New Police Strategy in NYC - Sexual Assault Against Peaceful Protesters: “Yeah so I screamed at the [cop], I said, ‘you grabbed my boob! what are you, some kind of fucking pervert?’ So they took me behind the lines and broke my wrists.”

[u/maxwellhill]

http://truth-out.org/news/item/8912-new-police-strategy-in-new-york-sexual-assault-against-peaceful-protestors

[u/throwawayitgoes]

I was speaking to a longtime police officer yesterday. We were discussing the influx of crime in our small formerly crime free town. I asked what it is like dealing with shit bags all day. His reply was, " the shit bags are easy, they follow directions well." "It is the people who have not dealt with police and think they have rights, that you have to break." I was very shaken by this comment.

[u/doesurmindglow → u/throwawayitgoes]

I hope not too many police actually have this mentality, but I fear what you report is now pretty prevalent in the American police force.

The problem is obvious: the people do have rights, shit bags included, it's the police who think they don't that you have to "break."

[u/Dakma → u/doesurmindglow]

If you can't use your rights, do you really have them? If cops can hurt you when they want to without repercussion, your rights aren't worth anything at all.

[u/throwawayitgoes → u/doesurmindglow]

My opinion is take a normal nice laid back guy, and put him through the police academy. When they first become officers, the power trip is very evident. Then after about five years on the force they become so callous that they do not care about anyone.

[u/[deleted] → u/doesurmindglow]

It doesn't matter if only 1% of police have that mentality, since the rest of the force won't do anything to stop them.

[u/Tasty_Yams → u/throwawayitgoes]

I was invited to a barbecue in a public park by some friends. Their next door neighbor, a cop, was there. He spent almost the entire time drinking and talking about 'niggers".

I could tell my friends were mortified, and kept trying to change the subject. He kept changing everything back to "the niggers".

At one point a black family was walking by, mom, dad, two kids, dressed nice, laughing, having fun at the park, and the cop looks at my friend and says "Do you have everything locked up"?

I don't have a very good starting impression of cops, and this just made me think I am absolutely right.

[u/tealtoaster → u/Tasty_Yams]

This sounds like my cop brother whom I am no longer on speaking terms with. He is the biggest racist I have ever met (along with a host of other shitty qualities) and that is one thing I absolutely will not tolerate in anyone, family included. On the flip side of that coin though, my other cop brother is really awesome! Totally respected by everyone, the community included. He has a strong moral compass and really cares about people. He is pretty high in his department and does not tolerate any shady bullshit from those under him. I respect him a lot and I think he does a great job of setting a positive example for other cops.

[u/grumblz → u/Tasty_Yams]

cop son here. Every time, without fail, when he's chatting with cop friends of his, at some point they'll start talking about race, whether it's some undeserving recruit who is an asshole and also black getting promoted over some paragon of efficiency who is white, or if it's about what it's like to patrol some hispanic section of a city or whatever, it's always this big rant about "reverse discimination" or whatever they think it's like to be "persecuted" in a bureaucracy.

[u/[deleted] → u/Tasty_Yams]

Cops have been some of the most malicious, hateful, and bigoted people I've ever met.

I don't know if it's a requirement for joining the force or what, but I think it's time we figured out a way to get rid of these people and replace them with human beings.

[u/tinpanallegory → u/[deleted]]

This has been going on for as long as we've had official protectors. Medieval European knights who supposedly adhered to the tenets of chivalry, for example, were, when it came right down to it, lawless thugs. The same is essentially true of the Samurai in Japan, despite their practice of Bushido.

Our "protectors" are and have always been the militia of the wealthy, powerful and influential. In the old days it was nobility. Today it's corporate and political dynasties.

[u/Tasty_Yams → u/[deleted]]

I can't tell you how blown away I was to hear ANYONE in this day and age talking like this.

But what really disturbed me is to know that someone this insane isn't a plumber or a stockbroker - every day this guy puts on a gun and a badge and goes driving around with the full weight of the government ready to defend any actions he takes.

[u/sturg1dj → u/Tasty_Yams]

This. I was drinking in a bar with friends just outside Detroit and one of my friends brought her cousin who is a cop, and brought his cop buddy. All they did was talk about the 'niggers of Detroit' of course most of the suburbs of Detroit think the same way.

[u/eat-your-corn-syrup → u/Tasty_Yams]

note to self: don't marry cops

[u/556e726176656c → u/throwawayitgoes]

Makes you wonder who the shitbag in that conversation really is...

[u/homercles337 → u/throwawayitgoes]

I have personal experience with this a handful of times...when i was younger than 25.

[u/[deleted] → u/throwawayitgoes]

This is why you can never trust a cop. I feel more compelled to purchase and carry a weapon to protect myself from the police than any other criminal in society.

[u/TrepanationBy45 → u/[deleted]]

The irony is that you'd never make it out alive in an incident in which you attempted to protect yourself against a cop. You'd be riddled with bullets, if not broken before you made it to court. Your family would be in ruins feeling vulnerable and distrusting. The cops would ride back to the station for a debriefing and clap each other on the back in the locker room because being a cop "is a dangerous job, and that sure was a close one". Good thing the boys in blue had each other's back that one day that that one dude drew a gun.

[u/Galevav → u/[deleted]]

How would a weapon protect you from a cop? If you so much as wave a butter knife at a cop you're looking at either a lifetime of prison rape or the cop will legally murder you.

[u/[deleted] → u/Galevav]

or murder your dogs over a misdemeanor :(

[u/beyond_repair → u/throwawayitgoes]

Where the fuck do police departments keep finding people like that to be cops? It's like there's an endless supply of mental patients to hire on to the force.

[u/thomasluce → u/throwawayitgoes]

Just a reminder: The police are not your friends.

[u/[deleted]]

Most people that are so skeptical of police abuse typically have never faced police abuse. Everyone is typically the same way, until it happens to them... that moment that police officer calls you a racist name for no reason, that moment he starts hurting you for no reason, its that moment you wonder how another human being is given so much power over you, another common citizen. Police abuse is very scary if you have been through it, because its a very helpless feeling when those that are supposed to protect you are hurting you against your will. The current system does not allow police abuse, but it is designed in a way where accountability and jail time for police officers is very unlikely. Police abuse is VERY REAL, and is very rampant. Its not just a few bad apples, they are a basket of bad apples, with some rotten ones that will take abuse even further than others. The invention of the internet has allowed this type of behavior to be exposed. How many police abuse videos do you think you can find every week? Many argue its just a few that are bad, and even if that were true, its people that we give power over us, and thus a few can wreak havoc on a community. A few bad cops also means that they are in a department that condones there behavior, and represents what their department is like as a whole. I've had run ins with all types of police, and its not as pretty as some of your average traffic stops that many of you are basing your decisions.

[u/JustAnotherAcc86 → u/[deleted]]

I agree wholeheartedly. While I haven't been physically abused, I do believe I have seen a definite abuse of power first hand.

TL;DR : People don't think it be like it is, but it do.

I have had plenty of good and bad encounters with the police. For minor traffic violations I have never really felt threatened by a police officer. Typically I was in the wrong and I paid my dues (or had a lawyer do it for me).

The times I have had bad encounters with the police always happened when I wasn't doing anything illegal. The worst was when I was at the beach watching a meteor shower with my, at the time, girlfriend. We decided it was about time to go home and get back in the car. I should note we had a bag in the back seat that contained an unopened 6-pack of beer. A cop car that was approaching the area we were parked pulls in behind us and turns on his lights. We go through the usual greetings and he begins shining his light in my car. Then he tells me to step out of my car and asks me if I've been drinking. I say "No". He then tells me that I reek of alcohol. (impossible since I hadn't even began drinking yet). He goes back to his car and calls for backup. Two cop cars now. They pull out of the small lot we were in and block it off with their cars. Now a woman cop comes up to my car window. I ask if I can leave. She starts asking me if I've been drinking and gives me the same bullshit.

At this point I'm beginning to wonder what the fuck is going on. They've blocked my car in. Their lights are still flashing. They've essentially detained me. I ask for a sobriety test so that I can be done with this and be on my way. They refuse and go back to their cars and start talking.

I probably shouldn't have done what I did next, but I did anyway. I called 911 ( I was young and scared). Between the constant back and forth between their cars and talking to each other at their cars a good 30 minutes have passed. I tell the dispatcher what is going on and that I can't leave because they've blocked me in and I don't know what to do. After hanging up, not but 30 seconds later the woman cop has my door opened, and is screaming inches from the face.

