Gena Berglund, of the Minnesota National Lawyers Guild and Karen Greenberg of the Center on Law and Security talk about the post-Seattle security state.
We have to go farther than fretting about this or that journalist, this or that lawyer, this or that "anarchist" snatched off the streets or rounded up.
The Seattle WTO protests in 1999 are the alleged model for the need for overwhelming force used against citizens. But it is a class and power issue: a demonstration that those with money, power and connections are immune, anyone else is fair game for the truncheons, the gas and the cages. They try to create a divide between "good" and "bad" protesters, so that the public will despise everyone who is rounded up -- because they are "bad." The ordinary citizens of St Paul have to say no!
Class war? Absolutely. And the police forces are employed to maintain the advantage of the rich and powerful.
Anyone who isn't one of them is a potential target.
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