Our country has evolved right before our very eyes into a police state.  Yes, a police state.  Many cringe at these words and deny their existence within our own country, but look at what has been going on.  Our First Amendment’s right to free speech and peaceful assembly is being blatantly denied.  City by city, camp by camp, the police are coming in armed for warfare and using violent tactics and pepper spray on completely unarmed individuals.  Where is our President during all this?  Until recently, I have fully supported Obama, but now, I have some serious doubts as to whether he is acting in behalf of the people of our country – or if he is acting in behalf of those people “behind the curtain” holding all the money and corruption – in other words, the Oligarchs.  Does our president need to be reminded of these very words he spoke by on January 28th in regards to the Egyptian Revolution?

According to NPR:

Protesters sitting on the ground supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement on Thursday, November 17th, on the campus of the University of California, Davis, took a face full of pepper spray at close range from an officer in riot gear in an incident that was captured on cellphone video and spread virally across the internet.

Under pressure to resign, the chancellor of the University of California, Davis, on Saturday called police use of pepper spray on seated Occupy protesters “chilling” and established a task force to look into the incident.

However, a law enforcement official who watched the clip called the use of force “fairly standard police procedure.”

In the video an officer dispassionately pepper-sprays a line of several sitting protesters who flinch and cover their faces but remain passive with their arms interlocked as onlookers shriek and scream out for the officer to stop.

The protest was held in support of the overall Occupy Wall Street movement and in solidarity with protesters at the University of California, Berkeley, who were jabbed by police with batons on Nov. 9th.

Here is the video taken from the Berkeley incident:

The UC Davis video images, which were circulated on YouTube and widely elsewhere online, prompted immediate outrage among faculty and students, with the Davis Faculty Association saying in a letter Saturday that Katehi should resign.

“The Chancellor’s role is to enable open and free inquiry, not to suppress it,” the faculty association said in its letter.

It called Katehi’s authorization of police force a “gross failure of leadership.”

At a news conference later on Saturday, Katehi said what the video shows is “sad and really very inappropriate.” The events surrounding the protest have been hard on her personally, but she had no plans to resign, she said.

“I do not think that I have violated the policies of the institution. I have worked personally very hard to make this campus a safe campus for all,” she said.

Charles J. Kelly, a former Baltimore Police Department lieutenant who wrote the department’s use of force guidelines, said pepper spray is a “compliance tool” that can be used on subjects who do not resist, and is preferable to simply lifting protesters.

“When you start picking up human bodies, you risk hurting them,” Kelly said. “Bodies don’t have handles on them.”

After reviewing the video, Kelly said he observed at least two cases of “active resistance” from protesters. In one instance, a woman pulls her arm back from an officer. In the second instance, a protester curls into a ball. Each of those actions could have warranted more force, including baton strikes and pressure-point techniques.

Are you kidding me???  These are excessive and unwarranted responses by the police.  A line of students sitting linking arms, a woman pulling back her arm from an officer, and another protester curling into a ball?  We have been witnessing this over and over again, especially recently with the Occupy Wall Street movement.  The first notable occurrence was when Officer Bologna pepper sprayed a female protester who was within the proper fenced off area and most certainly not showing any aggressive behavior.  What was Officer Bologna’s reprimand?  He loses ten days of vacation.  With this type of punishment, which most likely only came about due to the reaction of the public, it is no wonder our police continue on with their abusive behavior.  When mayors, chancellors, city council, etc. all give the okay for the police to do what they need to do against these non-violent protesters, all feigning a false concern over sanitary conditions (which, by the way, UC Davis is not a 24 camp, but merely a gathering of students in protest), then this also appears to support a police state situation.

What is a police state?  By definition (wikipedia):

The term police state describes a state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population. A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and social control, and there is usually little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive.

I have never wanted to say nor publish these words: “police state.”  But denial does not change the facts, and what is occurring now makes this definition sound pretty damn close to me.  Although, truthfully, this state is occurring not only as a reaction to the Occupy Movement, but as a whole across the country – although much of this is not directly apparent.  There are other ways we are being watched.  Right now, as I type this (and you read this), we are being watched. Not directly, meaning that no one is posted up directly monitoring us, but rather everyone on the internet is under surveillance.  The Patriot Act “Surveillance Procedures” made sure of this.  For example, there are key words that the “watchers” look for and when someone does enough searches with these key words, then red flags come up.  Another example are our cell phones.  All Androids, Smart Phones, iPhones, etc. come equipped with an active GPS system which tracks our location when turned on.  The companies selling their products tell us that the GPS is to enhance our online and social networking experience, but I question that.  Is this not a coverup excuse for a way of monitoring us?  If I want someone to know where I am, I will tell them.  I am completely opposed to the tracking of my location without my prior knowledge and consent.  When you went and bought your first internet phone, did the salesperson inform you of this built in GPS?  No one told me, and it recently came out publicly back in May.

No one in this country, especially myself, wants to admit this is going on.  Remember, we have grown up believing we are a free country.  Until recent incidences, I have always believed this.  Now I am beginning to question our own freedom.  I am beginning to believe that we are nothing more than puppets to be controlled by those within our own government and those globally whose primary purpose is power and greed.  Now that the Occupy Movement is bringing so many facts and statistics to light and people are now awakening and becoming aware, the Oligarchs are now concerned that their corrupt futures may be overthrown by the people.

At the very least, studying and understanding the numbers and statistics of the current state of our economy should be enough to wake one up.  The rich are becoming wealthier at a frightening rate, and all at the expense of the people.  The middle class IS disappearing.  Homes are being foreclosed upon all over the country.  Many homeowners now owe tens of thousands of dollars over what the current value of their home is.  Jobs are hard to find, and corporations revel in their profit rather than providing more jobs to the market to further stimulate the economy.  The Federal Reserve uses us all, including the government, like pawns on the chessboard of greed and corruption with dual goal of more profit and global control over all the countries in the world by making sure private banking institutions are erected worldwide.  Libya being the most recent installation of a country previously without a private bank.  If the world is all and entirely in debt to the Fed and private banking system, then they will take over full control.

Therefore, the wealthy are ruling our government, our mayors, our city council, etc are all both directly and indirectly controlling our police force.  The Occupy Movement is the most threatening group which has sprouted since the Oligarchs have gained control, and they want the movement silenced.  Just think about it…  the Tea Party is a group functioning in the shadow of the wealthy, the corrupt, major corporations, and most certainly, the Koch Brothers – who have a frightening amount of control throughout all systems.  Here is a photo comparison showing people attending a Tea Party gathering – in a public park – with many of them carrying firearms.  No police are present.  Yet, at Occupy protests, no one is armed, and the police use abusive measures to break up these protests.

We no longer function under a democracy.  This is obvious by the denial of our First Amendment.  We are now awakening to the fact we have been controlled by the Oligarchs for many years now, and they want the people to remain silent and do as they’re told, and believe what they tell us.

More photos from UC Davis.

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