NYPD, police
© Adam Lempel

We Don't Live In a Free Society:

I wrote an article over a month ago exposing the Obama administration's crackdown on civil liberties. The piece begins with the assertion that "the United States is still the freest country in the world." I was curious to see how readers would react. A number of people commented that such a statement is so delusional that they had to stop reading. At the time I thought they were perhaps overreacting. But after witnessing the state's crackdown on Occupy Wall Street it has become clear that they were right. We do not live in a free society.

Perhaps the most basic right in a democracy is, to quote the Constitution, "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." If we cannot do this we don't live in a real democracy. I've been aware that our democracy is a sham for some time. Prior to Occupy Wall Street I understood that our government has been completely hijacked by corporate interests, rendering the political process pure theatre. I had also been familiar with the fact that the state has cracked down on demonstrators on many occasions.

But my experience at Occupy Wall Street has served as a serious reality check about just how free our society is. The disproportionate police presence surrounding the rebellion exists for one reason - to intimidate us. Since day one, the state has sent an enormous supply of cops to monitor us, threaten us, arrest us, and beat us up. Well over 800 people have been arrested. And for what? For exercising their most basic right. Meanwhile, the criminals on Wall Street who have trashed the global economy, stolen trillions from the taxpayers in bailouts and continue to engage in the same speculative practices that got us into this mess have faced no retribution. The CEOs at Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and AIG have not been arrested. They continue to reap millions in bonuses and deferred stock options. And they use the state to send the cops out to crush resistance. JP Morgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the NYPD. Clearly, they approve of the brutality.

Continue reading this article on The Bloody Cross Roads.com.