Oppressive Police Action is on the Rise

Cord Weekly - On May 4, 1970, after days of protests against the American invasion of Cambodia at Kent State University, four students were murdered and nine others gunned down by the aggressive Ohio national guard. The force was authorized by the governor of the state and the president of the school to disband these “riotous” students who were exercising their rights of free assembly and speech.

On September 17, 2007, at an open forum with American Senator John Kerry, Andrew Meyer decided to ask the former presidential candidate three questions: Why, in the face of wide-scale voter fraud did you concede the election? Why do you not act to impeach Bush before he can invade Iran? (He also mentioned how Clinton was impeached for a blowjob.) And finally, were you a member of the Skulls and Bones Society?

As Meyer was asking his questions, members of the police force told him to hurry, as he was going over his time limit (he spoke for a total of a minute and 30 seconds). As he finished his third question, the microphone was cut off and police started their assault.

Since he had done nothing wrong, Meyer resisted the officers’ advances by wriggling and shouting for help.

Eventually, six officers pinned him down, tasered him and cuffed his hands. The police led him out of the auditorium and informed him that he was being arrested for inciting a riot.

First, there was no riot, so how could he be arrested for inciting one? And second, how does shooting a student with 50,000 volts of electricity calm down a crowd that is apparently rioting?

The charges were eventually reduced to disturbing the peace and resisting arrest, which is a felony. If convicted, they will make Meyer, like seven percent of Floridians, ineligible to vote in America’s future elections (they hand out felony charges like WLU hands out parking tickets).

Though not as brutal as the Ohio slaughter, this was another case of aggressive action against free speech. The fact that they tasered and arrested an unarmed student while nobody did anything is another example of fear of those who we are supposed to trust with our protection – an ingredient in a police state.

The fact that Meyer was attacked after asking Kerry a question about the Skulls and Bones, an American student secret society that dates back to 1832, is a whole different matter (more ammo for “conspiracy” theorists).

What happened to free speech in America? When were police told to attack all dissenters and ignore personal moral thoughts?

In recent years, protests have been downplayed by our political leaders while the media shows the attacks on the protesters without covering the reasons they are protesting (G8 Quebec, G7 Seattle, SPP Montebello).

In this case, we have undeniable proof of police overreaction that was recorded and disseminated across the world.

Don’t think that we in Canada are so far off from the American example. On August 20 in Montebello, Quebec, police from Ontario and Quebec fired tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds of peaceful protesters, some of whom were WLU students, who were there to show their disagreement with the undemocratic Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).

This police aggression was cued by internal police provocateurs sent out to incite a riot and caught and unmasked by a Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) leader who was at the police line. These agents were then “arrested” and led away by police. Their initial plan failed, but the cops moved in on the protesters anyway.

With the SPP, our security and human rights standards will be degraded (along with a slew of other standards) to the level of the USA. How long before our campus police are carrying tasers and attacking students who have asked members of parliament tough questions?

Some argue that Meyer was hogging the microphone and used vulgar language, causing him to be approached by the police. If that is the case, why didn’t the police ask him to leave instead of attacking him? When did speaking freely, without inciting hate, become a punishable offense?

We can’t be afraid of dissent or voicing our opinions, or else we have lost freedom, lost democracy.