Occupy NATO...or Living in a Police State

I'm sure that most people know that NATO is meeting in Chicago and if you've turned on to either the local broadcast news or the corporate media, you've been told that only a couple of thousand have shown up to protest, and most of the photos and media stream seem to show a bunch of white "punk" type kids--long hair, dreadlocks, tattoos, you know the type, the white version of "other--be afraid". My husband just loves listening to WGN(I put them just under Fox Noise for right wing propaganda) and watching that was almost comical to see the news people falling all over the dogma of "cops are wonderful, protesters are lying little whiny brats." At one point, the camera spied two black protesters, smiling, gesturing  and talking to the police line and the commentator was talking about how the men were antagonizing the police...of course he said they were doing that BEFORE the camera was turned on them, but it wasn't like the camera was close to them...the shot was taken off of a building or stand so I doubt if the men even knew they were on TV(plus...didn't they know they were at the wrong place? I mean they were black! There weren't supposed to be anyone but white over privileged brats!)
BUT, listen to Democracy Now on Free Speech TV(channel 9415 on Dish) and you receive a much different picture of the protesters: the nurses rally actually included nurses? The Anti war protest had people of all ages(and not all of them had tattoos or piercings), all colors, from poor to well off.
One of the most interesting pieces was the over 40 impassioned speeches from vets who "returned' their medals. Now, the local news(this time CBS) had shown a couple of vets throwing their medals in a direction and then did about 4 minutes on how many of these young men and women probably didn't understand how they would feel later in life about this...just like the Viet Nam Vets who did this and then wished they hadn't(only problem? Not many of them felt bad either). From this news piece, it certainly wasn't reporting, you would assume there were maybe 5 or 10 20-somethings that did something rash. That was not even close. The truth about these men and women was more powerful. They were not only in for 1 tour, but many...most of them were not 20, but 30/40, some with over 10 years of service and all upset over how our government has been neglectful in their duties with PTSD, traumatic brain injury and other injuries; the lies they were told while serving(Iraqi liberation, WMD's); the sexually assaulted women of the Military Forces. Maggie Martin, I was a sergeant in the Army. I did two tours in Iraq. No amount of medals, ribbons or flags can cover the amount of human suffering caused by these wars. We don't want this garbage(the medals). We want our human rights! We want our right to heal."  A Marine corp veteran, Vince Emanuele, stated he was giving his medals back: "First and foremost, ...for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Second, ... four our real forefathers. I'm talking about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee...Black Panthers, civil rights unions, unions, our socialist brothers and sisters and our ecology brothers and sisters. And lastly and most importantly, our enemies are not 7,000 miles from home. They sit in boardrooms. They are CEO's. They are bankers. They are hedge fund managers. They do not live 7,000 miles from home. Our enemies are right here and we look at them every day! They are not the men and women who are standing on this police line. They are the millionaires and billionaires who control this planet and we've had enough of it! So they can take their medals back!"  Lance Corporal Scott Olson(enlisted 2005, 2006-Iraq and 2008) also threw his medals(4-global war on terror, operation Iraqi Freedom, National Defence, Good Conduct) toward the fence of the NATO Summit--he's the gentleman that was severely injured in Occupy Oakland when he was struck with a beanbag round from police and Amy Goodman also
interviewed him.

Then there was the van that hit a young woman and had a protester that was stuck on the front of the hood of the van. Now the police stated that the officer that was driving had been hit by a protester and had a concussion, but its not like this can be proven...and, when was he struck? When he was running over the young woman(who did end up in the hospital)? Then there was the man who had been hit with a billy club in the teeth when he tried to help a woman who had fallen & couldn't get up quick enough for the police, who were hitting her in the legs, back and abdomen yelling at her to stand up. There wasn't anything like that spoken on corporate media.

Also, police detained by gunpoint 3 independent media who were live streaming from the march--one was from change.org -- when the cops attacked his van--there were 3 people
in the van, the cops ordered them out of the car, cuffed them, and began attacking
their equipment(banging the hard drives, cameras, lenses, etc. on each other, on the ground)...so much for the real 4th estate. Oh, then the cops left and told one of the men
 they had been looking for a similar car...when the reporter pointed out they were in a 99 Lexus with out of state plates, the cop just smiled. Sure, no harassment by police...and I'm the twin of Angelina Jolie!

Reiner Braun, German Peace Activist..protested at NATO because he states the bogeyman(Russia) is no longer...NATO spends over $1T annually for war that could be used to construct rather than destruct. Kay McVay, retired nurse, was there both for the Nurse's Rally(Friday) and the anti-war rally. There were also Chicago activists protesting against Emmanuel's mental health closures, home care providers who haven't been paid by state/county/cit, child care providers not paid by city, much of this because the politicians re-appropriated much of this money to pay for the extra security for NATO at the loss of the neighborhoods that need support most.

Alleged bomb makers that had undercover police officers who were the actual ones with the plans of "bombing"...can we say "entrapment"? Let's just stir up prejudice against the protesters by the very old infiltrate and denigrate.

Tom Morrell, performed at the Nurses rally and also at the antiwar rally. He's been very involved in social justice movements for the last couple of years, specially in Wisconsin. He had started with songs he wrote specifically for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Little known fact? He and President Obama were both staying at the Sheraton---among other things they share--both have Kenyan fathers and white American mothers, both attended Harvard at the same time.

Jesse Jackson Jr. went through the history of NATO, why it began(cold war), why it's really not needed any longer and why we can't afford to be the sheriff of the world, specially when we can't take care of our own people.
Now, I am willing to say that there are probably 10% of the police who take their cute scary "stormtroopers" costumes to heart and think they're robo-cop, much like the protesters have their 10% of anarchists and troublemakers, but way too often, we are not informed of both sides having their time of "behaving badly"...its only the ones that tow the corporate master's rule that are allowed explanations and that, also is just wrong and we should not stand for it.