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Okay, let me put it this way:  Imagine the same thing happening at the Liberal Democrat Conference ?

Or at the Labour Party conference perchance ? No tazers, but it did take 3 goons to overpower a 78 year old man under anti-terrorist regulations. Sweet !!

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Thu Sep 20th, 2007 at 07:51:38 AM EST
I thought about that incident too.  It's that slippery slope--but also (for me) it encourages my sense of just how much more violent are the undertones in the U.S.; how there is escalation rather than de-escalation.  The guy who got hauled out of the hall (in England.)  It was a national disgrace, and yeah it was one of those "Wha--?  No way!" moments.  

The veteran Labour delegate who was yesterday ejected from the conference hall for heckling received a hero's welcome when he returned this morning, and won an apology from the platform by John Reid.

Walter Wolfgang came back to a warm reception from rank and file at the Brighton conference, and warned the party "you can't stifle debate by hiring heavies".

Tony Blair this morning apologised to the 82-year-old, a Jewish refugee from the Nazis, who was physically ejected from the conference hall yesterday and refused readmission under the prevention of terrorism act.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour2005/story/0,,1580806,00.html

I'm just working on one of the tones I'm hearing from the U.S., "What can you (I) do?"  And I suppose I'm thinking that these videos (of one incident) will make people think: "The first thing is, ponder what is 'beyond the limits' and ponder how best to act if and when such a situation occurs."  Each will have their own way, but if everyone has...that look in their eye...that says, "I know the limits, and if you step over them I'll act"--

--but always always with a sense of DE-escalation.  We don't need any more wars or people adding punches, but self-and-others-around-you protection...ach...maybe this comment explains it a bit better:

The more people are told that everything is OK when it obviously isn't, the more they are surrounded by lies, by "war-is-peace" thinking, the greater cognitive dissonance they are forced to bear, the more alienated they become. And alienation leads to disassociation, which then leads to the individual searching for a way to deal with these feelings. Idealization, and its evil stepchild, fundamentalism, are ways of dealing with our feelings of having no control, of alienation. In other words, we are seeing idealization as rationalization to prevent further disassociation.

malooga at moon of alabama

I read in something extra here.  I read in that the disassociation (the lack of contact--SOLIDarity) leads to the individual isolated and therefore a step behind the action. not confident to act because..."What if I do the wrong thing?"  And I suppose the social message: "There IS a wrong thing, and if you do it you are bad and will get what's coming to you."

I believe the police have a name for the situation where people they pick up for questioning will start admitting to things irrelevant to the enquiry.  A friend years ago was taken to a police station because the police suspected that someone on the coach had been involved in a fight at a nightclub (they were all travelling back.)

"I just started feeling guilty," he said.  "I thought of all the things I'd done wrong."

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Thu Sep 20th, 2007 at 10:12:55 AM EST
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We have so many rules and offences in the books that enforcing them all would be insane, Society would grind to a halt. So apart from useless legislation we have selective enforcement, which is arbitrary and lends itself to all sort of discrimination.

But the point I want to make is this: if they were out to get you, they could very easily ensnare you with minor offences. Jaywalking, for instance. And when you tell the police officer to go fight real crime, he charges you with resisting arrest, or something. Or maybe you forgot to communicate your change of address to the whoever issued your driver's licence. Or...

Oye, vatos, dees English sink todos mi ships, chinga sus madres, so escuche: el fleet es ahora refloated, OK? — The War Nerd

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Sep 25th, 2007 at 02:21:26 AM EST
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Indeed. See "Capone, Al" and "income taxes".

Looking forward to the universal UK DNA registry. "Looking forward" in the sense "time to leave" of course.

by Number 6 on Tue Sep 25th, 2007 at 08:25:37 AM EST
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