Was that William Timerbman?

According to Democracy Now, there was also a New York Post photographer knocked down and arrested. He was complaining that it was a Republican newspaper, but it didn't save him. So what's his paper got to say about his arrest?

But people who commit civil disobedience (which is not the same as "protesting") hopefully understand that they are BREAKING THE LAW and that there were will consequences ... like spending days in prison waiting for a judge.

Of course they understand it. It's pretty basic. But then, that's still not what's got those who are upset about what's going on so upset.

YES, if you commit acts of civil disobedience, then you are likely to get arrested. You might get beaten, gassed, or shot.

But it doesn't have to be that way, it almost never has to be that way. The issue is not the poor pitiful protesters who have chosen to break the law, if that's what they have done (and it's pretty clear that most of those who have been arrested have done nothing chargable). The issue is the militarized and overbearing police gone amok.

Some people seem to think that's just fine, and they celebrate it. Others may not celebrate it, but they justify it on some half-assed basis of public order and primacy of authority that really should be embarrassing for any American patriot. Other people -- like me -- are disgusted and outraged and want it stopped. Then there are the ones who are, shall we say, inured, they've seen too much of it too many times in too many ways, nothing is ever done, it doesn't get better, it gets worse, and in real life people are killed and injured every day by these sorts of actions. So why fret over some Idiots in St. Paul who just get pepper-sprayed and teargassed. They should consider themselves lucky.

The police on a rampage are themselves the threat to peace and order. The militarization of our police forces has been a serious error, one that will be difficult to reverse, if not impossible.

But the actions taken and the policies followed by these militarized forces can be mitigated and modified, as they have been in many jurisdictions, usually after particularly egregious overreactions such as we've been seeing in St. Paul.

The People have to demand it.

I hope the People of Minneapolis and St. Paul do demand it...

Really, I think we can all agree that in order to judge this situation, we need much more information. What happened before? Why did the police feel the need to clear that area? had there been any protester illegality (property damage, object throwing, etc.) before? -- Elephantman

No we can't and don't agree. You judged the situation before you even saw the video and now you are trying to cover your idiocy. The only people that might agree with you are people like LWM and Shooter and the rest of the authoritarian trash.

She wasn't doing anything but filming. Nothing. It doesn't matter what anyone else did around her. She did nothing. She was bullrushed, knocked to the ground, bloodied, dragged, cuffed and taken away against her will. In other words she was assaulted and kidnapped. Period.

What do we normally do with predators who assault and kidnap people?

He's up to all the fingers except one.

No toes. ;-}

We wrote the owner's manual for authoritarian suppression of free speech, and the one for authoritarian suppression of free speech before it's spoken!

The whole world is watching - to see how we do it.

And where is Obama on all this? Thinking up something measured and non-threatening? He must be looking at these scenes and thinking, "Oh, there goes a bunch of red-state votes!" One would think that a constitutional law professor would speak up about prior suppression of free speech. Yes, I know that John Yoo is also a professor of constitutional law, but still...

At the same time, anyone who destroys people's property should be thrown in jail (after they destroy property, not before) - not for what they're saying but how they're saying it. What are these people thinking?

Oh...right....they're not thinking. Which makes one wonder: Are they Republicans? Doing dirty tricks? After eight dismal years, we've learned that under corrupt, authoritarian rule, anything is possible. Since any war-protester and advocate of free speech would have to know that rampaging in public and breaking windows is doing the Republicans' work for them, and since liberals are by definition smarter than Republicans, one is forced to consider the possibility that they are agent provocateurs - making better than minimum wage.

Sadly, that's probably not the case. The rioters are just...rioters, doing no good and a lot of harm (put yourself in the place of a shopowner just scraping by and now having to replace a plate glass window). I call it self-indulgent. Can we at least get past the election and see how Obama and the Democrats do before we start burning down the city? From what we've seen of the Democrats so far, there should be plenty of opportunities for free speech of a more animated nature.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNYZsJOGSxw

Ron Paul is sort of an alternative to Dennis Kucinich, but they both actually represent the more sane branches of their parties.

A Ron Paul - Dennis Kucinich debate would be worth watching.

Why does Democracy Now promote Ralph Nader so much, by the way? Amy Goodman has done everything but formally endorse Nader for President, again. It's illegal for non-profit news outlets to formally endorse candidates - but who are we kidding?

He's not even the Green Party candidate. Why is he running, and why is he getting so much DN! coverage?

were at Macy's (I know they're always in bankruptcy so they don't have to pay their vendors, but still, they are not modest shop owners... please) and at the First National Bank(also not your struggling peddler, though banks don't have it easy these days) -- and, strangely, at the Community Access Cable Collective (whatever it's called) where Amy Goodman does her broadcasts from the field. And the cop cars (they say three of them).

Seems to me that whoever did it was very carefully choosing targets, not randomly smashing glass for the thrill of it.

I'm still puzzling why the Community Access office was targeted. What anarchy!