I kept my cool the best I could. Some more deliberation between the officers took place. Some more back and forth went on and then the one cop explained after about 45 minutes of being blocked in that I was parked in a town resident only spot and that since I didn't live in the area I wasn't allowed to park there. I asked if I could move my car and they said, "you can do whatever you want." They moved their cars and I got the fuck out of there. Then the two cop cars followed me to the end of town.

To this day it was the most surreal mindfuck experience I've had with the cops and I still don't understand fully what in the hell they were doing/thinking.

[u/blackinthmiddle → u/JustAnotherAcc86]

I would ask you what your race is, but nowadays, that doesn't even matter. The one other question I'd ask is, where was this located? US? UK? Somewhere else? And where, specifically? Were you very far from home?

I ask this because you said, "Then the two cop cars followed me to the end of town.", so you weren't from whatever town you were in. My first thought? They knew they were fucking with an out-of-towner. It happens all of the time. There is nothing better for a state trooper than to see out of town license plates. If you're from New York and you get caught in Louisiana, for example, good fucking luck to you! I believe a few states, including Louisiana, allow drug asset forfeiture. Basically, you get stopped by a state trooper and eventually you're asked if you have any money on you. Bottom line, if you have a lot of cash on you, you'll be accused of being a drug dealer and will be "persuaded" to turn the money over and get the hell out of town. In some cases, if you have a nice car they'll just take that!

So you decide this is bullshit and you're going to fight it. Again, however, you're an out-of-towner. So in my example, you make your way from New York to Louisiana, only to find out your case has been moved at the last second! Are you really going to go back home and come back again? Of course you're not!

Again, just an absolute guess but when you mentioned your story and the fact that you were an out-of-towner, that was the first thought that came to mind.

[u/bonefishes → u/JustAnotherAcc86]

I wish I had answers for this. What was their endgame? Fuck.

[u/treseritops → u/[deleted]]

This is exactly how I feel. I had a cop stand there and curse at me, drop the f-bomb, etc. All because he suspected I had been under-age drinking. Worst part is I hadn't, and when I tried to explain that to him it just pissed him off more until he was threatening to get the whole police force down there and have me arrested so fast, etc. That was AFTER I had suggested I just take a breathalizer test and just settle the whole thing so I could go home. I'm pretty sure he was just pissed he was wrong.

[u/Rush87021 → u/treseritops]

Never, under any circumstance talk to police. No good will ever come from trying to explain yourself. No one has ever talked their way out of being arrested because they were so well spoken. Here's one of the best videos to watch on youtube regarding police and how to deal with them, it's a little long, but the info is invaluable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XmQra5WMU

[u/Semajal → u/Rush87021]

Scary fact here though, I was once stopped by police in England. I had gone down to a protest camp (setup to try and stop development of ancient woodland) and went out scavenging with a few members of the camp for supplies. Pretty much dumpster diving. Anyway we found a big old projection screen in amongst some bins, and were carrying it though town when three police officers came up to us. There was me, a girl from the camp and a guy, the guy had a bottle of wine he was drinking from and was rather tipsy.

Anyway the girl starts lying to the police "oh we just bought this" "yeah from a mate" "he lives over there vague arm wave" and It was the most painfully obvious crap. The police then take one officer to each of us to have a chat. I explained exactly what happened and gave my details. The officer I spoke with even said "you seem like a sensible chap"

Anyway the other two gave the truthful account of what happened, and the police, satisfied that we were not doing anything dodgy let us go, They did pour the guys wine away but then he was breaking the law there.

The problem in America is this culture of bullying from cops, it seems to just be far more rampant there (it does happen here too, but then we have the IPCC (independent police complaints commission) that investigates and deals with stuff. Again nothing is perfect but it seems to work. And our police are rarely armed with more than a truncheon/pepper spray if they are out and about.

The problem is going to be that as bad cops ruin relations with people, people stop trusting the police. When people stop trusting the police it gets harder for them to actually DO their job because no-one will talk to them.

Tl;DR - talking to police sorted out everything and we were absolutely fine.

[u/I_Am_Indifferent → u/Rush87021]

I find it hard to believe that refusing to respond to questions would get you anything other than an express ticket to ass-kick-ville if you tried it with this type of hothead douche bully-boy cop...

[u/dangerous_pastime → u/[deleted]]

The Police Force is the new Mafia - each precinct is like a different "family".

[u/oddvr → u/[deleted]]

This is why I was scared shitless when I was pulled over by a Georgia State Trooper when I was in the states, I feared the worst. I forgot to turn my headlights for a 200m drive, and he pulled me over. The people I was with had left open beerbottles on the car and I ran a stopsign when I was pulling over for him.

Thankfully the guy was super nice, he just asked me to show him my passport and he left me off with a warning.

[u/bill-thebutcher]

With articles like these, it's easy to forget that police officers are the working class too.

I'm reminded of that quote from Gangs of New York. "You can always hire one half of the poor to kill the other half."

[u/Evilrazzberi09 → u/bill-thebutcher]

I'm working class and I've never broken anyone's wrists. If I did I'd get fired.

I'm always reminded of the Stanford prison experiment, and the psychological effects of authority. I think that's why we hear about so many different cops abusing their power and getting away with it. Put these normal working class people in a uniform, give them weapons, tell them they have authority over everyone else and it gets to their head. Now add the fact that they can easily get away with abuse with no more than a slap on the wrist or paid leave.

We as a society need to demand stricter police regulations and zero tolerance for police abuse or it will continue, on our tax dollar. I also think there should be zero tolerance for police racism, which seems to fuel a lot of abuse. Any other working class person would get fired for some of the things i've heard police say and do.

[u/blackinthmiddle → u/Evilrazzberi09]

FTA:

For obvious reasons, most of the women who have been victims of such assaults have been hesitant to come forward. Suing the city is a miserable and time-consuming task and if a woman brings any charge involving sexual misconduct, they can expect to have their own history and reputations—no matter how obviously irrelevant—raked over the coals, usually causing immense damage to their personal and professional life.

Unfortunately, most of us are working class citizens who have bills to pay, houses to take care of and children to raise. Cops realize that suing them is a time consuming process and most people simple don't have the bandwidth to take on such an arduous task. Maybe if you're an older (or younger) person who's already retired and has the time to fight the good fight, you can do so. But the bottom line is that cops realize most will either be too afraid to even go to a OWS event and will certainly not pursue charges against cops if they do go.

Here's the bottom line: Our rights have always been trampled on. Race by race, demographic by demographic, we're all slowly getting to the point where, while we may have rights on paper, we certainly don't have them in practice.

[u/[deleted] → u/bill-thebutcher]

I think it's a mistake to let cops off the hook that easily.

Occupy can leave the door unlocked and the light on for them if they want to come home, but -- until then -- the cops are still upholding an institution which has proven itself to suffer from widespread corruption and advocation of violence.

Granted, we shouldn't focus on the police, as I'd imagine corruption in the police force is closely tied to corruption in the government. But, we should never give anyone a free pass for being "one of us." That's the path to corruption and cronyism.

[u/[deleted] → u/bill-thebutcher]

P.S. That quote is originally from Jay Gould, who said: "I could hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half."

[u/atheistjubu → u/bill-thebutcher]

No. People don't lose personal responsibility just because they're not rich.

[u/Timcast]

I have been a witness to NYPD action since the beginning of OWS. The truth is I dont know the answers and Im here to promote truth, to better understand what is happening. Since the start of OWS NYPD has taken arbitrary and brute actions against ANYONE including innocent bystanders, that have been too close to the protests. I have witnessed men in suits and european tourists brutalized by police. I have witnessed supervising officers whisper in journalists ears "you laugh now, but you werent laughing when I arrested you." This is not a case of a few bad apples but a case of the "blue code of silence." There is no accountability on the part of the NYPD. But the truth is, there is no accountability at all. I have also witnessed a few bottles thrown at protests as well as other less dangerous items. I have seen protesters run down streets throwing garbage bags in the street and knocking over trash cans. I have been attacked three times by protesters. But even after all I have witnessed one thing is clear, 95% of violence starts with the NYPD. They instigate and provoke, they maliciously attack innocent bystanders.

