THE REAL CRIME

COPS AND ROBBERS

A number of people, including the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, have noted that were it not for police brutality the Occupy movement would probably have wasted away by now, but, thanks to them, it hasn't. Which makes one wonder if the cops are working for the Robber Barons or for the OWS folk around the nation and world. The latest was the pepper spraying of some kids sitting on the U.C.Davis campus looking about as threatening as a pile of Play-Doh.

What's really freaky have been the efforts to justify the police action. In the U.C Davis case the police claim they were entrapped by the kids and “couldn't get away.” The video, however, makes that claim a lie. And one cop said it is normal procedure because, “bodies don't have handles” by which to lift them up and get them moving away. Gee, hands and arms make pretty good handles but the cop made no effort to yank them up. (Considering his obesity I guess he was just too fat to reach down over his beer belly.) Oakland is still “investigating” the cause of the blow that broke the skill of the former marine, and the NYPD cop known as “Tony Baloney” (aka: Anthony Bologna) has kept his badge after pepper spraying a young girl who was trying to move away as he directed, and so is the Seattle cop who assaulted an 84 year old woman.

A further defense of the use of excessive force has been based on allegations that the protestors were using drugs, peeing, or having sex. With regard to the first, the police have yet to report finding a “stash” in the encampments they raided and I have not seen any police photos of men urinating. (Hard to tell if a squatting women is.) As for sex, Gee if they did it in a tent and it was consensual it's not exactly a crime in the U.S. (Of course it is a “sin,” but the cops aren't supposed to be enforcing Biblical edicts.)

So, for now, all we can do is hope the cops keep up the violence – and pray they don't kill anybody. Meanwhile the new Robber Barons have begun to quake in the Gucci loafers.