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Dispatch / Occupy Wall Street / December 2, 2011
By Yasha Levine

Yasha Levine was forced to surrender his freedom, as well as his shoe laces…for his own protection

I finally got home Thursday afternoon after spending two nights in jail, and have had a hard time getting my bearings. On top of severe dehydration and sleep deprivation, I’ve got one hell of pounding migraine. So I’ll have to keep this brief for now. But I wanted to write down a few things that I witnessed and heard while locked up by LA’s finest…

First off, don’t believe the PR bullshit. There was nothing peaceful or professional about the LAPD’s attack on Occupy LA–not unless you think that people peacefully protesting against the power of the financial oligarchy deserve to be treated the way I saw Russian cops treating the protesters in Moscow and St. Petersburg who were demonstrating against the oligarchy under Putin and Yeltsin, before we at The eXiled all got tossed out in 2008. Back then, everyone in the West protested and criticized the way the Russian cops brutally snuffed out dissent, myself included. Now I’m in America, at a demonstration, watching exactly the same brutal crackdown…

While people are now beginning to learn that the police attack on Occupy LA was much more violent than previously reported, few actually realize that much—if not most—of the abuse happened while the protesters were in police custody, completely outside the range of the press and news media. And the disgraceful truth is that a lot of the abuse was police sadism, pure and simple:

* I heard from two different sources that at least one busload of protesters (around 40 people) was forced to spend seven excruciating hours locked in tiny cages on a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. prison bus, denied food, water and access to bathroom facilities. Both men and women were forced to urinate in their seats. Meanwhile, the cops in charge of the bus took an extended Starbucks coffee break.

* The bus that I was shoved into didn’t move for at least an hour. The whole time we listened to the screams and crying from a young woman whom the cops locked into a tiny cage at the front of the bus. She was in agony, begging and pleading for one of the policemen to loosen her plastic handcuffs. A police officer sat a couple of feet away the entire time that she screamed–but wouldn’t lift a finger.

* Everyone on my bus felt her pain–literally felt it. That’s because the zip-tie handcuffs they use—like the ones you see on Iraq prisoners in Abu Ghraib—cut off your circulation and wedge deep through your skin, where they can do some serious nerve damage, if that’s the point. And it did seem to be the point. A couple of guys around me were writhing in agony in their hard plastic seats, hands handcuffed behind their back.

* The 100 protesters in my detainee group were kept handcuffed with their hands behind their backs for 7 hours, denied food and water and forced to sit/sleep on a concrete floor. Some were so tired they passed out face down on the cold and dirty concrete, hands tied behind their back. As a result of the tight cuffs, I wound up losing sensation in my left palm/thumb and still haven’t recovered it now, a day and a half after they finally took them off.

* One seriously injured protester, who had been shot with a shotgun beanbag round and had an oozing bloody welt the size of a grapefruit just above his elbow, was denied medical attention for five hours. Another young guy, who complained that he thought his arm had been broken, was not given medical attention for at least as long. Instead, he spent the entire pre-booking procedure handcuffed to a wall, completely spaced out and staring blankly into space like he was in shock.

* An Occupy LA demonstrator in his 50s who was in my cell block in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center told us all about when a police officer forced him to take a shit with his hands handcuffed behind his back, which made pulling down his pants and sitting down on the toilet extremely difficult and awkward. And he had to do this in sight of female police officers, all of which made him feel extremely ashamed, to say the least.

* There were two vegetarians and one vegan in my cell. When I left jail around 1:30 pm, they still had not been given food, despite the fact that they were constantly being promised that it would come.

* There were 292 people arrested at Occupy LA. About 75 of them have been released or have gotten out on bail, according the National Lawyers Guild. Most are still inside, slapped with $5,000 to $10,000 bail. According to a bail bondsman I know, this is unprecedented. Misdemeanors are almost always released on their own recognizance, which means that they don’t pay any bail at all. Or at most it’s a $100.

* That means the harsh, long detentions are meant to be are a purely punitive measure against Occupy LA protesters–an order that had to come from the very top.

***

Update: Read Yasha Levine’s latest post on Occupy LA arrest scandal: A Visit to the Raided Occupy LA Camp, Updates From Freed Protesters and Bad News About Our Legal Situation…

Yasha Levine is an editor of The eXiled. You can reach him at levine [at] exiledonline.com.

Want to know more? Read Mark Ames’ appeal for Yasha Levine’s release, as well as the post Levine published just a few hours before he was arrested.


 

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159 Comments

Add your own

  • 1. Bradford C.  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 2:43 am

    Reminds me of a story I heard about NYPD’s treatment of a f-t-m transgender not too long ago…

    “The cells, on the other side of the precinct where they had locked up the other 69 protestors, did not have working toilets so every person who had to use the toilet was
    brought to the one next to where they had me locked to the railing. This was not only
    disgusting but also embarrassing. The smell of urine was so strong that I, and the men
    locked up in the cell in the room that I was in, mentioned the odor on more than
    one occasion.

    Once they started bringing women in to use the bathrooms, a short young female officer,
    who was in charge of people locked up in the room where I was handcuffed, harshly
    turned my chair around with my arm still locked to the railing but now pinned behind my back. She said that she knew it hurt but that they were bringing in women to use the
    restroom and she could not have me watching. I had no interest in watching anyone use
    the bathroom, and every-time a male had come into use the restroom I had respectfully
    turned away. This process of people coming in and out to use the restroom went on for
    the full 8 hours.”

    http://justinadkins.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/Police-mistreatment-of-transgender-man.pdf

    Who needs gas chambers? We can smother a person’s dignity by chaining them to a chamber pot.

  • 2. iSockpuppet  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 5:18 am

    Pigs are horrible people. But nobody will take the OWS crowd seriously until they start executing bankers in front of their families and hang their heads from overpasses. That’s after we peacefully take over the courts and police.

  • 3. bulfinch  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 5:31 am

    Yasha — I am not a doctor, but based on my personal experience, full sensation/feeling will come back to that hand but it could take weeks and will likely feel twingey for a while. If there’s actual nerve damage, it could take months.

    Check it out:

    http://medic.wikia.com/wiki/Handcuff_injury

  • 4. Trevor  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 7:53 am

    First Berkley, now LA – What the hell is with California cops? Even the NYPD has managed better message control than these Stasi wannabes.

  • 5. Corey  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 8:27 am

    Useless comment trolls are pissing their pants at the thought of going through something like this…

  • 6. the dude  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 9:14 am

    these fucking jackals get off on your pain, probably had a pretty good time listening to that girl scream on the bus. My girlfriend got beat up by a male officer in her cell when she was in county up here by buffalo. conditions in US county jails is appalling. We have been having a major suicide issue in the Erie County Holding Center the past few years, no doubt due to sadism from the guards up to the warden

  • 7. john  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 9:29 am

    this is certainly appalling treatment…but the part about the vegetarians and the vegan? seriously? give me a break. no one cares that youre a vegan. no one. that choice — and its consequences — is tantamount to the entitlement that the people on wall street feel.

  • 8. James Albert  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 9:30 am

    No pain no gain. You lost the battle in this particular case. The city always had the upper hand. What you should have done was leave when you had the opportunity and avoided jail all together. If you think the bankers are fraudulent, imagine how many tax payer dollars we’re wasted on your arrests. It’s probably money that would have been better spent on a plethora of social services.

    Civil disobedience doesn’t work on a small scale. The experience you endured was not meant to be pleasurable. Some people had to urinate or even defecate on themselves. That sucks, but it’s certainly not the end of the world. I’ve held for twice as long while serving my country in the USCG.

    I appreciate what the occupy camps are doing. You people are true patriots. You knew what you were getting into. Don’t cry about. It makes you look like a bunch of cry babies. Personally I wouldn’t give the city or the police the satisfaction of knowing that they had any effect on me.

  • 9. Hooten  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 9:36 am

    Poo Wittle comment trolls like me are so angry that not everyone is a spineless sell out, that courageous people like Yasha and the 292 other men and women are willing to put themselves in danger and forfeit their freedom in the holy fight against America’s financial oligarchy, so all I can do is pretend like they are a bunch of drama queens who are say they have to make wee wee in a cell rather than a public park. I’ll say stuff like: “Let’s all give a big boo hoo for Wittle Yasha. He makes a spectacle of himself even after being released. They taught you well down at the Temple YashaPoo.” Ooooh, that sting don’t it, brah?