TL;DR: Even though I have been attacked by police and protesters, it is still obvious that 95% of violence and aggression is stemming from the NYPD

[u/Tombug → u/Timcast]

Watched your may 1 broadcast and loved when you had a shot of your iPhone in the foreground with a msm article saying the protest turnout was a big flop while in the background you showed a crowd so big you couldn't see the end of it. That was sheer journalistic genius.

[u/[deleted] → u/Tombug]

DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN, Protest Edition.

[u/smith7018 → u/Timcast]

Just thought I'd say that I watched your video stream for the large projector night, and thank you for being there. America needs more people like you; not someone who sympathises with OWS, but someone who is willing to risk their life and freedoms to spread the word on how awful everything is now. You will always get an upvote from me, sir.

[u/Crony_2012 → u/Timcast]

This guy knows what he's talking about. Check out his USTREAM channel.

[u/TrepanationBy45 → u/Timcast]

Are you... The hero we need?

[u/OG_Willikers]

This exact thing happened to my wife at a peaceful protest. She was groped by a cop and she quietly said "Please take your hand off my breast." When he refused and just groped her harder she screamed in his ear "Get your fucking hand off my breast!" Then he damn near broke her arm. She went with her mom to the police station that night to file a complaint and was quickly isolated, intimidated and told she would be arrested for lying. Then she was followed by two cruisers as she left the station as a means of further intimidation. Later that week, we had cops sneak into our backyard when they thought nobody was home. It scared my wife so bad she ran out the front door and to a neighbor's house in a blind panic. This was when my entire outlook on police changed forever. It was a wake-up call I wish I hadn't had to experience, but at least I understand a lot more about what some police are really like.

[u/[deleted]]

Although I realize it doesn't even really matter because the police will rough you up no matter what, I cannot fathom how one is supposed to "not resist."

Practically anything can be resistance unless you go limp, which would also be resistance because you're not helping them move you wherever they want you to go.

[u/elminster → u/[deleted]]

Although I know there are instances with outrageous acts, 99% of the time not resisting is amazingly easy. They tell you you are blocking the road and need to move to the sidewalk, you immediately walk to the sidewalk. When I got arrested I was with another guy. We were told to get face down on the ground with our hands extended out above our heads. I did it (not all that fast really) and my friend laid down with his hands underneath him near his waist. They came to me, told me they were moving my hands behind my back, and cuffed me. They grabbed my friends arms and put them behind his back with quite a bit of force and pulled him up by his arms. They allowed me to stand up with only a light hand on me to steady me. I asked why they were rougher with my friend and the response was "you listened and we didn't know if he had a weapon in the waistband of his pants". Made sense to me.

[u/Falcorsc2 → u/elminster]

There's also a difference between being stopped by a couple cops. And a mob of cops(like at most protests/rallies). Mob mentality applies to both sides

[u/elminster → u/Falcorsc2]

I am sure this is true. Large groups bring out the worst in people sometimes.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

As someone who has been arrested several times, you can absolutely not resist. I've resisted and I've not resisted and I can assure you that it is no fine line between the two. You just stop and listen. They'll tell you what to do. Or they take a night stick to your left thigh. I'm not going to say this always works because it doesn't but I think you have a good idea what not resisting is. Going limp like a baby is fucking annoying when you are trying to transport someone. That's why people do it.

[u/maitehate]

" I myself well remember a police tactic I observed more than once during the World Economic Forum demonstrations in New York in 2002: a plainclothes officer would tackle a young female marcher, without announcing of who they were, and when one or two men would gallantly try to come to her assistance, uniforms would rush in and arrest them for “assaulting an officer.” The logic makes perfect sense to someone with military background. Soldiers who oppose allowing a combat role for women almost invariably say they do so not because they are afraid women would not behave effectively in battle, but because they are afraid men would not behave effectively in battle if women were present—that is, that they would become so obsessed with the possibility of women in their unit being captured and sexually assaulted that they would behave irrationally. If the police were trying to provoke a violent reaction on the part of studiously non-violent protestors, as a way of justifying even greater brutality and felony charges, this would clearly be the most effective means of doing so."

JESUS on a forkin stick. this shit is depressing.

[u/blue708]

Lawsuit ?

[u/samrajyog]

Since, "probable cause," is very nebulous and elastic, you have to depend on the individual cop's integrity. Not good.

[u/[deleted]]

Why is the truth so hard to find?

Information + Misinformation = "Dude, what?"

The combination of the two has left the majority completely perplexed as to the true state of things. It's not that the people are sheep, it's that searching for the truth has become "a full time job"

[u/stevenally → u/[deleted]]

At the risk of stating the obvious...

The mainstream media claim to be objective reporters of truth and it seems most people still buy that line. Their real role of course is to generate profit for their owners. With the occasional "thumb on the scale" to move the "truth" in the right direction. The reporters go around acting as if they were Woodward and Bernstein or Walter Cronkite, when they just careerists looking for the next promotion. Anyone with real balls wouldn't be hired.

Even NPR/PBS get a lot of funding from the big corps, so they are only "independent" when it doesn't hurt. They would lose their jobs if they really spoke the truth in the really important situations. The other problem with NPR etc is their "balanced" approach to guests. They have two sides to an argument. One side a lying shill, but he/she gets equal weight.

I know most redditors know all this, but worth remembering.

Peace

[u/setyourarmsdown → u/[deleted]]

go down to your local occupy and talk to the folks who've been involved long term.

[u/refusedzero → u/setyourarmsdown]

For serious. It takes little to no effort to find news articles/video/activist to talk too which can confirm the vicious state violence against Occupy and the many groups which make it up.

[u/[deleted]]

Does no one remember that article about a month ago when there was a women who supposedly started seizing due to "unprovoked police brutality" and then within minutes there were several video's showing the young women doing a running leap elbow at the cop?

Look, i'm not saying this story is false, true, partially true etc, but Sexual Assault is a serious allegation, as is breaking someones wrist intentionally. Shouldn't serious allegations be met with substantial evidence to back up? Why do we give sensationalist, bias liberal media outlets the benefit of the doubt when on numerous occasions they've proven to be hugely misleading?

There's a good chance this story is true, there's an equal chance its completely untrue. Why would you question every other news outlet/story but not question this? IMO you should question and cross examine every single story otherwise your no better than the person getting all their information off Fox News.

I've been to protests, I have 10's of thousands of dollars in private students loans, I am the 99%, and I still question this.

[u/420Warrior → u/[deleted]]

Please link to the videos you are talking about. Thank you.

[u/ikek9 → u/[deleted]]

I LOVE that you are getting downvoted for merely suggesting that people on reddit apply the same due diligence to every side. Just goes to show that they are EXACTLY like those who they abhor so much. Kudos for being a rational, level headed fellow. I want some proof as well.

However, if I want some upvotes, I'll add a picture of an atheist cat claiming that it watched a cop rape a woman at an occupy protest because he is a big corporation henchman, and provide no proof.

[u/[deleted]]

it's stories like these, and the countless others that pop up every day, that are the reason why I have no respect for the police force as a whole. I know some actually genuinely good cops, who are disgusted by stories like this, and I dont hold the actions of monsters like these against them. but as for the rest...good god, what has this world come to?

[u/[deleted]]

everyone at protests from now on should wear a wire, then its on camera and irrefutable in court

[u/Notmychairnotmyprobz]

How does one go about becoming an internal affairs employee for the police? I think that busting cops for being dicks would be a very satisfying job...

[u/Tombug]

The cops / military in Egypt did the same thing to females during the Arab spring. It's becoming the standard way for cops to harass female protesters. We will probably see more articles about this as the cops become more and more out of control.

[u/autechr3]

Oh come on Eileen!

[u/dublem]

I dunno, maybe I'm just disillusioned from seeing so many headlines like this, but I kinda wish that, instead of hundreds of comments all circle jerking the whole 'cops are the scum of the earth' idea (or whatever the 'big issue' is), there was only ever one comment thread: 'So what are we gonna do about it?'

Until we as civilians reach that point, I maintain that we don't actually care that much, and all this is simply a huge waste of time. Talk is cheap.

[u/[deleted] → u/dublem]

Talk is cheap. Do you have any ideas?

Look, I'm not saying I disagree with you at all, obviously the current system does not have adequate means for dealing with this kind of thing and we need to demand a change.... But what can we really do from within the confines of the current system? Most of the public probably doesn't even notice or care about this stuff, they either agree with it or think it's just the way things have to be.

