More on the "Romania" take down and suppression of access to information

Another view of the police aktion:



Another:



Another (This one appears to show that Brendan is on the ground but not injured earlier in the melee. Could be important. On the other hand, there are people calling out "Look at his face!" so he may have already sustained injury.)



RT's take on all the overthetop police violence against demostrators:


Yes. Well.

Of course it is clear that NYPD are using "tactics" against the demonstrators. Since they've been back in Zuccotti/Liberty Plaza, there have been numerous assaults and destructive actions against the demonstrators.

The Plaza is surrounded by a double row of barricades. The barricades are used to pen (aka: "kettle") the demonstrators inside the Plaza and to protect the police outside the Plaza. There are clear metaphors here, but I'll skip them for the moment.

Periodically and arbitrarily, the police mount aktions on the people in the Plaza; they have quite a diversity of actions available, and they've tried them out on many occasions. In the case of Brendan "Romania" Watts, they used the excuse that he was "throwing things" at them to launch a full-scale "invasion" from many directions, all to capture this one "threat" to their dignity and well-being.

It was both spontaneous and coordinated. Think about that for a minute.

Hundreds of officers participated, most on behalf of crowd control and force protection, but there were several dozen directly involved in "subduing" this one "threat." One of the supervising officers is seen in the first video above performing a face-plant on a bicycle; that must have left a mark. There have been other scenes of police officers banging on one another with nightsticks or yanking one another out of the way to go bang on protesters and bystanders alike.

It's quite riotous on their part -- and ultimately deliberately chaotic.

In the case of Brendan, he is seen relatively early in the upper video briefly -- at least I think it is him -- standing with his hands up in the middle of the sea of blue uniforms, and then the camera angle shifts and he's gone. He's apparently down on the ground again and police are grabbing at him. Later, he's seen on his back with his knees pulled up, perhaps trying to protect his vitals from whatever it is they are doing to him.

Still later, he is seen pulled out of the planter, lying on his back, his head in a pool of blood.

It's obvious the police know he is badly injured, and some of them seem to be taking care not to hurt him further. At the same time, it appears that the goal of the aktion is to parade Brendan, bloodied and nearly unconscious, through the crowd, so that the demonstrators see what happens to somebody who gets out of line or even thinks about it.

The police want the attention they are receiving in their mass attack on Brendan as well as the parade through the crowd showing off their handiwork. They want people to see the blood. They want people to see how hurt he is.

It's all part of the psy-ops to discourage further participation in OWS demonstrations. I've read that this tactic -- swarming, bloodying and parading -- is used in our various imperial wars of aggression overseas. As is "snatch and grab" -- in which officers single out, target and force-detain individuals in crowds, sometimes arbitrarily, but often on the presumption that these individuals are leaders or instigators whose absence will bring the demonstration to a standstill or even lead to its dissolution.

The repeated destruction of the People's Library at Liberty/Zuccotti Plaza is one of the most emblematic efforts at suppression that's been going on there. It is an aktion that brings to mind far too many previous efforts to destroy books and libraries and to prevent the People's free access to information.

The suppression of free access to information (about Civil Rights and the War in Vietnam, among other things) at UC Berkeley in the fall and winter of 1964 is what led to the Free Speech Movement (I know, broken record. So what. ;-P) which was the trigger for all the rest of the rebellion/revoluja of the '60's.

And yes, the cracked skulls and the bloody suppression of rebellion was used as propaganda by "both sides."

So it is again.

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The Zimbio Photostream appears to show that Brendan was not bleeding when he was on the ground.

From the NYT's City Room -- Re: Brendan "Romania" Watts

[Video above is from RT; story below is from NYT]

7:09 P.M. Bloodied Protester Charged With Attempted Assault
A protester being led by police near Zuccotti Park.

A protester who was led out of Zuccotti Park on Thursday afternoon with blood streaming from his face had thrown a small battery at police officers and taken a deputy inspector’s hat, the police said. He was charged with attempted assault and grand larceny.

The police said the man identified himself as Brandon Watts, 20, and has been arrested at least four times since the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations began.

The police offered this account of Mr. Watts’s confrontation:

Mr. Watts climbed up on a wall inside Zuccotti Park and began throwing objects at officers outside the barricade along Liberty Street, starting with pieces of a plastic pen. He then threw a AAA battery, and motioned to officers that he was ready to fight. The officers ignored him.

Mr. Watts went up to the officers, grabbed the barrier between him and them and began pushing and kicking it, shoving it against the officers. Mr. Watts grabbed a deputy inspector’s hat and ran back into the park. The officers ran after him. He resisted arrest, kicking officers, and when he was brought down, he struck his head, causing bleeding. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he was treated but not admitted.

Mr. Watts’s prior arrests at Occupy Wall Street, the police said, involved resisting arrest on Sept. 24, loitering in disguise on Sept. 28, escaping from a prisoner van on Oct. 14 and having stolen orange mesh fencing on Oct. 28.

— Al Baker

Eek! A battery! Run away! Many, many photos of police brutality November 17 at the RT link above; another link here shows more. As if we really need to see more...

Additionally, the NYT Magazine published this about Brendan Watts on October 23, 2011. Interesting slice of Occupy Life.


[Note, Tim Pool and The Other 99 video stream have been down most (or all) of the day. Just as well; need the rest after yesterday and the events of Nov 15. Tim did post over at Reddit, tho, and it's a fairly interesting discussion.]

Or Is It Like 1989?

The Revolutions of 1989



Did somebody mention the "Ceausescu Solution?"



Tiananmen?



Or will it be something like we've never seen before?