Conservative Crush

An Iraq War veteran writes in the Nation magazine about one of his missions in Iraq to restore order. As he explains it “you go in with one mentality: crush the other side.”

After attending the Occupy Wall Street protest at Zuccotti Park, this same veteran said “Of course, if my goal was to crush free speech, I might use a little misdirection too. As in any war, I would dehumanize the enemy: make sure the protesters aren’t perceived as ordinary people with legitimate concerns but rather as hippies and anarchists who force police to work overtime on the tax payer dime. Then I would send far more police than necessary, pre-emptively ordering some troops into riot gear, to stir tension and make escalation inevitable. The singular focus thus becomes the “clashes”: police and protesters absorb one another’s frustrations, and I’ve successfully contained the problem by pitting the 99 percent against itself, while eclipsing the issues that led to the protest in the first place.”

And this from an AP news brief -“Boston spent $1.4 million on police overtime at the Occupy Boston encampment, but overall police overtime was down in 2011 by about 6 percent.“ “A media representative for Occupy Boston tells the Boston Herald there was no need to spend $1.4 million to patrol and dismantle the encampment because protesters were not “an armed gang“. Both of these articles were printed in February 2012. Chilling when read side by side.

The tactics of suppression of free speech are being used at this very moment, but this is being eclipsed by taxpayer funded contraception, and bases on the moon. The Occupy protests did not require restoration of order, because there was no dis-order. They required the rule of law be applied for a redress of grievances, which was denied. The law, our law, is being subverted; but no political party seems to be interested in this assault on freedom and liberty. The “made for TV“ assaults capture all the attention.

And since conservatives admire experience so much, perhaps they could appreciate the experiences of a recent combat veteran who understands when laws are not upheld, suppression will be enforced; with the singular goal of “crushing the other side“, even if it’s the side of our constitutional rights to legally change our laws for the common good. Those in power holding the purse strings will suppress any and all that gets between them and total control. No public outcries of disagreement will be allowed.