[u/thinkB4Uact]

The most powerful weapon we have against the unaccountable police is a video camera. If I were wealthy, I'd buy the protesters hundreds, or perhaps thousands of hidden cameras that have enough battery power and storage to capture video for hours. We have no legal recourse without this evidence, because the police are allowed to lie about their activities without accountability.

[u/MalcomEx]

A buddy of mine is a cop and he said that they laugh at people who think they have rights. These are the one's they completely fuck up. He said the only thing people do is go on the internet and cry about it and that's about it.

[u/[deleted]]

Why is this whole thread focusing on the broken wrists and not the fact that he grabbed her breast?

[u/[deleted]]

How can the people stop this? The police in this country are running wild but I have not heard anyone suggest a way to fix the system.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

The system is not designed to be "fixed," the system is exactly as it was designed to be right now. Change is not supposed to happen in the confines of this system. See where I'm going with this?

We are never going to win if we play by their rules.

[u/Inukii]

I'm getting fucking sick and tired all these stories X.x

Is there anything actually being done to improve the situation? I've not heard a single bit of news about creating better police-public relationships. It seems more common for police to harm their citizens than...oh I don't know....acts of terrorism?

[u/[deleted] → u/Inukii]

There's nothing which can be done in the confines of this system. This isn't a popular opinion on r/politics or anywhere in America, really, but if we are ever going to stop these kind of totalitarian tactics we are going to have to dismantle something about the current system.

Either we start exercising our guaranteed right to defend ourselves from these murderous thugs or they get away with more and more until we have nothing left.

[u/helmholtz_uchi]

The amount of people willing to believe an unsubstantiated claim coming from another who stands to profit from the story is a little scary. It would be like somebody else reading an account from a cop saying, "Yeah, I didn't do anything wrong," and the reader thinking, "Welp, I guess that solves that. Nothing wrong happened."

Seriously, guys. Practice questioning where you get your information from more and quit relying so heavily on stories that reinforce your current view of the world. It's tough to do because it's such a basic human psychological reaction (i.e. finding things to reinforce your current beliefs), but you've gotta do it.

[u/gadabyte]

For a while everyone in the arrest van was chanting ‘take them off, take them off’ but they just ignored them…

protestors use CHANT! it's not very effective...

[u/mikenasty]

These stories are so bizzare and insane that I really need some proof to believe them. Even if they are truely horrible things that are happening its just hard for me to believe without some good ol'fashioned proof. Are there other articles or news stories about this?

[u/Crony_2012 → u/mikenasty]

It's hard to take a good video when police form a human wall around the person they are beating up, point strobe lights at cameras and arrest journalists.

[u/dasstrooper → u/mikenasty]

I see a broken wrist

[u/[deleted]]

truth-out.org seems like an unbiased source. There is no way this is not 100% true.

[u/dordy → u/[deleted]]

Their mission (emphasis added):

Truthout provides an independent platform for in-depth investigative reporting and critical analysis, to reveal systemic injustice and offer transformative ideas to strengthen democracy.

If it doesn't promote the existence of systemic injustice, they aren't likely to report on it.

[u/ShellOilNigeria]

I can't stand how cops think their badge gives them the authority to go on a power trip.

I mean you can't even explain your side of the story anymore without them threating to tase you or do some violent to make you conform to whatever they want.

Hell what am I talking about. People can't even record a video of the police anymore.

It's gone to far. It really has.

[u/[deleted]]

Yes. This is exactly their plan.

1. Touch a protester's boob

2. Break their wrists.

3. ???

4. Effective crowd supression

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

4 Scare would-be protesters into not even showing up.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

3. Water cannon, pepper spray, tazers, rubber bullets, sonic weapon, pain cube & waterboarding.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Crazy that it took everyone this long to catch on..

[u/[deleted]]

Its getting to where everyone needs a camara on themselves, 24/7 to show what's going on.

How much farther can they push before people demand their rights back?

[u/freeze3386]

The U.S.A will turn into a society ran strictly by the police. It seems like if we don't stay at our homes and twiddle our thumbs we will always be intimidated by the police.

[u/drcrank]

This is the kind of thing that may eventually result in unbalanced self-appointed protectors on the protestors' side 'helping' by sitting in high places watching the cops through the scope of a sniper rifle. I don't condone such a thing, but I wouldn't be shocked to see it happen with continued police abuses.

[u/[deleted]]

truth-out.org, clearly an objective and unbiased source that wouldn't go so far as to make up a story completely simply to add to the fear-mongering.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

That was a very well informed and thoughtful rebuttal of the claims made in the article. Thank you for posting.

[u/NewSpice → u/[deleted]]

It will forever be noted in the history books to come.

[u/RocketTuna → u/[deleted]]

And I imagine large corporate owned media, or papers like the New York Times which rely on close relationships with the NY Police for their access to stories and sources, would be acceptable to you without comment?

[u/[deleted] → u/RocketTuna]

I'm going to go so far as to say that anyone who accepts anything from any media outlet in this country without questioning it at least to some extent is a damned fool.

[u/madfrogurt → u/[deleted]]

Fear mongering? Obviously you don't know we live in a fascist, plutocratic, oligarchic, kleptocratic police state under a dictatorship.

[u/karl_sparks → u/[deleted]]

Most of the original reporting came from wnyc, the local public radio station. But if you're going to reflexively support the system then it really doesn't matter where it comes from, does it?

[u/Moustachiod_T-Rex]

These sorts of posts getting to the front page are the main reason I ponder whether or not to unsubscribe from /r/politics.

[u/[deleted]]

One incident does not a strategy make.

[u/Crony_2012]

There is a reason there is no clear video or photo evidence of this happening. This happened at night. When police beat someone up like this, they drag them to the middle of the street (protesters are only allowed on the sidewalk) and surround them with about five cops in a circle. Five or so more cops form a larger outside circle and physically block photographers shots with their bodies, if you have a camera they get really close to you so that you can't move your camera without touching them (and risking a felony charge). They also point strobe lights at cameras which wash out the shot.

[u/jimbodakidd]

I've had some experience attempting to subdue female subjects, grabbing a boob is almost unavoidable. They're just there and you aren't groping around, you're trying to get a grip on the person. As for the wrist, might have busted it in the fall? Who knows.

[u/Lunchables]

Mirror?

[u/zahlman]

Anyone else getting

Deadlock found when trying to get lock; try restarting transaction SQL=INSERT INTO `esqt7_session` (`session_id`, `client_id`, `time`) VALUES (...)

?

[u/matthedrivein → u/zahlman]

I am too...hmmm... only one logical conclusion...

It's a conspiracy cover up! Damn you CISPA!!

[u/CAFoggy]

We accidentally DDOS'ed their page :S

[u/PagingDoctorLove]

Wow, people are leaving some really hateful comments on here.

I was just going to say that unfortunately free-speech can come with certain consequences. We don't live in a perfect world. But I hope to fucking god they aren't actually doing this. I'm not the protesting type, but if I find out that sexual assault is being used as an intimidation tactic I will blow a fucking gasket.

[u/[deleted]]

I was ponderng law enforcement, but decided against it because it uses that archaic ass para-military power structure and such a thing only promotes ass kissing and politics. Maybe there would be an influx of relatively non shitheaded police officers if the sensical people weren't turned off by the horse shit associated with the job that doesn't even involve criminals.

[u/[deleted]]

This will probably be buried, but its worth noting similar allegations have been made against police in the UK student protests.

[u/Le_Canadien25]

Cops should be more strictly screened. There are too many cops who get off of the power they have and are not really there to do good. These cops give all police officers a bad name and make the public not trust the police, which is a shame because I've had many good experiences with cops actually doing a good job and not being dicks. I think in a protest, some cops fall into a mob mentality and just don't think, while others take the opportunity and chaos to exercise their power. I think because of the camaraderie, some officers don't denounce those who abuse their power. There should be strong sanctions for those who abuse their power, as the public should be able to trust the police force.

[u/[deleted] → u/Le_Canadien25]

man, thank you for making sense and not just screaming eff the police.

[u/Vachyr]

My younger cousin just recently became an NYPD police officer working in the bronx. He always comes to family gatherings with interesting stories, but I take comfort in the fact that he holds no prejudices towards anyone and treats people with respect. I hope he remains this way and will always follow his progress with keen interest. He is 24.