  • 10. Hooten  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 9:38 am

    Thought youd see the last of me? Nope, I’m back and am gonna pretend like I lived in Moscow and saw how the Moscow Police treated demonstrators. Yasha, predictably, is exaggerating how LAPD treated this little Rebel Without a Pause in relation to the GAI in Russia.

    I’m also gonna say that he just needs more attention from his Mommy. Bet that one hurt, didn’t it?

  • 11. Digbee Smith  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 9:39 am

    Right on bro! Chickenshit police state humpers like me privately salute the courage of your occupy comrades and comradettes, especially the ones still being locked up!

    I know that I would never camp out in downtown LA cuz I can’t handle the stress of being in jail. My mommy says “poor, poor thing.”

  • 12. Hooten  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 9:40 am

    I am I still here? You betcha! I just can’t get over my admiration for Yashi-Poo!

  • 13. Anarchy Pony  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 9:45 am

    From California to Greece, fuck the police!

  • 14. James  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 9:48 am

    Not to minimize this, but I will minimize this because I’m just another police state apologist, but this is how police treat EVERYBODY.

    Don’t want to take a shit while handcuffed? Don’t get arrested.

    Don’t want to sleep on concrete? Don’t get arrested.

    Don’t want to eat garbage that barely qualifies as food? Don’t get arrested.

  • 15. adam  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 10:05 am

    The cruelty toward the transgender individual in the above comment and the people in Yasha’s post – including him – are unbelievable.

    It’s sad to see all the ideals upon which our nation was founded trashed like used up ornaments from the holiday season. It’s even sicker to hear/read people’s comments just brushing it off, as if any inhumane treatment is permissible as long as the ones receiving it don’t share your world view.

    Some fucking democracy.

  • 16. Eric Jaffa  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 10:11 am

    Who decided the bail amount?

  • 17. hazey  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 10:13 am

    I can’t help with legal funds, but I am going to have to buy you a drink.

  • 18. The Government  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 10:28 am

    John:

    you’re a moron, and that makes you our favorite people. Can’t wait to have you sucking on our tits soon. xoxo

    sincerely,

    Obama

  • 19. Bat-Mite  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 10:36 am

    How are people who object to eating chopped up animals at all comparable to scumbags who pour champagne on the heads of protestors, #7? That “let ’em starve” attitude towards vegetarians really bugs me because it’s so popular with the same sort of thickheads who’d be flipping their lids if a Jew didn’t get a kosher meal.

  • 20. Ogar  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 10:36 am

    Cut to anonymous police brutality apologist in 5…4…3…2…1: Peaceful protest is a false way to explain the situation. For starters you were told days in advance to leave and you decided not to. While I cannot say what type of force was required the police need to go into every situation with as much force as is needed to ensure the job gets completed with minimal injuries. However you were breaking the law and refused to leave after being told to multiple times and this means your safety comes last after every single cop and law abiding citizen. While I cannot say the cops actions were called for as I was not their your actions resulted in you being treated as a criminal. As for the bathroom i guess you would have been happier if the other prisoners were not allowed to use the bathroom? maybe if you and others did not cost the city millions they could have afforded to repair the toilets.

  • 21. Johnson  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 10:54 am

    *sigh* …

    I KNEW it, watching that LA Occupy eviction, that something was too good to be true … I mean, seriously? 1700 cops, tons of buses & squad cars, & SWAT teams just to get a few hundred people out of the park?

    And the mayor said he was so proud, too …

    well, police brutality never gets old … for the pigs!

  • 22. Kim Cooper  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 11:12 am

    You forgot to mention that while you were still in custody, the LAPD told the LA Weekly that you were drunk, belligerent and not working as a journalist when arrested.

    http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/12/occupy_la_journalist_reporter_arrest_cns_city_news_service.php

  • 23. Gatorade  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 11:17 am

    I’m glad you’re out, Yasha. I’m glad so many people are brave enough to stand up to all of this

  • 24. Jeffrey L.  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 11:17 am

    I want Ron Kuby! Or Bill Kuntsler!

  • 25. cmattiello  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 11:35 am

    I live in Pittsburgh, Pa. I’m fighting prison abuse over here. It is horrible, it is every where. Look up “Stanford Prison Experiment” and “The Lucifer Effect” by Psychology Professor Philip Zimbardo.

    “over come evil with good.”-Jesus

  • 26. helplesscase  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 11:46 am

    Yeah, when you talked about the size of the bail, I was wondering if that was the real point of the eviction…how many Occupiers can afford to pay something like that more than once?

  • 27. Anarchy Pony  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 12:01 pm

    Thank you dear Almighty eXiled Comment Censor for improving comments of pig supporters like me!

  • 28. ramona  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 12:06 pm

    Simple solution :
    Get all 200 people to file separate Small Claims lawsuits against individual policemen (by name).
    Don’t go for any class action (easily dismissed) or high damages (won’t let you proceed without a lawyer).
    Instead use the drag out ancient court proceeding to you advantage and make the pigs go through the grind.
    Repeat every time it happens.
    Try to remember badge numbers !!!!!
    Make their lives a living hell !!!

  • 29. Zirb  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 12:11 pm

    Fuck police brutality! Hard time to bring this up, but probably the best time as things are most cogent, but why, oh why, do you all still want the government to do all the supposed great things, when it’s constantly demonstrated that the government rests on this violence?

    Because you know, we can handle private corporations and private wealth all on our own! The weak have always handled the super-powerful rich without binding together in government power.

    Of course I know it’s true that you guys never said you want government to do all the supposed great things, and that actually what you want is to take government power back from oligarchical control–but anyway, well, yeah, it’s all the government’s fault, and not the fault of unregulated capitalism, finance and corporate power.

  • 30. internal exile  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 12:20 pm

    Hasn’t Ames been taking an anti druggie stance lately? I mean no he hasn’t–in fact he argued the opposite, that Ron Paul’s REAL drug stand was a bait-and-switch by transferring the drug war fascism from federal to state level, whereas Ames argued that drugs should be decriminalized at the federal level so that states can’t be fascists about it.

    But I’m going to ignore that and pretend that I didn’t hear it, and get all self-righteous and say, with very heavy irony dripping from my libertard-cursor: “Do you get all warm when you think of crackheads getting pushed around in the clink, Mark? How do you think the cops learn this stuff?”

    H’m. Maybe they learned it from Blackwater? Or Pinkerton? Or one of the gazillions of private prisons?

  • 31. Dave  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 12:26 pm

    Hey this goes out to my fellow PR “sockpuppets” hired by the LAPD to troll social media too (you know who you are, a shout out to my troll-homeez!)–Listen, if you’re using the new SockPuppet+ version of SockPuppetPro, you might want to check out this comment that the program just generated, I think it’s pretty good and should be effective in creating some “confusion or doubt” with the Commies who read this site. Here’s my comment, thanks to this awesome SP+ plug-in:

    “I was locked up until yesterday. This account of ‘what happened’ is pure bullshit. Overly dramatic and unnecessary. Sure, people were crying and freaking out, and yes, the plastic ties were uncomfortable, but nothing remotely CLOSE to what you account happened. Its people like you are who I am more scared of than the police.”

    Pretty awesome, huh? The part i like best is where the generated-comment says “I’m more scared of protesters and journalists than I am of brutal police.” A buddy of mine on the force laughed and gave me a chest-bump for that one! Anyway, let me know guys if you have awesome troll comments like this one too.

    Oops, boss just came into my cubicle, back to work!

  • 32. E  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 12:42 pm

    Where is the ACLU while all this is happening? Why isn’t someone communicating with and monitoring law enforcement on behalf of the protesters WHILE all this is going on rather than after?

  • 33. dame_folie  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    while i agree with the whole ohhh if you don’t want to suffer don’t get arrested diatribe (jail is NOT supposed to be a good time.. despite what jackoffs like MBA players get when they’re doing time) i have to wonder at people who make comments like that.. it’s rude.. certainly not helpful and that’s part of the problem.. self entitlement has worked it’s way into the very being of this country.. we’re all a bunch of assholes looking for a pot to shit on and now, the mess we’ve created is looming up at us.. but that does not mean that people should be assaulted and tortured because they are exercising a right to see change.. people who back the police blindly and don’t question inequality will be the ones crying loudest when the shit really hits the fan

  • 34. radii  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 12:50 pm

    the next round from the banksters will involve Debtors’ prisons and internment camps … they’re almost there already

    sad that cops, who almost all UNION, are busting skulls as paid mercenaries for the banksters – acting against their own self-interest since their pensions and housing were decimated by the massive fraud which is being protested

  • 35. Brandon Silverman  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 12:59 pm

    I was on that other bus Yasha, and those of us in the back were also basically suffocating, as no air had been pumped in for hours. Finally some pleading got the driver to turn on the air – for 30 minutes before turning it off again. We were driven to Van Nuys only to be driven back to Downtown in rush hour traffic, but you’re right – not before the driver got himself some Starbucks.

