Its cool to protest bro (unless you’re actually protesting something)
Thank you, Emily. Hi everyone, I’m Alex. Now let’s get down to business…..
So yesterday, protesters gathered at the White House to make their feelings about Eric Holder known:
Too bad their protest was short lived, the Secret Service (known for what again? It certainly isn’t their meritorious security enforcement) ended it after less than an hour because of a “suspicious package.”
Flashback to a few weeks ago (gosh, its funny how awful the media’s short term memory is) when OccupyDC was FINALLY forced to clear out of McPherson Square after almost 9 months of protesting everything or nothing (don’t worry, they didn’t know either).
Now compare Occupy to the anti-Holder protest and it is painfully obvious the bias in the system. Want to get high, rape, stab, or poop on cop cars while throwing a tantrum that you have to pay back your student loans? Then you’re welcome to set up shop on federal property for as long as you like! But wait, you want to protest the President protecting a corrupt federal official who presided over Watergate with toetags and refused to prosecute racially motivated voter intimidation? Well, you best hit the bricks then!
How absolutely messed up is that? You want to protest actual corruption and you’re shown the door. We should all mail the Secret Service a copy of the Constitution with the First Amendment highlighted, circled, and underlined just so they don’t miss it this time…. assuming this administration even cares to read it.
PS: Someone please tell me how many “suspicious packages” were at Occupy protests nationwide.
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Barack Obama hates Vladimir Putin, doesn’t wear ties now.
TweetEmail TweetEmailThese men are clearly having the awesomest time at the G8 summit in -
The government hacked into Sharyl Attkisson’s computer, probably.
TweetEmail TweetEmail Technically, we don’t know that. But this is Friday and unless someone
Honest question – did the occupy wall street people camp in proximity to the white house? These folks seem to be in front of the white house where the secret service presumably have jurisdiction and a “package” could actually cause harm. Just wondering if that might be a factor in the differing response.
McPherson Square is ~2 blocks from the White House. I believe Secret Service has jx over the entire District and not just the White House or Capitol buildings. The SS has uniformed patrols all over the district so I assume they have (or at least share) jx.
To further prove the point, the Occupy movement nationwide has been widely known as law breakers not only when it comes to petty theft, battery, and vandalism but also sexual assault, drug trafficking, and even plotting to blow up a major bridge in Ohio. If the SS did not watch these guys carefully yet pounced on the anti-Holder protest at the first opportunity, there’s a serious problem in the way they operate (aside from their hooker and blow habit). Honestly, it seems like another case of a law enforcement agency using the guise of standard operating procedure to get rid of people who are voicing a message inconvenient to the administration. I imagine if the Occupy movement had a message counter to that of the sitting President instead of being squarely in his camp, the kid gloves would have come off and the Occupy kids would have been treated similarly to those protesting Holder here.
DC actually had two Occupy camps, one in McPherson Square and the other in Freedom Plaza, both a couple of blocks east of the White House. DC is known for its ridiculous number of overlapping police forces that are quick to abuse authority, yet the protesters were given a lot of slack. Even when they were in violation of existing laws, like the one that forbids camping in the parks, those laws were not enforced for months out of respect for the Occupiers 1st Amendment rights. They also blocked traffic, in defiance of the police, and created sanitation problems.
Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney compared them to Yogi Bear: “Like Yogi, the activists live cheerfully in national parks. They regularly get away with breaking the rules. Most of all, they drive the authorities batty.” If they had been speaking out against the administration it’s likely the Park Service, and every other law enforcement agency, would’ve reacted differently, and much more quickly. The incident with the Holder protestors may have been by the book, but it sure seems like the rules are only being enforced on one side.