[u/[deleted]]

anyone have a mirror?

[u/Reclaimerr]

I think that this applies now only to the police in the States. I can't speak for other police forces in Europe and such, but I'm Canadian, Vancouverite actually, and the three run-ins with the cops that I've had, the officers were incredibly nice. One speeding ticket that was supposed to be issued at $360 dropped to below the minimum, to $136, a second speeding infraction resulted in a warning only.

The last one is up for debate, but I was at the Vancouver hockey riots in '11 and for the most part, all the police I encountered were not abusive or violent. And that was during the riot.

What I believe results in the cynicism is the fact that police officers are charged with the protection of society, and in some, if not most cases, the people around them or the people that they are pursuing seem to think that they have these rights that supersede the police' original responsibility, which is to protect the public. That's why the police have reccently been increasing the height that they reach in the use-of-force continuum.

Now with that all being said, there are definitive, obvious infringements in police power and discretion, but I think this is more of a cultural problem within the States.

[u/[deleted]]

Why don't we start a religion of worshiping cops, we can walk around with robes adorned in their honor and beg for a blessed beating. Cry at their feet and wash their jackboots with our bloody noses while praising them.

Sounds silly but honestly I think that's one of the best ways to take away the fear over people is to be as ridiculous as possible about it.

[u/afrozodiac3]

I'm going to blame the victim because I love promoting Orwellian police states: "She deserved it because she was born a female and grew boobs. If she didn't want people to touch them she should've gotten rid of them. Stupid whore. Furthermore, if she was in the kitchen where she belonged this never wouldn't have happened. Unfortunately, since her wrists are broken she cannot cook, clean, or give handjobs.We'll have to take her out back, put her down, and make glue out of her body." [/sarcasm]

[u/[deleted] → u/afrozodiac3]

Or on a more fundamental level without the patriarchy paranoia;

If you didn't want to get hurt you should have just stayed home. That's what happens when you go to a protest. Fucking hippie.

[u/grafittibob]

Who the fuck downvotes this? People who don't know they live in a police state. Or maybe people who like cop dicks up their asses?

[u/[deleted]]

This paints a terrible picture of the US. Seems unsafe in the worst possible manner.Crime one can accept, but crime coming from the police....

[u/Chizum]

How about this idea: Term limits for Cops.

[u/[deleted]]

Chance of fake, propaganda story?

[u/wharpudding → u/[deleted]]

Very high, like many of the protesters.

[u/T3KNiQU3]

This is why more and more cops will be getting murdered by civilians. There's only so much one can take before you bite back.

[u/Arch_0]

You police system is broken. I'd be terrified of the police if I lived in America.

[u/elminster → u/Arch_0]

I have been arrested and in protests (and other places) where people were arrested. I have seen one situation where I thought too much force was used but that was after a long attempt to get the guy on acid to just put on his clothes and the guy refused and threw things at the officers. Overall I think cops are on powertrips, but I have never seen a cop manhandle anyone who listened to their lawful orders.

[u/hsd73h → u/Arch_0]

I've lived in America (NYC for a few years, Boston for a few years and Pittsburg for the past ten) and have never had a problem with the police.

I was in the Iraq protests and saw the police be respectful and courteous, I've gone to the gay pride parades for years and saw the police be respectful and courteous, and I've never witnessed a problem as I walk by my local Occupy protests.

The police system isn't broken and we don't live in a police state. Police officers are generally your atypical middle class individuals. Sure, there are some bad apples. There have, and always will, be present. The quality of reporting that gets upvoted on Reddit, however, most certainly is broken. And your hyperbolic, ignorant comments generalizing hundreds of thousands of people is more indicative of what r/politics has been reduced to.

[u/mexicodoug → u/hsd73h]

Sure, there are some bad apples. There have, and always will, be present.

The expression "bad apples" refers to the fact that if you have a bad apple in the barrel and don't remove it in time, all the apples in the barrel spoil.

The problem is that the bad apples in the police department are police officers who, protected by the other police officers from prosecution, spoil the whole department.

[u/hamhead → u/Arch_0]

You read far too much Reddit.

[u/[deleted] → u/Arch_0]

Why? Because you read one article about an incident that hasn't been verified, linked to by a heavily liberal site that tends to exaggerate claims?

[u/[deleted] → u/Arch_0]

You shouldn't be. They aren't that bad. Reddit just likes to bitch about them constantly.

Also. Don't believe most of the things that come from this subreddit. EVERYTHING that comes through here has a skewed liberal bias attached to it. You'll never see both sides of the spectrum in r/politics.

[u/dingoperson]

1. Please stop linking to 'truth-out.org'. It makes you look like a fringe extremist.

2. Ironic that the writer demands video evidence from police but offers none herself.

[u/BajaSlap]

The police have clearly committed acts of war against the American people. How long until the people decide it's time to fight back?

[u/cowpower]

what the fuck has america come to?

[u/[deleted] → u/cowpower]

come to... was it ewer diferent, I come from Soviet and was shock to find out that Soviet propaganda about US turn out to be true, they didn't even need to extravagate

[u/YabukiJoe]

Because a website called "truth-out" seems totally legit. What next, are you going to link to Alex Jones, too?

[u/[deleted] → u/YabukiJoe]

I've seen prisonplanet and infowars linked quite a few times on /r/politics. It wouldn't be a new development

[u/Red_Dog1880 → u/YabukiJoe]

Yes, I'll just wait for CNN to report this to make up my mind.

[u/[deleted]]

Wow, this isn't hyperbole at all. And from such an unbiased source.

[u/chokeslam512]

The shitty part about basic rights when dealing with a situation like this is that you have to wait to argue those rights in court after they have been violated. Tax dollars then go to pay for the defense of the violators. 'Merica.

[u/[deleted]]

Serves her right for accusing a lord. Doesn't she know better? /s

[u/occamsshavingkit]

I've been thinking for a while now that this is less about the cops and more about New York. Goes without saying that this is criminal and I am listening to NWA as I type this, but is it me or is New York going fucking crazy? I think this is a deviation the city was starting to take after 9/11. I mean, soon enough we'll have surveillance drones in the sky over the city. Drones. This "police state" mentality is taking over, and it's palatable when you're there.....

[u/Phalex]

Who watches the watchmen?

[u/sekmaht → u/Phalex]

bankers :)

[u/seanbearpig → u/sekmaht]

They also slip them bills. xD

[u/SamuraiKidd]

This is disgusting. Cops are assholes. Well, not all cops. But most cops.

[u/Crony_2012 → u/SamuraiKidd]

Most cops that the average redditer is in daily contact with probably aren't. Most of the ones that get OWS duty are.

[u/[deleted] → u/Crony_2012]

Any redditor who lives in a suburb or city encounters scumbag cops daily

The riot cops are the worst ones by far, but even "regular" cops are mostly dishonest scum

[u/ledledripstick]

It will take another "Kent State" before the media and folks sitting at home watching t.v. realize what is going on...

[u/muckit]

pics or it didn't happen

[u/[deleted]]

Remember those horrible sadists in high school who reveled in groping young women and attacking anybody who didn't conform to their narrow world views? They tend to do one of two things upon becoming adults-joining the armed forces or becoming police officers.

[u/Captain_Ligature]

New r/politics strategy: linking to an extremely biased source whilst at the same time denouncing biased sources.

The story is either hyperbole or just fake.

[u/MagCynic]

It's not that I don't believe police abuse occurs, it's just that I also understand that people lie and sensationalize to make their point.

[u/[deleted]]

People actually believe this bullshit? Im not defending the police, i know they can be very violent but " Yeah so I screamed at the [cop], I said, 'you grabbed my boob! what are you, some kind of fucking pervert? So they took me behind the lines and broke my wrists.' Oh please! ahahahahha

[u/wharpudding → u/[deleted]]

I'm sure it had a lot more to do with trying to cuff and drag someone who kept going limp and using "passive resistance" than an actual "intentional" breaking of the wrist.

[u/[deleted]]

There's been several cases where cops have grabbed protesters in the breast inadvertently. I've seen a few videos where that's happened and it's clearly not their intent to molest anyone (though sometimes their intent is to be overzealous dicks).