  • 36. Hildy Krish  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 1:03 pm

    um…. Have you seen any episodes on tv about the reality show “Jail”? It is not a pleasant experience. You are being brought in for illegal activity. The cops were there at the occupy event because they were called in to bring order and to clear the area. Not that everyone was willing to leave. People are protesting and not budging so what are the cops to do? Oh honey, please, pretty please will you leave the premises? Just step into the vehicle and we will take you to the police station but no need to be handcuffed or anything. Just promise me you won’t try and run off at the first chance you get… Or are you that niave that things would have been that nice?

    [The eXiled Censor responds: “Wow, this troll is not naive. How stupid of everyone ever to protest injustice ever. Must feel pretty lame to be nailed as “naive” by a troll, huh? Even I, the mighty Exiled Censor, am too ashamed to improve this comment-to do so would risk being ‘naive.'”]

  • 37. proud supporter... of the police  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 1:04 pm

    I don’t even know where to begin I am so appalled by the ignorance of the writer of this article as well as most commenting herein.

    You sit there in your brand name shoes and your brand name jeans and brand name jacket and say you are the 99%. You have signs made to carry at your local corner copy store, undoubtedly not thinking twice as you pull out your VISA debit card to pay for it.
    Keep believing you are the 99%, but YOU ARE THE 1%, i.e. American!!!

    As for the “police brutality” that you seem to believe you experienced. Think about it for a minute. L.A. likely processes maybe 10 criminals an hour at any given location. When there are more than 200 brought in at one time, it’s going to take a lot longer to do 20+ times the work! The guards have an obligation first to the safety of their staff, second to the facility, and third to the accused who have broken the law.

    Yes, it’s going to hurt to be in handcuffs. The cuffs with a fluffy cover are for your dirty bedroom indiscretions, not for someone under arrest who has 1) refused to give in to a public official and 2) likely caused a struggle for the arresting officer who is there to do one thing- get the action to stop. The action could have easily stopped PEACEFULLY if you listed to the directives you were given. When you didn’t listen, you made it an unruly protest.

    These protests are more costly than helpful. It takes government money to pay police, sanitation workers, and courts overtime to handle the issues. Instead, this money should be going to the schools where you all should be going to get an education about what is actually going on rather than the PR bullshit that is this article.

    [The Mighty Exiled Censor scores this comment a “9.6” for licking boots like bootlicking was going out of style, although you did miss a spot on the toe. Maybe because your tongue was too deep up your policeman’s ass?]

  • 38. Wisdom  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 1:05 pm

    Any men on that bus should have found a way to piss onto the driver’s seat and all over the front controls. Frankly, pissing and shitting yourself would be uncomfortable, but would make life miserable for those handling you. Just make sure to rub against them “on accident” as often as possible.

    Also, in the instance of the man forced to defecate in front of others in an inhumane way- I would have memorized all of their badges and names and told them all “I’m coming for all of you after your families.”
    It’s easy to find out where police live. See how they like it when they find some threatening indications someone has visited their home when they were gone.

    We have to *fight* for our freedom. What’s going on now is about money- and the corporations have it all, so they can continue to buy out the police, courts and local governments. You can beat money. That’s the point of what’s being protested. The narrative is being written by those few with all the money.

  • 39. Chris  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 1:13 pm

    So what did you do to get arrested? I’m pretending that I have no idea (sorry, I’m using the old “SockPuppetPro 3.1 without the Sockpuppet+ plug-in, bear with me). Might be important for people to decide appropriately (and none of this “I was just sitting there peacefully…” stuff, I’m sure it was completely unwarranted). Yeah really, none of that, because I was there. You can trust me, really!

  • 40. Fran  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    Kim Cooper, don’t be foolish.

    Here’s a quote from the LAWeekly blog you posted:

    “In fact he [Levine] did not appear to be working, might have been drunk, and was allegedly “belligerent” when police clearing out the City Hall encampment confronted him and told him to leave, the lieutenant said.”

    “Did not appear”? “Might have been”? Could this possibly sound any more like hearsay? Wake up.

  • 41. Kyeshinka  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 1:46 pm

    Just imagine those LA pigs getting melted in the World Trade Center. Now I feel better.

    H’m, wait a minute. Now why would SockPuppet+ instruct me to post that comment above? That’s weird. Or wait…what if the whole point of that SockPuppet input was to, you know, equate Occupy commenters with Al Qaeda terrorists? Now why would they want to do that? I’ll go ask my boss here at my PR firm, hold on…

  • 42. Anton  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    Libertarians remind me of born again christians. You can spot a libertard from ONE SENTENCE. But GOD BLESS THE BORN AGAIN CHRISTIANS, they are giants of intellect compared to these fuckheads.

    I would rather listen to scientologist, a racist redneck or a Goldman Sach CEO’s 10 hour long briefing than to a libertard. I’d rather listen to a stinking drunkard in the street, a retard with a speach deficiancy talking about masturbating and strangling small animal, ANYBODY!

    I would rather listen to Justin Bieber, Cher & Michael Bolton SIMULTANIOISLY than listen to a libertard.

    Listening to a libertard is like hearing chalk squeaking on a board, squeeeeeeeeek… Over and fucking over AGAIN. The same fucking empty phrases, the same fucking Never-never-land BS. Like listening to some whiny, drooling fat kid who is upset and complaining ’cause mummy won’t allow him to eat his own shit.

    It’s just too much. They just need to go away. They just need to go somewhee real fucking far and build their on fucking Libertopia and die the fuck away.

    They whine about the government, but would THEY then ACTUALLY protest by means of civil disobedience AGAINST that government? Hell no!!! They only troll & blog & stink.

  • 43. igbos  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 1:55 pm

    I am just waiting for the day it collapses so I can start gettin revenge on all these pig f…better hope u don’t run into me and I find out u were a pig….

    Oh shit, SockPuppet+ just generated this second in a row “Occupy protesters are terrorists” comment. What the F*? Why did my boss and his police PR guy smile when I told him what I just posted here? Weird.

  • 44. Alex  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 2:33 pm

    A system where you’re supposed to file a police report when the police abuse you, or write to your congressmen to complain about government corruption makes no damn sense.

    We need some way to start holding these people accountable.

  • 45. Lisa Stoutmoose  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 2:44 pm

    Thank you. Shared. Love, Peace.

  • 46. Anton  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 2:47 pm

    One word: fear

  • 47. Rogi Riverstone  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 2:58 pm

    Well, we poor people have been enduring this, and much worse, for thousands of years. Welcome to our world. Any of you privileged, articulate OWSers willing to take this on, challenge the system of incarceration, work for justice and humanity for the rest of us? We’re the 99% too, you know.

  • 48. Zirb  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 3:16 pm

    “well, yeah, it’s all the government’s fault, and not the fault of unregulated capitalism, finance and corporate power.”

    Which unregulated capitalist police forces pummeled you? Oh right, the oligarchy that protesters are protesting. Which financial powers zip tied your hands? Oh right, the financial interests that own the politicians and control the cops. Which corporations made people shit in buses? Oh right, the corporations that own the politicians that control the cops. Stop being so myopic by focusing only on government and not on oligarchs who control the government — you got pummeled by government force, naked and simple. And for libertarians, everything in the world is simple. And we want to keep it that way.

    You rightly bring up the corporate power and financial elites, of course they’re stealing money and making people poor. Notice how I don’t say a word here about how the oligarchy also BOUGHT AND CORRUPTED OUR GOVERNMENT. Because that would be too not-simple. So let me continue: Nobody argues with that except DC elites or people from Cato or the Mises Institute or the mainstream media or the entire Republican Party and the entire Democrat Party elite. But that said, it’s amazing that you get pummelled by the government and then attack corporations — corporations are stealing people’s money, while governments are stealing people’s freedom and dignity. I mean okay corporations are also stealing people’s freedom and dignity, but I had to rely on the Exiled Censor to remind me of that because I wrote that they only steal money, when in fact it’s financial institutions who are fraudulently forcing millions of homeowners into destitution, financial institutions who bought the judges and politicians and had them change laws so that the government didn’t regulate them while they stole everything…
    Attack the government too! I mean sure you are attacking the government all over your pieces, but still, I want to pretend that I didn’t read it because I like my truth served “naked and simple.”

