County Commissioner Tom Lowe had received permission for this rally, and local news and area bloggers all reported on the event noting the tasering of a disabled vet charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
Lowe and others have a website to document what actually happened that day citing the immense amount of intimidation they felt aimed in their direction. And despite fears of the local MPD that dangerous protestors would attend - it seems "they" did not attend, though some folks with actual tattoos were there.
Below are some pictures taken by event organizers, which show a huge armed law enforcement presence completely surrounding a cordoned off section of the county courthouse lawn -- and I can only imagine how large the cost of this deployment may actually be. Will the city charge the county for the cost? Will the state charge city or county?
Commissioner Lowe writes on the website there was a:
" ... a massive planned '“Over-Kill and overwhelming mass of “Homeland Security Toys'…..including an $ 800,000 Homeland Security Mobile Command Center with Satellite Communications & Digital Imaging, Critical Response Half-Track Tank, S.W.A.T. Teams in full body armor with loaded M-16 Rifles, Fire Trucks with unrolled hoses, K-9 Dog, Tenn. Highway Patrol (THP) Riot Squads ..."
The website has far more information to review. While you or I may disagree or agree with the viewpoints the participants attending this event wanted to express, it certainly appears their voices were silenced before they could even speak. Perhaps I am simply unaware of how dangerous this community has become, since we now need an armored urban police vehicle to maintain order.
Above pic shows the new armored vehicle
More pics here.
Now we know what Homeland Security is all about. Welcome to the New World Order.
ReplyDeleteWhere are all those "conservatives" who frothed at the mouth after Waco?
This really freaks me out.
ReplyDeleteit freaks me out too -- even though i do not agree with all the politics of this group, this response is pretty much prior restraint and if Lowe gets the right attorney, he's got one heck of a lawsuit.
ReplyDeletethen again, i have a view of civil rights that was developed prior to the current submission to Fear of Invisible Enemies.
I don't agree with the politics either, but I'm with you.
ReplyDeleteI like your last line there, Mr. Powell. I agree with it wholeheartedly.
WOW!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like the Quilt of Evil comes with a Kevlar lining.
Mo-town hasn't seen that much firepower since the infamous burning of Twilight in the mid 80's.
There's got to be a deeper story, here. Who got so freaked that they called in the Dogs of War? Were violent communiques intercepted? (Woops, ....Hi!, Mr. Agent of an Unnamed National Security Agency! How ya doin'?)
ReplyDeleteBe the ferret, Joe.......civil libertarian minds want to know!
If you're feelin froggy, push this - It could go national!
And they was using up all kinds of
ReplyDeletecop equipment that they had hanging around the police officer's station.
They was taking plaster tire tracks, foot prints, dog smelling prints, and
they took twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles
and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each
one was to be used as evidence against us. Took pictures of the approach,
the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that's not to
mention the aerial photography.
America where you can do what you want as long as you got the money to pay off the pigs.
My friend (we'll call her "Eve") works for Homeland Security in Morristown. When I talked to her about the military/police presence at the rally she told me, according to HS intelligence (is that an oxymoron?) the KKK and "other" para-military groups were there, undercover, and ready to stir up trouble. Seems the good guys wanted to be certain nothing got out of hand, so they came down en masse. That'll learn them so-called disabled veterans with pointy sticks. "Eve is a smart, educated and aware woman... but she bought into the whole military might thing. I'm so disapointed. Guess that happens when The Man spreads poison in your own back yard.
ReplyDeleteEve is not a smart, aware woman. and her being so is not the product of The Man spreading poison. Her outlook on the world is her own and belongs to her alone and is her responsibilty. Ann Coulter is a smart, educated, aware woman for what thats worth.
ReplyDeleteEve probably has cognitive dissonance which allows here to 'protect freedom" while intimidating its practictioners.
THe PowersThatBe knew well that this was a low key, peaceful gathering....it was set up by a county commissioner with the county mayor, permission given for the rally, then calls were made to Nashville and THP and rumors were deliberately given of violent disruptive forces "might" show up. Thereby using the same rational of the 9/11 can justify anything, the mayor got to play with all the newest homeland security toys and practice being important...war games for little boys (and girls) at the expense of local citizens and their rights....agree or not, it was major overkill and deserves repurcusions.
ReplyDelete