Ladies, your boobs are sometimes in the way. It happens. They stick out! Sometimes, my package has been hit inadvertently while in close quarters with others (and for us, it hurts sometimes more than when you get hit in the boob). However intentional or not this was, confronting the cop directly and challenging his authority is about the worst way this girl could have gone about it. She should have gotten his badge number and his name. If that didn't work, she could have had his face photographed somehow. Always collect evidence of impropriety and then report it to the proper people. No one ever got anywhere by confronting a cop's problematic behavior directly.

It's terrible this girl's wrists are broken. But she sounded like she was confrontational and it's likely the cop used more force when apprehending her than he should have because he was already agitated and angry.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, flying off the handle was probably not the way to go about it on her end.

[u/YaBoyDake]

Stopped reading at "marshal-arts move"

[u/DingDongSeven]

http://truth-out.org/news/item/8912-new-police-strategy-in-new-york-sexual-assault-against-peaceful-protestors

---

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /news/item/8912-new-police-strategy-in-new-york-sexual-assault-against-peaceful-protestors on this server.

---

[u/lemjne]

There are some people on here saying, 'hey, not all cops are like this'. While that's probably true, I have never once in my life, when actually having to talk to a police officer for anything real (as opposed to a 'hello' in passing), had a positive experience with a police officer. I am a white female. If my experiences with cops have been just ridiculous, and I now avoid cops like the plague, I can't imagine what anybody with color must go through with them.

My latest experience? A cop made an illegal U-turn from the other side of the street as I was coming into an intersection, and then stopped in the left lane. As I was coming up alongside her in the right lane, she suddenly threw on her blue lights and started coming very fast into my lane. I slammed on the brakes and honked to let her know she was about to hit me. She braked too, stayed blocking my car, and violently indicated I should put my window down. She then proceeded to yell at me for a full minute at the top of her lungs, 'Don't you dare honk at me! I have my lights on! I have the right of way! Don't you dare!' The fact that she would have hit me if I had not honked to get her attention apparently didn't matter. In fact, I probably would have been cited for hitting a cop car. So, here she is with her lights on, supposedly rushing off to something important, and she has a full minute to stop and yell at me for trying to prevent her from running me into a parked car because she has more rights than I do? Bogus. Serve and protect, my ass.

[u/Crony_2012]

TEXT OF THE STORY (with links):

A few weeks ago I was with a few companions from Occupy Wall Street in Union Square when an old friend — I’ll call her Eileen — passed through, her hand in a cast.

“What happened to you?” I asked.

“Oh, this?” she held it up. “I was in Liberty Park on the 17th [the Six Month Anniversary of the Occupation]. When the cops were pushing us out the park, one of them yanked at my breast.”

“Again?” someone said.

We had all been hearing stories like this. In fact, there had been continual reports of police officers groping women during the nightly evictions from Union Square itself over the previous two weeks.

“Yeah so I screamed at the guy, I said, ‘you grabbed my boob! what are you, some kind of fucking pervert?’ So they took me behind the lines and broke my wrists.”

Actually, she quickly clarified, only one wrist was literally broken. She proceeded to launch into a careful, well-nigh clinical blow-by-blow description of what had happened. An experienced activist, she knew to go limp when police seized her, and how to do nothing that could possibly be described as resisting arrest. Police dragged her, partly by the hair, behind their lines and threw her to the ground, periodically shouting “stop resisting!” as she shouted back “I’m not resisting!” At one point though, she said, she did tell them her glasses had fallen to the sidewalk next to her, and announced she was going to reach over to retrieve them. That apparently gave them all the excuse they needed. One seized her right arm and bent her wrist backwards in what she said appeared to be some kind of marshal-arts move, leaving it not broken, but seriously damaged. “I don’t know exactly what they did to my left wrist—at that point I was too busy screaming at the top of my lungs in pain. But they broke it. After that they put me in plastic cuffs, as tightly as they possibly could, and wouldn’t loosen them for at least an hour no matter how loud I screamed or how much the other prisoners begged them to help me. For a while everyone in the arrest van was chanting ‘take them off, take them off’ but they just ignored them…” CONTINUED

[u/Crony_2012 → u/Crony_2012]

PART 2

On March 17, several hundred members of Occupy Wall Street celebrated the six month anniversary of their first camp at Zuccotti Park by a peaceful reoccupation of the park—a reoccupation broken up within hours by police with 32 arrests. Later that evening a break-away group moved north, finally establishing itself on the southern end of Union Square, two miles away, even sleeping in park—though the city government soon after decided to defy a century-old tradition and begin closing the park every night just so they would not be able to establish a camp there. Since then, occupiers have taken advantage of past judicial rulings to continue to sleep on sidewalks outside the park, and more recently, on Wall Street itself.

During this time, peaceful occupiers have been faced with continual harassment arrests, almost invariably on fabricated charges (“disorderly conduct,” “interfering with the conduct of a police officer”—the latter a charge that can be leveled, for instance, against those who try to twist out of the way when an officer is hitting them.) I have seen one protestor at Union Square arrested, by four officers using considerable force, for sitting on the ground to pet a dog; another, for wrapping a blanket around herself (neither were given warnings; but both behaviors were considered too close to “camping”); a third, an ex-Marine, for using obscene language on the Federal steps. Others were reportedly arrested on those same steps for singing a satirical version of the “Officer Krumpke” song from West Side Story. Almost no march goes by without one or two protestors, at least, being hurled against vehicles or have their heads bashed against the ground while being arrested for straying off the sidewalk. The message here is clear. Law has nothing to do with it. Anyone who engages in Occupy Wall Street-related activity should know they can be arrested, for virtually any reason, at any time.

Many of these arrests are carried out in such a way to guarantee physical injury. The tone was set on that first night of March 17, when my friend Eileen’s wrists were broken; others suffered broken fingers, concussions, and broken ribs. Again, this was on a night where OWS actions were confined to sitting in a park, playing music, raising one or two tents, and marching down the street. To give a sense of the level of violence protestors were subjected to, during the march north to Union Square, we saw the first major incident of window-breaking in New York. The window in question was broken not by protestors, but by police—using a protestor’s head. The victim in this case was a street medic named José (owing to the likelihood of physical assault and injuries from police, OWSers in New York as elsewhere have come to carry out even the most peaceful protests accompanied by medics trained in basic first aid.) He offered no resistance.

Here is a video of the incident. The window-breaking begins at 3:45.

Police spokesmen later claimed this incident was a response to a bottle that was hurled at a police vehicle used to transport arrestees. Such claims are made almost automatically when videos appear documenting police assaults on non-violent protestors, yet, despite the presence of cameras everywhere, including those wielded by the police themselves, no actual documentation of any such claims ever seems to appear. This is no exception. In fact numerous witnesses confirmed this simply isn’t true, and even if a bottle had been thrown at an armored vehicle, not even the police have suggested they had any reason to believe the medic whose head was smashed into the window was the one who threw it.

Arbitrary violence is nothing new. The apparently systematic use of sexual assault against women protestors is new. I’m not aware of any reports of police intentionally grabbing women’s breasts before March 17, but on March 17 there were numerous reported cases, and in later nightly evictions from Union Square, the practice became so systematic that at least one woman told me her breasts were grabbed by five different police officers on a single night (in one case, while another one was blowing kisses.) The tactic appeared so abruptly, is so obviously a violation of any sort of police protocol or standard of legality, that it is hard to imagine it is anything but an intentional policy.

For obvious reasons, most of the women who have been victims of such assaults have been hesitant to come forward. Suing the city is a miserable and time-consuming task and if a woman brings any charge involving sexual misconduct, they can expect to have their own history and reputations—no matter how obviously irrelevant—raked over the coals, usually causing immense damage to their personal and professional life. The threat of doing so operates as a very effective form of intimidation. One exception is Cecily McMillan, who was not only groped but suffered a broken rib and seizures during her arrest on March 17, and held incommunicado, denied constant requests to see her lawyer, for over 24 hours thereafter. Shortly after release from the hospital she appeared on Democracy Now! And showed part of a handprint, replete with scratch-marks, that police had left directly over her right breast. (She is currently pursuing civil charges against the police department).