    Oh, but, “When *our* people can control the government and police forces…”

    [The Exiled Censor responds: “If your country has been turned into a colony of a greedy and vicious colonial power, the oppressed people understand that the local lackey hired by the colonial power to jail or beat him is only a symptom of the bigger problem, which is that the government administration is controlled by a hostile colonial power only out to steal from the people. Under your scenario, colonized people would only oppose the local administrators of that colonial power, rather than the colonial power that hires its corrupt cops and lackeys. You’re welcome for this free lesson. Stop getting your ideas from corporate toadies like Von Mises and Von Hayek and the other Vons, and start fucking thinking for yourself.”]

  • 49. Ricardas  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 3:19 pm

    This reading was very emotional for me. Thanks for posting. I am for peaceful protest, but i HOPE, that there will be a riot one day, and these policemen will be burned alive in action. Am I saying this because I’m a trollvocateur? Or do I really mean this? Me to know, you to find out

  • 50. David Angelo  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 3:21 pm

    Is this a joke commenter acting like he’s a bad-assed guy who’s seen it all?
    Listen, just because I never left my parents house, doesn’t mean I’m not a tough guy who knows what police brutality is. I watch all the shows on TV. I’m not politically correct either, and if you want abuse, you try saying something not politically correct and see what “appalling treatment” is at the hands of feminazis who make fun of you.

    Anyway, here’s the rest of my comment, you’re probably not tough enough to handle it:

    “appalling treatment?”

    “A couple of guys around me were writhing in agony in their hard plastic seats, hands handcuffed behind their back.”

    Would it have been better if they were plush leather seats? Or if several hundred people who violated direct police orders had their handcuffs removed?

    This is my favorite:

    “There were two vegetarians and one vegan in my cell. When I left jail around 1:30 pm, they still had not been given food…”

    Nothing say “out of touch privileged middle class protester” like complaining the prison food wasn’t vegan.

    GET SERIOUS.

    They don’t have vegan menu options in war! Fighting is HARD. Whining makes you look silly and diminishes whatever you think your cause is.

  • 51. David Angelo  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 3:23 pm

    You may think that the fact that I keep posting this same response looks kind of weird, like I have no life and nothing else to do but shake my fist at people who actually get out of the house and do something, but I want to tell you you’re wrong. Our Founding Fathers? They were trolls on comments sections, just like me.

    So, here it is a second time, you bongo-playing– Oh shit, that’s my mom calling for me. Here it is:

    Is this a joke article?

    “appalling treatment?”

    “A couple of guys around me were writhing in agony in their hard plastic seats, hands handcuffed behind their back.”

    Would it have been better if they were plush leather seats? Or if several hundred people who violated direct police orders had their handcuffs removed?

    This is my favorite:

    “There were two vegetarians and one vegan in my cell. When I left jail around 1:30 pm, they still had not been given food…”

    Nothing say “out of touch privileged middle class protester” like complaining the prison food wasn’t vegan.

    GET SERIOUS.

    They don’t have vegan menu options in war! Fighting is HARD. Whining makes you look silly and diminishes whatever you think your cause is.

  • 52. John Figler  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 3:28 pm

    What?… Nothing about the showers? That ain’t cool, barely trolling…

    If you have lost your sense of humour, no amount of low intensity so-called civil disobedience would serve.

  • 53. Anarchy Pony  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    Now wait a fucking minute, I made my comment, posted up at 13. “From California to Greece, Fuck the police!”
    But at 27. another poster called Anarchy Pony says “Thank you dear Almighty eXiled Comment Censor for improving comments of pig supporters like me!” Which is probably moderator modified from something awful.
    I dunno WTF is going on, but I didn’t ever post anything police positive.
    I stand by my actual post at 13. This is some stolen psuedonym bullshit.

  • 54. Miguel  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH0UuyNTakY

    Some stereotypes are true- police are assholes.

  • 55. David Angelo  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    This whole entire obsession I have with trolling here is not at all ridiculous.

    Thank you for you’re improving my comments. “the people” are being repressed.

    What are people?

  • 56. Michael  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 3:42 pm

    Seriously, boo hoo for troll-pussies whose idea of heroism and action is trolling comments

  • 57. JOE SCHMO  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    WAHHHH! I’M A RIGHT-WING PUSSY WHO DOESN’T HAVE THE BALLS TO STAND UP FOR MY RIGHTS! WAAHHH! THE TEA PARTY NEVER GOT ARRESTED BECAUSE THEY WERE JUST CORPORATE TOOLS PROTESTING AGAINST THE 99%! THEY’RE THE ULTIMATE SUCK-UP PUSSIES THAT EVER LIVED, THAT’S WHY THEY DRINK TEA AND HAVE LITTLE TEA PARTIES LIKE A BUNCH OF DOLLS!!! WAAAHHHH!!!

  • 58. Carlo Tucci  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 3:58 pm

    @ Anton. Reading your post was like listening to some whiny, drooling fat kid. You, having to listen to all those idiot, no nothing, GOP candidates just brings a smile to my face. You deserve one another!

  • 59. The 52 Percent  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 4:04 pm

    So, I want you to get this fuckin straight, brah: I’m a hard, bad ass muthafucka that’s been around the most hardcore comment sections in the known interwebs…fools like you wouldn’t last a single trolling sections in the places I roll. So I got this message for all the pussy ass muthefukin protesters who think they iz all hard because they go out and protest the oligarchy, riskin’ body harm and incarciaration Thgat aint nothing to be proud of, foolz. This was worse than the Russian police? You didn’t get any food or water and were made to feel really uncomfortable…some lady was crying…but it was really loud…some dude didn’t have a gash or a deep cut…but just a welt that wasn’t bleeding…it was just kinda seeping blood a little bit and your hands and feelings were hurt, right? You weren’t beat to a pulp, you weren’t punched or kicked or maced or batoned or knifed or beheaded or waterboarded or a bag thrown over your head or stripped naked with pictures taken of you or forced to eat poo or, really, anything that would be really horrible. You just had to sit in a van and miss American Idol…that was the tragedy?! What a puss!! I should know, I’ve been through all of this myself a million times while playing “Second Life.” But every time when I play “Second Life” and the cops attack me, I’m a Tea Party baggertarian freedom fighter who complains about nothing, takes it like a man, and defeats the statist big government liberals who are trying to give health care insurance to my wife and children.

    Yo, try going over to Syria and protest over there you dbag–I’ve done that too in “Second Life.” Don’t ever protest here–only go to Syria and protest. Yeah, send all the protesters to Syria! Just like we should’ve sent all the labor protesters into Stalin’s GULAG camps, if they wanted to protest against America. The labor unions were pussies. Oo, a few hundred murdered–try Stalin’s Russia, where millions were murdered! Go ahead and improve this, I’m not bothered at all by what you’re doing, no not at all, that’s why I’m constantly trolling here, so guess what, I’m going to write something that’s going to hurt you real bad: You’re a “feel sorry for me because the cops almost did bad stuff to me” activist.

    Did you know you can survive DAYS without water? WEEKS without food!? Oh, so your tummy was rumbling and your mouth was dry…you poor, poor thing.

    Hilarious!

    –Trollaz with Attitudz
    trollez with attitudz\

  • 60. Krystal  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 4:19 pm

    Take them to court. Why is it no one thinks they can press charges of this against the police department? DO something about it. and no not another protest.

  • 61. Robert  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    To bad our polititions influence our police to take action on subjects they don’t want to address. The 1%, lobbists, congress and senate remined me of what my uion told us – ” we will negociate what we think is good for you”.

  • 62. NICK  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 4:31 pm

    these vermin cops are disgusting people … the revolution will come in good time … let them “hang themselves” with this vile behavior for the world to see ….

  • 63. Mark Clinton  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 4:31 pm

    Reading this account of LAPD sadism was a painful reminder of the experience I shared with approximately 700 other global justice activists who were arrested in Washington in April 2000. It took days for my hands to begin to feel normal again, and I still have occasional pain in my right shoulder. Getting into an elevator with stainless steel walls reminds me of the ride I took with three officers. Two of them slammed me face first into the back wall of the car, while the third (who operated the car)welcomed me to the DC Department of Corrections, his voice saccharine with sarcasm as he informed me I would soon be in a cell where I would be given hot food and introduced to my husband. The police may be in the 99 percent, but they have never been of it.

