Re: <nettime> Twitter Revolution made in USA: Tweet about the police, get arrested.

[Brian Holmes <brian.holmes@aliceadsl.fr>]

The degree of repression of civil dissent at the Pittsburgh G20 has
only one parallel that I know of: the same exact degree of abuse
at the Republican National Convention in St Paul last year. Police
forces (including huge numbers brought in from outside the city)
are coordinated with Emergency Operations Centers that can survey
everything from an integrated command-and-control post. They mandate
the use of Homeland Security techniques worthy of an Orwellian
dictatorship. The difference between St Paul and Pittsburgh is that
some new "less lethal" weapons were used this time:

http://tinyurl.com/less-lethal-than-what

Obviously the phrase is used to indicate that there are also
"more lethal" weapons. It's worth looking closely at this video
in particular, to see how a protester may be treated if s/he is
determined to be a national security threat (by whom? acting under
whose oversight? we will probably never know):

http://tinyurl.com/your-rights-in-USA

Finally, this blog post develops the same analogy with Iran as Felix
does:

http://tinyurl.com/Iran-as-the-trendsetter

I think that Gandhi-esque non-violent protest tactics will have to be
invented to gather together elements from the entire citizenry and
totally delegitimate our police state, otherwise it's curtains for
popular democracy. Sit back and enjoy your elected King for another
four years is the message! It's a shame, it has nothing to do with
what a majority of the people want or expect, and it is now standard
operating procedure in Amerikkka.

tears, BH







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