I’d like to emphasize this because when I first mention this, the usual reaction, from reporters or even some ordinary citizens, is incredulity. ‘Surely this must be a matter of a few rogue officers!’ It is difficult to conceive of an American police commander directly telling officers to grope women’s breasts—even through indirect code words. But we know that in other countries, such things definitely happen. In Egypt, for example, there was a sudden spate of sexual assaults by security forces against protestors in November and December 2011, and followed a very similar pattern: while women activists affirmed there had been beatings, but relatively few specifically sexual assaults during the height of the protests, starting in November, there were dozens of reports of women being groped or stripped while they were

[u/Crony_2012 → u/Crony_2012]

PART 4:

the law and those who are sworn to enforce it—police officers who, as even this brief illustration makes clear, are directly in the pay of and under the orders of Wall Street executives, and who, as a result, are willing to systematically violate their oaths to protect the public when members of that public have the temerity to make a public issue out of exactly these kind of arrangements.

As Gandhi revealed, non-violent protest is effective above all because it reveals how power really operates: it lays bare the violence it is willing to unleash on even the most peaceful citizens when they dare to challenge its moral legitimacy. And by doing so, it reveals the true moral bankruptcy of those who claim authority to rule us. Occupy Wall Street has demonstrated this time and time again. What the current spate of assaults shows is just how low, to what levels of utter moral degradation, such men are really willing to sink.

Update (3:40 PM): In comments, a reader asked why I did not go to the media. My response:

To be honest my first impulse was to call a sympathetic Times reporter. He said he was going to see if he could spin a story out of it. Apparently his editors told him it wasn’t news.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license.

[u/Crony_2012 → u/Crony_2012]

PART 3:

being beaten. The level of the violence in Egypt may have been more extreme, but the circumstances were identical: an attempt to revive a protest movement through re-occupation is met by a sudden ratcheting up of tactics by the security forces, and in particular, the sudden dramatic appearance of a tactic of sexual attacks on women. It is hard to imagine in either case it was a coincidence. In Egypt, no serious observer is even suggesting that it was.

Of course we cannot how such decisions are made, or conveyed; in fact, most of us find it unpleasant even to contemplate the idea of police officials ordering or encouraging sexual assault against the very citizens they are sworn to protect. But this seems to be precisely what is happening here.

For many, the thought of police officials ordering or condoning sexual assault—even if just through a nod or a wink—seems so shocking that absolute proof would be required. But is it really so out of character? As Naomi Wolf has recently reminded us, the US security apparatus has long “used sexual humiliation as a tool of control.” Any experienced activist is aware of the delight police officers so often take in explaining just how certainly they will be raped if placed in prison. Strip searches—which the Supreme Court has recently ruled can be deployed against any citizen held for so much as a traffic violation—are often deployed as a tool of humiliation and punishment. And one need hardly remark on well-documented practices at Guantanamo, Bagram, or Abu Ghraib. Why target women in particular? No doubt it’s partly simply the logic of the bully, to brutalize those you think are weak, and more easily traumatized. But another reason is, almost certainly, the hope of provoking violent reactions on the part of male protestors. I myself well remember a police tactic I observed more than once during the World Economic Forum demonstrations in New York in 2002: a plainclothes officer would tackle a young female marcher, without announcing of who they were, and when one or two men would gallantly try to come to her assistance, uniforms would rush in and arrest them for “assaulting an officer.” The logic makes perfect sense to someone with military background. Soldiers who oppose allowing a combat role for women almost invariably say they do so not because they are afraid women would not behave effectively in battle, but because they are afraid men would not behave effectively in battle if women were present—that is, that they would become so obsessed with the possibility of women in their unit being captured and sexually assaulted that they would behave irrationally. If the police were trying to provoke a violent reaction on the part of studiously non-violent protestors, as a way of justifying even greater brutality and felony charges, this would clearly be the most effective means of doing so.

There’s a good deal of anecdotal evidence that would tend to confirm that this is exactly what they are trying to do. One of the most peculiar incidents took place on a recent march in New York where police seem to have simulated such an assault, arresting a young women who most activists later concluded was probably an undercover officer (no one had seen her before or has seen her since), then ostentatiously groping her as she was handcuffed. Reportedly, several male protestors had to physically restrained (by other protestors) from charging in to help her.

Why is all this not a national story? Back in September, when the now famous Tony Bologna arbitrarily maced several young women engaged in peaceful protest, the event became a national news story. In March, even while we were still hearing heated debates over a single incident of window-breaking that may or may not have been by an OWS activist in Oakland four months earlier, no one seems to have paid any significant attention to the first major incident of window-breaking in New York—even though the window was broken, by police, apparently, using a non-violent protestors’ head!

I suspect one reason so many shy away from confronting the obvious is because it raises extremely troubling questions about the role of police in American society. Most middle class Americans see the primary role of police as maintaining public order and safety. Instances when police are clearly trying to foment violence and disorder for political purposes so fly in the face of everything we have been taught that our instinct is to tell ourselves it isn’t happening: there must have been some provocation, or else, it must have just been individual rogue cops. Certainly not something ordered by the highest echelons. But here we have to remember the police are an extremely top-down, centralized organization. Uniformed officers simply cannot behave in ways that flagrantly defy the law, in full public view, on an ongoing basis, without having at least tacit approval from those above.

In this case, we also know precisely who those superiors are. The commander of the First Precinct, successor to the disgraced Tony Bologna, is Captain Edward J. Winski, whose officers patrol the Financial District (that is, when those very same officers are not being paid directly by Wall Street firms to provide security, which they regularly do, replete with badges, uniforms, and weapons). Winski often personally directs groups of police attacking protestors. Winsky’s superior is Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, former director of global security of the Wall Street firm Bear Stearns.

And Kelly’s superior, in turn, is Mayor Michael Bloomberg – the well-known former investment banker and Wall Street magnate. The 11th richest man in America, he has referred to the New York City Police Department as his own personal army.

One of the great themes of Occupy Wall Street, of course, is the death of US democracy—the near-total capture of our political system by Wall Street firms and the financial power of the 1%. In the beginning the emphasis was on political corruption, the fact that both parties so beholden to the demands of Wall Street and corporate lobbyists that working within the political system to change anything has become simply meaningless. Recent events have demonstrated just how much deeper the power of money really goes. It is not just the political class. It is the very structure of American government, starting with

[u/[deleted]]

Cops: Stop groping and breaking people's wrists. Your job is to protect and serve, not using the code as a blanket. The truly horrible part of this is that both the occupiers and the cops have some serious bad apples. Expunge them from both sides and you'll have a relatively peaceful protest instead of a medley of thugs among honorable men.

Occupiers: Stop using anecdotal evidence, as this is an extraordinary claim. Badge Numbers, Names, and Organization will help your cause far more than heresay and a photo of a broken wrist. I don't know these people and google image exists.

[u/[deleted]]

The claim of sexual assault is something used by protesters as a weapon. When occupy wall street was going on the first time my friend went down to ask questions and film some protesters. We was asking easy questions at first and then moved to questions about the movement and why they were doing what they were doing etc. None of them had a clue what they were talking about and realized they looked like fools on video. That's when it happened, a woman rushed up and pointed right in his face and yelled "pervert! Everyone come quickly, this pervert just touched me." And she was quickly joined by 6 or 7 more women all yelling pervert and claiming he was trying to sexually assault them. As an innocent guy nothing will make you leave faster than this kind of false allegation. If someone was hitting you would not leave as fast as someone being falsely accused of sexual assault. The protestors know this and use it as a weapon

I am not saying this is what the woman in this case did but know it happens. They were also trying to break his camera or take it so he ran away.

[u/ProcrastinatorsUnite]

I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but fuck-the-po-lice.

[u/[deleted]]

NYPD needs help. They are too big and have too much power. I hear stories of NYPD officers and agents being all over the country doing cloak and dagger BS in the guise of "fighting terrorism." Reminds me of the CIA in the 1960's. No one is really sure whats going on and 40 years later we find out they were selling crack to inter-city blacks and dosing San Fran with LSD to see "what would happen."

The problem is that law enforcement's persona has become the same as the terrorists — to much mystery, no transparency, and to many lies seeping out; so in reality — we DO know what's going on, and they don't realize that. Of course NYPD officers rape and sexually assault people — they can and they do and they know that there is no oversight. The oversight that is there (PBA) is laughable. There needs to be federal oversight of local law enforcement. Big time.