  • 64. SeanR  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    Their are two elements of U.S. culture that are at odds. here. The experiences you’ve described are no different than the ones I’ve had, being arrested for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and would most likely get a response from most inmates who’ve been through the ringer like “so what.” What you describe going through is the standard brutal and humiliating experience of how inmates are processed. The seeming irony, of course is that you are innocent, but so are many other people that are picked up and put through the ringer on a daily basis here in the U.S. The best point so far, is the hypochracy that U.S. encourages peaceful change and public demonstrations everywhere worldwide except in the U.S. Use this point, stick in their face.Also, it is better to report on the brutal treatment in a calm steady description, but don’t complain , because that’s what the people calling the shots want, angry, brutalized, and demoralized demonstrators. If you had, for example, sung Monty Pythons “Always Look ON The Bright Side Of Life,” that act on it’s own, would show strength and spirit and wreak havoc on the mindset of those who gave the orders to arrest OTW LA. They want to believe they broke you, I say, don’t give ’em an inch.

  • 65. tomfcat123  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    Dude, I know that I’m a crypto-fascist pussy. But what are you?

  • 66. my talkative ringpiece  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 6:02 pm

    When middle-class people are willing to undergo the abuse and humiliation the lower class go through routinely, that’s a powerful protest.

  • 67. Flatulissimo  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 6:14 pm

    The Mighty eXiled Comment Moderator has really outdone himself with his efforts here.

  • 68. Kim Cooper  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 6:20 pm

    Fran (#40), my comment above was not meant to suggest anything but that the statements by LAPD to the LA Weekly were both absurd and offensive.

  • 69. Kim Cooper  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 6:27 pm

    Actually, on reviewing that L.A. Weekly link, It looks like it was another journalist being described by LAPD, not Mr. Levine. Sorry for any confusion. It’s hearsay and inappropriate, whoever it refers to.

  • 70. Thomas  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 6:31 pm

    You stayed for the grace of the politicians. They could have removed you at any time. the Occupy movements served the needs while they could get it and when they could no longer get it. Like Pawns. Discarded. I do not support your movement but I do not ridicule it either.

    They (Politicians) seek to divide is… Race, Class, Culture, Creed, Sex, Politics… The most classic tactic known from ancient times. “Divide & Conquer”

  • 71. Esn  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 6:35 pm

    The comments here are hilarious. Are there really so many trolls and sockpuppets?

    Sorry to hear of what happened Yasha, and I’m glad that you got out.

    Somehow, I keep being reminded of this political comic that I drew a while ago:
    http://www.thebrooksreflections.com/wp-content/stripshow_comics/2009-08-18b.gif

    Can’t imagine why…

  • 72. Deirdre  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 6:54 pm

    I was one of the 220 arrested. I was trying to go home, on the sidewalk after being told to go there, after being told to get off of the streets or be arrested. I did NOT want to be arrested–my boyfriend waited for me for 2 hours at the end of the block, having no idea what had happened to me. I complied with police, was peaceful and respectful, was told I could go through momentarily and then found myself arrested. I was on another bus and had similar things happen. Our group of women were fed twice in 2 days (vegan or otherwise), not allowed soap, toothbrushes, showers, sanitizer, and in some cases, toilet paper.. some were denied our medicines. We were kept on a bus for nearly 8 hours with our hands ziptied (and for the person above talking about handcuffs not being fuzzy, these weren’t handcuffs, think about the way rubberbands make your fingers blue..closer to that, for 8+ hours, not what they’re intended for, zipties are meant to be temporary). Forced to pee on the seats of the bus whiled the guards (sherifs) laughed at us, denying us water/food while stopping at starbucks/el pollo loco. When we begged them to show their humanity they blasted Christmas music so loudly we couldn’t hear eachother.. for 6 hours straight. We were ziptied around 1:45, and not booked until 5pm the next day. Until 5 pm, we got no phone call. We were never read our rights, I never spoke to a lawyer. Mind you, we were sent to 3 different facilities and some of the officers were kind. The sheriffs? Evil.

  • 73. Benedict@Large  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    Cross-posted from Naked Capitalism:

    No insult intended, Mr. Levine, but where the hell have trolls like me been? Don’t I know that there are already other trolls already outted here who employ the “This is nothing new” troll comment strategy. You might say “there’s nothing new about a troll who’s trying to blunt the effect of an article by claiming it’s nothing new.” But that won’t stop me from writing the following:

    There is not one single thing I’m going to write in this comment about what you’ve described here that hasn’t been standard police treatment of detainees across the US for (in my [white] experience with it, at least) well over a dozen years; far longer, I have been assured, if you are black. [Wow! That has to be the funniest troll-phrase ever: “things are worse, I have been assured, if you are black.” You must have some amazing sources! Can you please share them with us? You might be onto something really big with that. I mean, this could be HUGE news if it ever gets out! Oh and by the way, what fucking planet do you live on, where they need to assure each other that blacks have it worse in America? Clearly, that planet doesn’t have intelligent life on it, but it does support extra-trollrestrial beings.] Our police, when they believe no one is looking, have turned into savages because no one (including apparently you) has ever held them to account for their savagery. [By “our” do you mean the police on the planet “Trollanus”?] No one bothered to believe when time and again we from the bad side of the tracks complained of this; surely, as John Mitchell advised us all, you believed we must have done SOMETHING to deserve it. Now you learn it is otherwise.

    [NOTE: Why this troll has framed his troll-comment in the form of a stern self-righteous lecture is beyond the Almighty Exiled Censor, this is truly insane, it will have to be allowed to continue without improvement]:

    Now you learn that when you see an apparently insane officer clubbing everyone within the reach of his nightstick, or perhaps a seemingly unruffled officer pepper spraying a row of docile protesters, it is not because this is the rare officer acting out his unresolved childhood issues. [Um, who said it was?] It is merely the average officer, perhaps tired or stressed from a too long shift, forgetting that someone is actually looking on this time. [No, the officer carries out orders from his superiors.]

    So now it’s happened to you, Mr. Levine, and you think it’s surely that someone on high has ordered some conspiratorial reprisal against your political misbehavior. [Where did you get your conspiracy theory from? You mean the conspiracy theory that the Mayor ordered the police to take down the OccupyLA camp? Is that the crazy conspiracy theory you speak of?] You must surely think you matter a lot.

    No, Mr, Levine, it’s just another day in the neighborhood.

    [Yes, we’ve been assured that it is indeed just another day in the neighborhood, although it’s just another day in the ‘hood for blacks, we’ve been assured. Nanu-nanu, strange being from the planet Trollanus!]

  • 74. Skeeve  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 7:36 pm

    Take them to court? Please. The cops wouldn’t behave this way if they weren’t thoroughly insulated from potential litigation. As much as they whine about the stresses and danger of the job, but they are absolute chickenshits when it comes to taking responsibility for their actions.

    Sad to say, nothing about Mr. Levine’s experience comes as a surprise to this jaded reader. I lived in Houston, Texas for 30 years, and police violence was par for the course.

    Funny, you don’t hear much about “Occupy Houston,” even thought that city is nest of oil-drenched banker parasites. That’s probably because the cops there could give the LAPD lessons in police brutality.

  • 75. Crazy Horse  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    I wish they would’ve let you die, you cunt. Serves you right.

    Oh and yes, it’s true, I’m am English troll. Notice how I use the word “cunt” like a regular chav. But hey, it’s not easy being English you know. The only thing we’re still good for is narrating documentaries, trolling, and giving Americans something to laugh at and smack around.

  • 76. Crazy Horse  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 7:56 pm

    I hope you got fucked in the ass, you fucking faggot.

  • 77. derrick  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 7:56 pm

    WHY ARE SO MANY TROLTARDS COMING HERE PRETENDING THEY’RE NOT BOTHERED, ALL A BUNCH OF CRYBABY PUSSIES HIDING IN COMMENTS SECTIONS, TOO PUSSY TO EVER GET ARRESTED FOR SOMETHING THEY BELIEVE IN, FUCKING LIBERTARIAN TROLLTARDS ARE JUST BUTLERS AND CHAMBERMAIDS TO MASTER KOCH

  • 78. Jason  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 8:22 pm

    Wow, the things this guy said could not be — BEEEEEEP! WE INTERRUPT THIS REGULARLY-SCHEDULED TROLLTARD COMMENT TO BRING YOU THE FOLLOWING ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE ALMIGHTY EXILED CENSOR:

    Yea, it is I, the AEC. I wish to thank each and every one of the trolls who came here to offer thy retarded comments, which I will call “To-Be-Burnt Offerings” presented to Me, your Censorness. For it is thanks to your slapstick trollbaggery, commenting in support of police violence, that makes My job so much easier, that I might bless our readers with free comedy, merely by squirting this bottle of vaudeville seltzer water into your right-wing humorless trollbagger face. Thank you, trolls, for being dumb mean and clumsy, for you have given to this site what I would call ‘User Generated Comic Foil-ery.’ Your comments are free, they’re funny, and they make My work easier here. Folks, it’s all about serving you, the eXiled reader–and today’s menu special we’re serving “Freshly gutted Troll Hide Tartare, served in a Crow Pie Crust and topped with a dollop of horse sperm!”

