As the nasty spectacle in the streets of Cairo has continued to unfold, I've noticed how indignant the American mainstream press and government has become. Report after report talks about the Egyptian police hiring thugs, the military standing by rarely lifting a finger and the fact that journalists are being attacked and detained. Though it has not been explicitly stated, the various commentators act as if these sorts of things only happen in desperate situations like that of Egypt.
I'm here to tell you that these sorts of shenanigans take place in the US quite frequently. All of these tactics occurred during the WTO protests in Seattle, Portland and across the country. They happened at the most recent Republican Convention in Minnesota. They routinely happen at anti-war protests. I've read about the testimony of other activists and I've witnessed some of this with my own eyes!
These strategies are not specifically tactics employed ONLY by dictators and despotic regimes; this is the general playbook that governments of all hues utilize in today's world. If you don't like the message of whomever is protesting for whatever reason, you try to a) shut them up, b) clamp down on independent reporting, and c) do your best to paint the protesters as violent, out-of-control, angry mobs.
This is not to suggest that I, in any way, support the overt suppression going on in Egypt right now. I merely want to point out that our government and mainstream media's holier-than-thou stance is quite ironic when one considers that these same tactics are employed in this nation routinely with little comment and a great lack of fanfare.
I'm here to tell you that these sorts of shenanigans take place in the US quite frequently. All of these tactics occurred during the WTO protests in Seattle, Portland and across the country. They happened at the most recent Republican Convention in Minnesota. They routinely happen at anti-war protests. I've read about the testimony of other activists and I've witnessed some of this with my own eyes!
These strategies are not specifically tactics employed ONLY by dictators and despotic regimes; this is the general playbook that governments of all hues utilize in today's world. If you don't like the message of whomever is protesting for whatever reason, you try to a) shut them up, b) clamp down on independent reporting, and c) do your best to paint the protesters as violent, out-of-control, angry mobs.
This is not to suggest that I, in any way, support the overt suppression going on in Egypt right now. I merely want to point out that our government and mainstream media's holier-than-thou stance is quite ironic when one considers that these same tactics are employed in this nation routinely with little comment and a great lack of fanfare.
Shit, we're supplying they with "made in USA" tear gas, among other crowd control stuff
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