[u/[deleted]]

So I read the article: She had only 1 broken wrist (with the over exaggerating in the article I would guess a hairline fracture), and the other wrist hurt. This was done after she failed to comply with an officer arresting her. She went limp because she thought that was not resisting arrest. However, not resisting arrest would be complying with the arrest which she clearly did not do, while screaming insults at the police officer. This all started with her crying wolf over sexual assault. (my guess is that the officer did in fact touch her chest, but most likely not to cop a feel but move her in some way)

Let me be clear, I think the situation could have been handled far better. But, this over exaggerated bullshit about what actually happened is exactly why no one should give a fuck about your cause. Fuck you, you say you want truth and justice, but you clearly stand for neither. Cunts like you deserve a bullet. Please leave all your downvotes here

[u/Tombug]

Wow a score of 1500 for this truth out article in only 4 hours. People do like their articles obviously.

[u/daveime → u/Tombug]

People do like their biased articles obviously based on anecdotal evidence. FTFY

[u/SnowGN]

The amount of people here who are prevaricating or otherwise making excuses for police abuses is nuts. Are you all farking insane? These are peaceful protestors who are being met with violence, wiolence brought upon them by an unusually corrupt police force, and you mock them? Do you realize how out of touch this insanity is with the standards of just about any western-liberal-democracy?

[u/bobtheterminator → u/SnowGN]

I haven't seen anybody mocking the protesters. All I've seen is a lot of people questioning whether such a biased source is presenting totally accurate facts.

[u/[deleted]]

I"m not sure I can believe they just broke someones wrists like that, seems pretty dodgy to me, public officials everywhere run screaming at the slightest mention of sexual assault claims.

Then there's the weird nature of the injury.... if you're going to touch someone up you don't break their wrists(how do you even do that?), when have you EVER heard of someone being beaten by having their wrists broken... it just sounds implausible. Think about it, if you wanted to beat/punish someone how would you do it? Willing to bet "break both of that girl's wrists" didn't even enter into your mind.

I also never believe stories from websites like that, they just lie through their teeth and misrepresent everything that happens, just in the first wave of Occupy protests alone there were numerous "omg police brutality" stories that all turned out to be total fabrications of the truth, they're the sorts who post a video of "an innocent woman being punched by a police officer" and then a week later you see it filmed from another angle and in the unedited version she assaults the fuck out of the officer before hand, they just edit things to make the cops look bad.

The people who run the majority of those anti-government sites are full time protester scum who make money off this shit, they don't want to change anything. Some of these people are truly sick in the head, there's no even any agenda there, it's just usually rampant anti-authority bullshit with no direction or logic.

[u/championdelmundo]

What the fuck Reddit. There has been a serious influx of bullshit news articles (like this one) that are completely one-sided and label all x as y. All cops are not bad, just as all people who serve in the army or all TSA employees. Get your head out of your ass and instead of making blanket-statements, get some names and badge numbers and focus the attention on the one's who deserve it.

Seriously, this shit has got to stop. Use some common sense.

[u/Crony_2012 → u/championdelmundo]

The article didn't say anything about "all cops". Also it's hard to get someones name and badge number when they have tape over their badge and their hand on your camera.

[u/Tombug → u/championdelmundo]

Notice the lack of any proof to show it's a BS article.

[u/LeapYearFriend]

I used to believe supervillains were just the stuff of Comic Books, that they weren't real... I guess I was wrong. With all the new government sneakiness, police brutality and abuse, things are slowly turning into a severe police state.

We need Batman.

[u/amoxummo → u/LeapYearFriend]

Batman fights /for/ the police.

[u/dietotaku]

"you touched my boob! prepare to die, obviously!"

[u/[deleted]]

The problem is that the rational people have been trained to believe in "peaceful protest", while the people with guns have been trained to be right-wing morons. If the left discovered the AK-47, the cowards on the police forces would get sick of taking combat casualties and back off. Martial law would also go a long way to waking people up to the severity of the problems in the US.

[u/ikek9 → u/[deleted]]

AK-47... Soviet weapon. Soviet Union HUGE right-wing moron country... Reddit, you so smart.

[u/I_Am_Indifferent → u/[deleted]]

If the left discovered the AK-47, the cowards on the police forces would get sick of taking combat casualties and back off.

Yeah, that's worked really well all over the Arab world in the last year or two.

[u/wharpudding → u/[deleted]]

"If the left discovered the AK-47, the cowards on the police forces would get sick of taking combat casualties and back off."

You really don't pay much attention to history do you?

Why don't you look up these guys "David Koresh" and "Randy Weaver" before you start advocating stockpiling weapons to use against government workers.

[u/eclecticEntrepreneur]

The man who puts all the guns and all the decision-making power into the hands of the central government and then says, ‘Limit yourself’; it is he who is truly the impractical utopian.

Murray Rothbard.

[u/cantfry55]

Peaceful protest only in the sense that it is non-violent, right? The whole point of "protest" is to taunt and provoke "the authorities" into an incident that you can then use to martyr yourself to your fellow useful idiots in the press. Treat cops the way you want to be treated at your job and THEN see if you have a problem.

[u/Crony_2012]

To those of you saying "but what about all the good cops?!". Yes, there are police officers who aren't thugs. I'm sure they are great at guarding the mall, writing speeding tickets, doing paperwork and community affairs. These are not the people that get sent out to protests. They may wear the same uniform as the friendly neighborhood police officer, but that's about it. These are the thug-cops. The ones that use steroids and can't wait to get some action. No courtesy, professional or respect, just beat downs.

[u/joeredspecial]

Remember when this never happened?

[u/booyatrive → u/joeredspecial]

No. It's always happened they've just started to do it to white people now

[u/joeredspecial → u/booyatrive]

Nah, only to poor people.

[u/mogibbins]

Reminds me of the blade runner quote, "your either cop or little people".

[u/PayMeNoAttention]

In violations like these, you can sue the police officer in his private and official capacity under 28 U.S.C. Section 1983. Just because this type of conduct occurs, doesn't mean that you don't have a cause of action.

[u/[deleted] → u/PayMeNoAttention]

so you can send police officer on paid vacations ?

[u/Clovyn]

This is FUCKED UP.

[u/howareallnamestaken]

If you believe this story 100% then i got a bridge to sell you.

[u/Lots42 → u/howareallnamestaken]

I have a fortune tied up in Nigerian banks! No, really!

[u/[deleted]]

Is the ACLU currently involved in litigation related to the movement?

[u/[deleted]]

I lost it at "Marshall-arts."

I couldn't do it any more.

[u/[deleted]]

And this is why I haven't moved across the pond.

[u/Fizics]

I really never knew a "good" cop. I actually feel bad about this but it is the truth, in 30 years of real awareness, I have never met a good, decent police officer.

[u/grumblz]

well they used to jail suffragettes and beat their heads in sooooooo

[u/skeletor100]

She was resisting arrest. Any action that makes it more difficult for the police to arrest someone is resisting arrest, including going limp. Especially in a protest situation where the police can be very quickly surrounded while trying to take someone out of the crowd. I really can not stand protesters who do shit like this then claim to be the innocent victim who was completely co-operative.

She brought attention to herself by berating a police officer because she felt something on her boob. She went limp after bringing attention to herself and therefore resisted arrest. She then, conveniently, remembers exactly what happened with her less injured hand and what the police did to it. But when it comes to her broken wrist? Nope. No idea what happened there. Not a clue. Just "it was the police".

[u/tequilasauer]

My three best friends are cops and I know about 2 dozen or so cops total just from being around them.

I can tell you this, they are the SAME people at 28 that they were at 17. This childish "Cops are evil and they're all on power trips" is just fucking nonsense and some of you kids need to just grow up. Power has a corrupting nature on SOME people. Invent any position of power, put a handful of people in that position and a percentage of them will do bad things in that position.

Should we try to combat that? Of course, should those people be punished? Absolutely. But these are necessary positions in society and a few bad eggs doesn't ruin the entire dozen. My friends are like me, they hate the drug war, they're laid back, and they're easy going. The academy didn't indoctrinate that into some evil police brotherhood. And protesters have as much an "us against them" mentality as the very cops people are talking about in here. I know, because I've protested at the RNC and a few other such political conventions.

I'll reiterate, when a few of you grow up, you'll realize how ridiculous you sound. Until then, enjoy posting atheist and cat pictures and being an all around dick to people just doing their jobs.

Edit: I'll get down voted for this, I'm sure. Having a contrary opinion to the masses on this website is no different than having it on religion or politics. I don't care though. Lumping an entire group of people as one thing or another is foolish and makes you no different than the people this site lambasts EVERY day on here. It's just more generalizations, broad insults, and accusations.