    Oh, and sorry about erasing the five-paragraphs of trollbaggery about how wonderful the jails and busses are, and how everything is completely transparent and yaddee yaddee yadda…It was funny, but I figured, it’s even funnier to erase it all and think about how you wasted all that time composing an elaborate lie hard for your little troll brain to compose, and it was all for naught. Oops!

  • 79. Anarchy Pony  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 8:27 pm

    This comment section is absolutely trolltastic, I mean this is just insane. It makes the yahoo comment section look like it’s full of reasonable mature people. I don’t know what kind of fascist piece of garbage a person would have to be pro police-state, but they probably should get the shit kicked out of them.
    Stay strong Exiled, and know that the sockpuppets and trolls ain’t nothing but a bunch of servile bootlicking fascist pigs and kochsuckers, whether they know it about themselves or not.

  • 80. Urda  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    Mr Yasha,the one thing I can assure you of is that California will continue to go more and more bankrupt.That means they will charge more and more people in custody,for money and for bail….while treating them more and more like cattle.

    The ugly news is you will find the lives of a lot of these young people ruined by a bankrupt state run by middle-aged pansies afraid of looking like they are responsible for killing the golden goose,that seemed to require these “special enforcement tactics” in the first place.

    Also if I were you I would e-mail the mayor of Los Angeles and anyone else for an explanation of the situation.

    Again this is the kind of shit designed to protect this State’s increasingly disappearing wealth,that are resulting in the lives of State residents getting ruined in order to back up a falling establishment.

  • 81. Zirb  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 9:28 pm

    @48 Name one government in history that wasn’t controlled by a rapacious financial oligarchy? (I was going to try to misrepresent your point by saying ‘Name one government not controlled by elites’ but I realized that you never claimed that, your point like the Occupy point is that it is fucked up when an oligarchy controls a government. Also, be careful if you catch me using false equivalencies and the like–even I know that the corporate right-wing elite HATED the New Deal and the next 50 years precisely because they really did have to share too much of the wealth and the power with the rest of the 99-percent. )

  • 82. helplesscase  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 10:35 pm

    All hail the ALMIGHTY EXILED CENSOR. Truly your best work. And trolls: do you think your miserable power-worshiping and glorification of violence will endear you to the elites? That at the end of all this they’ll reward you for making fun of some people who got arrested? Nah. You’ll get chewed up and spit out just like the rest of us. The only difference is that you won’t understand why.

  • 83. Derp  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 10:48 pm

    Hope ya didn’t drop the soap, derp derp derp!

  • 84. karmasabitch  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 11:00 pm

    http://exiledonline.com/california-parolees-coming-to-a-neighborhood-near-you-and-me/
    “The thought of all these bored parolees aimlessly gangbanging around town makes me wish I had 10 to 20 million dollars. That way, I could put all the ex-cons on payroll and make them into my own personal Class War army that could be deployed to any place in the country on a moment’s notice. Say, for example, the next Tea Party rally. . . Or Americans For Prosperity town hall meeting.”

  • 85. Theoneulovetohate  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 11:04 pm

    I know you didn’t compare your time in detention as “hard time” and that it wasn’t like Abu Ghraib, but hell what’s a uninventive popo-troll like me to do? I don;t know, how about say that really your a joke! Don’t get lost driving back to ur comfy home in West LA!!!

  • 86. Rob G  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 11:23 pm

    I stand with the 99%, now and always.

    The corporations who cause the violence via their paid Attorney’s and Politicians have been exposed and know no other way than violence.

    Too bad the cops and military (who are part of the 99% don’t know any better). For give them Father they know not what they do. Then again how many times shall one turn the other cheek? Turn the Corporate cheek over and spank it.

  • 87. John Overseas-from NE Texas  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 11:38 pm

    First, you whine about how you were treated but you clearly were told to leave-AND DID NOT-SO “IF” THIS IS TRUE YOU HAVE NOBODY TO BLAME OTHER THAN YOURSELF. That’s right, you lentil soup sucking scum. Do you hear me? If you are out there exercising your constitutional rights like free speech and the right of the people peaceably, YOU DESERVE TO BE THROWN IN JAIL. FUCKING LIBERAL FUCKING IDIOTS.

    Second, you whine about a “police state” yet you-YOURSELF SAY “Comments can and will be censored at whim and without warning” sounds like the “KGB” to me! Your a hypocrite! OH WHOOPS, I FORGOT I’M TREADING ON PRIVATE INTERWEBS PROPERTY. PLEASE DEAR, ALMIGHTY EXILED CENSOR DO NOT SHOOT ME OR PEPPERY SPRAY ME. I JUST GOT LOST. I APOLOGIZE.

    Third, you whine about how bad it is where you were at- I am assigned overseas. The people who are native in my “host nation” live in ‘SHACKS’, have NO RUNNING WATER, suffer from MRSA, Stalph, leprosy and many-MANY other diseases you and your “occupy” group cannot even begin to imagine! I feel no pity for you or the others- I see daily others who have so much less than you and yet they never complain or whine like you and the others. I see you are standing in front of the Los Angeles Police department, clean, well dressed and getting your “10 seconds” of Internet fame…enjoy it! So many Americans were glad to see the LAPD and other police departments sweep our city parks….I hope the “fine” you pay covers the costs of your trip down town, the paper work to process you in, and to repair the CITY PARK that my tax dollars were spent on just so you and the other occupy folks could run “a muck” for the last few months. YEAH, YOU HAVE IT BETTER THAN A FOURTH-WORLD GARBAGE HEAP SO BE FUCKING GRATEFUL THAT UNCLE SAM PEPPER SPRAY YOU IN YOUR FACE AND SHOOTS YOU WITH A BLUNT OBJECT–AT LEAST HE ISN’T DOING IT TO YOU WHILE YOU LIVE IN A FILTHY SHACK.

  • 88. Edward Richards  |  December 2nd, 2011 at 11:47 pm

    Well maybe every person who was detained need to get together and file suit againest the city and demand and I mean demand those officers be repmanded for their actions.I work in enforcement and that never happens.People can protest all they want here in minnesota as long as it does not turn into violence,Real violence.You know it is a americans rights to protest but its also are responability to keep enforcement in check on how people are being treated.Complaining about it does not help ,Organize and demand change with lawyers and papers that speak the truth not lies.Just the facts.Who’s What’s the Where’s AND WHEN’S and the how’s.kEEP DETAILS AS ACCURATE AS YOU CAN BADGE NU. SEX .OF OFFICER’S.I hate to here that officers disrespect the badge in that way.That is not the way it suspose to be.

  • 89. Anthony Cristofani  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 12:14 am

    I nominate the all time dumbest, most pig-headedly ignorant and simplistic, slavish cliche’ of all time as:

    “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.”

    That’s a cop or state-apologist response to every single demand for justice, decency or rule of law from the supposed protectors of the piece, be they prison guards or police.
    That is, until one of their family members goes to prison. Then they get it.

    Here’s mine: If you stop making anything that threatens the empire a crime, we all wouldn’t be doing so much time!

  • 90. Hansson  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 1:14 am

    My, my. Big government fans happily like to watch Andrew Breitbart bloat up like the paranoid meth addict closet-case he is. By the way, one of these days I will have the balls to protest something, but until then, I will spend my evenings trolling the comments sections denouncing others who have guts that I lack

  • 91. Damn Red  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 1:33 am

    Dear exiled censor, might I inquire if there is a job opening to improve the comments section since I am certain you are swarmed by people who have nothing better to do.

