conflicts with local ordinances.
First Amendment: Freedom of Speech, Press, Religion and Petition
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Ordinances are just another term for law.
ReplyDeleteand tom....if you live in LA you can literally drive a few blocks down from where the Occupy LA movement was being held and literally see a huge matrix of streets in a 10 by 10 block or so of true destitution and homelessness like you have never seen before. They have tents on the sidewalk and people live like that there. They are homeless, drugged up, tent-dwellers, trash everywhere, violence, crime, etc., etc. And they've been there FOR YEARS TOM!!! FOR YEARS!!! No cops, no helicopters, no talk of "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to spend in "lawn care" or "sidewalk cleaning" and "business."
ReplyDeleteThe hypocrisy is just ridiculous. It's called skid row down there and it's real bad. I mean you've never seen anything like it anywhere else in the states...at least I haven't and I've been all over the USA multiple times over.
As I told one friend of mine...if you're drugged up and not questioning the status quo then tents in public places are no problem regardless of how much crime and destitution you create. But if you're non-violently protesting the status quo and power structures then tents in public places have to go with helicopters and riot police swooping in on you. Insane. Absolutely insane.
the way OWS is being "handled" only speaks even more powerfully why OWS exists and is justified. It's a spiral that keeps itself alive.
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