You don't read very carefully, do you because it is very hard for me to believe, that if you've seen Europe, you've seen it all - I had to live in the US (gladly) in Australia (with a lot of joy) and in Egypt (not to bad either) - and that’s why I am very careful with ‘attributes’ like ‘Police State’ or ‘Fascism’ - because you never know who you are talking to - and there are people in these countries - especially in my homeland America - where people might take offense and think you are an ignorant or arrogant foreigner – because its such a small world.

When many people were hollering about the criminality of the Patriot Act in 2002, many on the left were hiding behind the bushes, twiddling their thumbs, holding NOBODY accountable.

Repeat and rinse this same pattern for the next FOUR YEARS, by which point you people began to roust and think that just maybe if you vote in your friendly dUmocrats, they will save your hides.

All the while you people continued to ignore the reality that the dUmocraPs and the repuLSICKans were one and the same and united when it came to installation of an unaccountable dicktater above us all.

So why bitch and moan NOW? Take your hits, admit you people were completely asleep at the wheel for SEVEN WHOLE YEARS and let's get on with helping govern this Fascist Nation once and for all.

A bunch of people being teargassed and eventually killed in the streets by overwhelming force will do something to CHANGE THIS?

Puhleeze, the world has had ENOUGH of America for the next few centuries already. What would they do IF THEY EVEN COULD?

Admit you thought at first that all this militarism was kind of cool and submit to being sent to the American Prison Camps that have already been set up for you people.

You thought all the independent reports coming out from the uderground for years-- about the cattle car trains, the prison camps set up on military bases, etc, etc, were some sort of JOKE?!?

LIVE IT, LOVE IT. Your arrogance is what did you lefties in.

Personally, I do not think the vast majority of America will come to save your hides either. Most people are Nazis inside when it comes down to it.

It worked that way in Germany, I do not see it being any different in the States.

Does anyone see another alternative than the one I describe?

Do you have some documented evidence of "violent protesters" successfully using fake press passes in order to stroll the streets of demonstrations?

I have a draw full of them. Most of them counterfeit and as I just reminded a fellow over at Open Left, Ahmed Massoud was assassinated two days before Sept. 11 by two Al Qaeda agents posing as TV journalists coming to interview him.

I'd treat you all to an anecdote about the little, 150 lbs. 5'6" cop who took a 350 lbs. 6' 4" drunken angry Samoan into custody after he totally demolished a bar just by talking to him but I'm not in the mood right now. If you happen to live in a community that still allows ride alongs, contact your PD and see if you can go on one for a shift. Most of them probably stopped doing it long ago but you might get lucky.

The MSM seems to be pretty quiet about what's happening in St. Paul, while smaller papers and news outlets I don't recognize keep printing the same number of protesters arrested (250) and a paragraph that generally reads:

"Protesters smashed windows, punctured car tires and threw bottles. Police, who used pepper spray to disperse demonstrators, reported making at least 250 arrests."

Oh, and one story about an elderly delegate being hit by (possibly) a bleach-like substance (his accompaniament claims 60 protesters rushed them, which sounds hyperbolic to me), but no other actual anecdotes.

So Glenn, you're my best resource--what the hell is going on? And why does it seem like no one in the MSM cares?

he choice to use violence is one of consequence including the likely alienation of many who substantially share your grievances but abhor your tactics.

On a personal level, it may be satisfying to spit on republican delegates, call them names, obstruct their buses, frighten them individually ... but then what remains when the circus has left town.

Like most people, cops don't like people who make their lives and jobs more difficult ... they don't like people who insult them, harrass them, taunt them, spit on them. They don't like people who threaten to fling ecrement (apparently this is a repeated threat/fear, which I don't know the basis of).

The cops are there to protect the delegates, the protestors, the spectators of the spectacle of their interaction. The young, the old, the peaceful and the not-very-peaceful, the wealthy, the poor, the homeless and impaired who wander into scenes most people would avoid.

IMHO, the behavior of the worst jeopardized the safety of the vast majority of the protestors ... ain't that always the way...

Let's just hope the police were well enough able to keep most everyone in control and most of everybody safe who wanted to be safe that wannabe vigilantes stay home NEXT time.

In the early days of the Iraq war, here in Colorado, most peace vigils were visited by roaming bands of "counterdemonstrators" who apparently staked out a route so as to "counterdemonstrate" at various planned local functions on any given day -- loud, ugly, provocative (and small just a handful) -- but menacing. Thank god they got bored or whatever.

Yes, there is irony that these "day of rage" occur during the waning phase of Bush/Cheney farewell tour ... hey they've waned so far they aren't even showing up!

You have never seen a real riot, have you? It can be a police riot or a civilian riot depending on your point of view but in most cases the winner will be the forces of law and order.

A Serious Question For Those Who support the Actions of the Shock-troops at the RNC

Why, I wonder, are there those who actually willfully and happily support the authoritarian tactics that are currently on display at the Republican Convention? I mean this question seriously.

Let me repeat this again:

I neither defend nor condemn these actions. My only intent is to explain their nature in terms analytical rather than emotional. There were to models of policing I studied back in the 80's. The military model and the professional model. I am a proponent of the professional model and prefer that policing and criminal justice adopt the professional model, like medicine or law. There are some very real analogies there with both those professions, as well as social work. That would mean that one needs a college education, even a Masters degree, to become a cop, and must engage in continuing education, to name just one requisite among many. Now, all you need is a high school education, some military background preferred. Even under that professional model, very little would be different. Urban riot control isn't pretty.