  • 92. bulfinch  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 1:42 am

    So, it seems the trolltards fit into either one of three categories:

    The nosepickers — subhuman HOA Prez material; pathologically contrarian and by-the-book-to-a-fault. Sample: “Sorry, but you play, you pay. If you don’t keep-off-the-grass while speaking to power, you deserve all the agony you came looking for. It’s the law and you broke it. What did you expect? I have no sympathy for you. Die.”

    the shitkickers — tetchy fat boys with asthma aka frustrated QWERTY Subotais. Sample: “Dude, fag, quitcher bitchin’ homo! Take me! I’m tuffer’n hell! I survived Ebola and decapitation and still lived to troll about it while you piss’n ‘n’ moanin’ bout a few little pinched nerves and your poor wittle vegan fag friends! Die hippy!”

    and finally, the bootlickers — that always weird example of Stockholm Syndrome: “You got what you deserved, Mr Yasha. AND You’re costing the taxpayer money with this crap! The LAPD are just trying to do their jobs is all and their first jobs are to protect the team! Meanwhile, I hope you got raped! Die!”

    All three seem to be too lathered-up to consider a simple little notion like *proportionality.* Guess I’m soft, but shitting and pissing yourself while your hands turn blue waiting for Deputy Dawg to get back from Operation Frappuccino seems a little…man, I don’t know…totally fucked?

    See, my reading of Yasha’s experience was not woe-is-me; it was an illustration of how both the brute force the LAPD dispensed with and his 5K bond were completely disproportionate to the crime (which he didn’t commit, unless immersion journalism is somehow a crime.) Kinda like if I slit your face because you pronounce my name wrong. Satisfying, perhaps, but not proportional.

    Just think on it, you fuckers…

  • 93. Lev  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 1:51 am

    The elites of the past were like wolves: cruel, yes, but they had some character. Henry VIII wasn’t a very good husband and he enriched himself on the backs of the peasents, yes, but when there was war he was eager to be in the front line, and so were most of his collagues. They liked wealth, yes, but they liked women and hunting and music even more.

    The technocratic elites of today are like parasites. A parasite isn’t cruel,a parasite is just a spineles thing that doesn’t know how to do anything but suck, suck.

    If any of them pretend to be Christians, they should read the part in John’s revelation about being lukewarm and getting puked out of humanity.

    But then, the LACKEYS of the parasites, such as these trolls… Maxim Gorky should reincarnate and write about them; the life of a useless ‘man’ part 2.

  • 94. Anton  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 1:59 am

    @ Carlo Tucci

    ‘You, having to listen to all those idiot, no nothing. ‘

    Yes, me having to listen to you, idiot, have learn nothing.

    And I don’t know what you are driving at referencing the GOP? I think I WOULD draw the line there. I MIGHT rather even listen to an idiot like you than Herman Cain, or… I really don’t know, since, as you so eloquently put it, I ‘no nothing’.

  • 95. trustthepolice  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 2:09 am

    Look, it’s really simple. Just don’t go around protesting against the people who rule you. Then you won’t get treated like scum.

  • 96. one-eyed jesus muffin  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 2:43 am

    I once saw a South Florida cop take a handcuffed guy out back of a bar and beat the shit out of him while he was on the ground handcuffed and helpless.

    And the cop was a chick cop.

    Sadistic steroid-larded pussies, eff ’em all.

  • 97. G.A.  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 3:52 am

    Well, I feel sorry for the protesters and I wish Yasha wouldn’t have had to endure that.

    Simultaneously I also feel that sometimes the complaints are a bit overblown. Vegans didn’t get their meals and policeman pointed a bean-bag loaded gun at a camera man. Big deal. It depreciates the seriousness of other police offences, which have been indeed serious, and which will hopefully be dealt with appropriately.

  • 98. Michael Zeleny  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 5:16 am

    Yasha Levine wins the “Attracting all sorts of sniveling envious commenters Andrew Breitbart memorial citation” Also, I hate Jews

  • 99. t5k  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 6:09 am

    they also probably slap those high bail numbers on people so they’re cooling their heels in jail instead of protesting LAPD brutality in the streets. glad to hear you’re out!

  • 100. boson  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 6:13 am

    the ows people should rethink their attachment to nonviolent tactics, i mean how do you fight against a violent fascist state?!?!?

    And I don’t say this just becasue I’m a paid provocateur or anything, no sirreee. I mean yeah I am, but that doesn’t mean, aw, hell, can’t you just believe me that I’m waaayyyyy to radical and you need to follow me ?

  • 101. Patrick  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 6:18 am

    Stay strong, everyone. First, they ignore you. Then they try to beat you down. Then they try to co-opt you. Spend your time in jail planning the future of the struggle with your fellow detainees. Re-commit yourself to the struggle for peace and justice.

  • 102. allovrit  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 8:18 am

    What do you expect. You were arrested. Next time leave when repeatedly asked 🙂

    See that smiley face? That’s me when I see power. I usually smile like that just before getting on my knees and sucking off power. 😉

  • 103. Elizabeth Fox  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 8:33 am

    The Almighty Exiled Censor calls a rare General Assembly: Forgive Me, the AEC, for this rare instance of democratic rule in the comments section, but should the AEC continue improving these mass-produced LAPD troll comments like the one that follows? —

    You were arrested and held according to the law. The way they do this, in mass arrests, is to use buses and detain the arrested persons until the bus is full. They are hardly likely to drive each detainee individually to the station. The ZipStrips used as cuffs aren’t supposed to be lose or comfortable. By committing a crime, that of not leaving the protest area as ordered at the end of the permit time, you lost your rights to certain things. Due to the overcrowded conditions in our jails you were put in a holding cell, or kept on the bus, until you could be processed and arraigned. Deal with it. It is all a part of how our system works. It is one of the few parts that works correctly. I bet very few of the detainees that weren’t first to be processed will ever try to protest past their permit time again. We have the right to protest, yes, but we must follow the rules of the permit. We have rights, so long as those rights do not interfere in the rights of others. Have a nice day.

  • 104. William  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 8:48 am

    It is not the cops’ job to punish. It is for the COURTS to decide IF someone is guilty and the HOW they be punished. By treating people this way, the cops are being vigilates. They have grown way too powerful. Be sure to read Blumenthal’s piece today.

  • 105. DeeboCools  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 9:30 am

    I think the exiled censor should continue to improve all mass generated police apologetic comments for victory, justice, and the lulz. Temperature check?

  • 106. Doug  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 9:38 am

    You losers’ need to listen to Adam Carolla and spend your lives on phone calls with teenagers on KROQ while reading Atlas Shrugged. You know that Adam Carolla is a Randroid teafagger right? Bwah-hah-hah, how edgy-funny and contrarian-cool is Adam Carolla, Ayn Rand baggertard?

  • 107. Lev  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 10:18 am

    I think it’s been fun thus far o mighty Censor, but from now on just delete them.

    There’s one area where passive resistance works just fine, and its in the area of communication: Just COMPLETELY ignore the assholes, don’t talk with them, don’t ‘argue’ with them, don’t even have fun with them. After having a ‘discussion’ with a libertard or some other retarded, selfrighteous reactionary of any kind one just laments how that precious moment might have been so much better spent. I could’ve – for example – watched a brownish-grayish wall of an office building for that same amount of time, or picked my nose, or examined a piece of turd by the roadside.

    Seriously, I don’t find these people funny anymore. I just sincerely wish they would not exist, they are like a symptom of a time and place so sick, that the banality of evil needs to be redefined, like into ‘the wankerinesh of slimy, mediocre nastyness’.

  • 108. Sean the Sorcerer  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 10:25 am

    @93 Lev this is an important point. I’m not against evil elites per se, just the current breed of unmanly untermenchen worms who have taken over our empire. If the Koch Brothers, Limbaugh, Lindsey Graham, Karl Rove, et al are the face of our fascist oligarchy, it is an embarrassment to the fascists and aristocrats of old who had real panache and sinister style, and a prime illustration of how far humanity has degenerated in our time. I will happily stomp these swine into the mud with my jackboots and side with leftists in any revolution just so I never have to see or hear these whiners’ fat ugly faces again.

  • 109. t5k  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 10:44 am

    *twinkle hands*

  • 110. ARON PIEMAN KAY  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 11:17 am

    oh wow the same old shit still continues at porker center aka the glass house on los angeles street!!! i last there in may 1972 when we were arrested protesting the vietnam war in front of nixon campaign headquarters on wilshire blvd

  • 111. Eurotrash  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 11:27 am

    “Uh huh huh, quitcha whining you vegan hippies, man up, grow up, get over it, grow a pair and move on!”

    You fkin Yanks shouldn’t have killed Osama the way you did. He treated you with respect. Sure, he blew up a few buildings, but he treated you like human enemies. He was dignified about it. An enemy like that’s worth something. It was all “We love death! Come at us, great Satan!” and none of this “you deserved it, stop being a pussy and admit you deserve everything bad” chickenshit sloganeering.

    Come back, jihadis. All’s forgiven.

  • 112. Mason C  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 11:44 am

    The ‘trollicide’ link comment made my day – L M F A O. What this movement needs is more Tolkien/film noir mashups.

  • 113. Marcus McSpartacus  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    Oh Almighty Exiled Censor, since you are in a temporarily democratic state of grace:

    Please don’t just delete or alter the comments beyond recognition – (and I’m not just saying this because you’ve done it to me, since I have an actual life beyond hiding behind an internet pseudonym and throwing poo like a chimp).

    Please allow the rest of us peons and proles the democratic opportunity of fucking with people’s comments and ideologies in our own comments (but we can’t do that if you erase/transmogriphy the entire target comment to begin with).

    Consider it an opportunity for us to worship your worshipfulness, if even only by pale imitation.

  • 114. CJ  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 12:36 pm

    OMG. It’s like, totally OMG ROFL TMI. That’s how we baggertarians talk, you know. We are indeed from the Planet Trollanus. Here are some interesting things I have to say about this:

    I likes being detained. I’m so glad you guys like 99 percenters. The Tea Party’s racist asses are dead wrong and embarrasing. Pitching a tent does cause my pants to bulge. There are much more trolltastic ways to suck up to Wall Street. The Tea Party is still trying to figure out what part of the Kochs boots to lick. What is even more sad is that i’m trolling this. I bet the Tea Party organizers were paid well to put it together. But you guys upset this baggertarian so much that I had to publish like three paragraphs here. I’m only getting started. Here, watch what I’m going to say now about you. ThisBEEEEEEEP. WE INTERRUPT THIS REGULARLY-TROLLED COMMENT FROM TROLLANUS TO BRING YOU THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE FROM THE ALMIGHTY EXILED CENSOR:

    Oh shit, forgot what I was going to say. Here, let me restore the comment that I just deleted. Whoops! It’s deleted-deleted. Gosh, butterfingers!

  • 115. Marcus McSpartacus  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 12:37 pm

    “There were two vegetarians and one vegan in my cell…”
    … so, none of the meat-eaters should have gone hungry, then.

  • 116. Marcus McSpartacus  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 12:53 pm

    “Meanwhile, the cops in charge of the bus took an extended Starbucks coffee break.”

    You see, my trollanus mission is to try to turn this all into a union issue and how we should bust police unions. Yah! Myea! MEenenaryareadphya! It’s all the unions’ faults myeah myah myiaahah!

  • 117. NAwermod  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    “banality of evil needs to be redefined, like into ‘the wankerinesh of slimy, mediocre nastyness’.” Truer words never spoken. ‘Banality of evil’ is downright respectable compared to these subhumans with their frustrated, cowardly rage against anyone who stands up for themselves while the whole country gets fleeced by the oligarchy. The flamboyant wretchedness of it is completely obscene. These same people who undoubtedly think the US is the greatest and FREE-est country in the world, howl and cheer ever louder as the jackboot comes down on the face of democracy. They want everyone with spirit and courage to feel just like the squashed, spineless worms that they are. Fucking putrid waste of humanity!

  • 118. GuitarBill  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 2:22 pm

    Long live the eXileD moderator!

  • 119. lol  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    well, since you were there whereas I’m just in my miserable duplex watching FoxNews, I’ll have to resentfully admit that I’m a baggertard in search of a spine.

  • 120. Zhu Bajie  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    Look around you, John from NE Texas! 4th world degradation is what your employers plan for you!

  • 121. vortexgods  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 2:35 pm

    “These same people who undoubtedly think the US is the greatest and FREE-est country in the world, howl and cheer ever louder as the jackboot comes down on the face of democracy.”

    Does anyone actually believe that the US is “the greatest and the free-est,” or do people just say it to prove their right-wing bona fides?

  • 122. Pavel Rotmistrov  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 2:53 pm

    @112 Here’s a picture of the mighty AEC in all his axe wielding majesty, slaughtering trolls by the dozen:

    http://northernhelmets.blogspot.com/2011/10/continuing-with-barbarians.html

    This said, the trolls infesting this thread are not exactly the best of the lot. Some of the comments improved by the AEC were indeed so retarded one think the above mentioned AEC must feel by now bored to death. Bring on more worthy adversaries!

  • 123. Flatulissimo  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 4:34 pm

    Please don’t stop, Mighty eXiled Comment Censor. You’re on a motherfucking roll, and I love the idea of the comment trolls gnashing their teeth in impotent rage after you improve their comments, though they are not worthy to touch the hem of your holy vestments.

  • 124. StrEEtwYZe ReLiGiOn  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 6:07 pm

    Bring it all to light and watch the vermin scurry for cover. If I lived in L.A., I’d be right there with them, and enduring the exact same treatment. And when I got out, I’d expose it to the world via the internet. This is not “whining.” We are fully prepared to be arrested and spend time in jail if that’s what it takes. We know full well how the jails are run and what LE thinks of us, and how they will treat us. It comes with the territory under the current police state. That doesn’t mean we aren’t going to speak about it.

  • 125. proletariat  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 6:16 pm

    how much will it take before OWS actually starts fighting back?

    this is ridiculous. get that ghandi garbage out of your heads and read up on some real revolutionaries.

  • 126. Astromachia  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 6:46 pm

    I suppose forcing vegetarians to eat meat or starve is just like forcing a traditional Jew to eat pork & crayfish or starve. I don’t imagine we’ll see that too soon from LAPD though.

  • 127. June  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 7:01 pm

    Boson (comment 100) : you are absolutely right! It’s time to arm ourselves against provocatrolls like your truly. and that means: realizing that moles are the ones always calling for armed rebellion. Think of FBI informant Brandon Darby who got a couple of kids to make molotov cocktails and then turned them in!

    darby

  • 128. super390  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 7:05 pm

    #87:
    Here’s the case for not altering the troll comments at all. This guy exposes himself in a far more harmful way.

    #121:

    And yes, America is full of people who say they are the greatest and the free-est, like Mr. #87. It’s their country. As long as you think and act and obey exactly like them, it’s the greatest and the free-est. Everyone else is wrong and inferior, and oppressing and even murdering them, like a gay kid tangled in barbed wire in Wyoming, is therefore a necessary defense of the only real human beings.

    Don’t wonder where the motherfucker cops come from. There is an entire population of ordinary Americans who breed cops without any effort. If anything, the cops probably have had their adolescent viciousness dialed back by departmental training due to fears of lawsuits. The civilians are often crazier and more bigoted, but they don’t have guns and uniforms to embolden their self-expression. I recall summarizing legal depositions where off-duty cops hassled (and worse) blacks repeatedly at a certain oft-sued Arkansas-based “upscale” store chain. It always turned out that the store clerks, screechy white suburban chicks, panicked over nothing and hit the button and the cops simply shot out of their chutes and believed what the shopgirls told them. If the cops had been on duty, it wouldn’t have happened because their bureaucracy would have whistled “heel” and “sit stay”.

    So what’s happening in these assaults on protestors is that the bureaucrats are tossing away the whistle and letting the cops behave like screechy white suburban chicks with guns and armor and overwhelming superiority in numbers who think their privileged status is being violated. And that is bloody indeed.

  • 129. DrunktankDan  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    Damn dude, the Almighty Exiled Censor has been putting in some fucking overtime today!
    It’s true, you do need the powers of a demigod to improve all of this libertard trolling without having your brain melt and leak out through your exploded eyesockets.

    Poor guy. We should host a (drugged) baked goods sale at the local church this sunday to raise funds for him.

    Speaking of which. . .did you guys still need help with legal fees and shit for Yasha?

  • 130. super390  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 7:17 pm

    To all the trolls who say we shouldn’t protest, so that the city can save money beating our skulls in and spend it on welfare instead:

    What welfare? You bastards are allowed by the cops to terrorize the streets at YOUR protests to officialize the message that it’s “the will of the people” that all nigger-money must be slashed to pay for tax cuts for the rich. There isn’t a single thing we want the money to be spent on that won’t be cut out of the budget in the next few years, unless we make people aware that it’s happening.

    So we’ve got nothing to lose, baby. You’re pretending there isn’t an agenda already in place to bring back the conditions of antebellum Mississippi forever. We’ve read “The Shock Doctrine”, we already know your masters have gone that far and stolen everything in dozens of unfortunate US-run countries. There is no compromise or equilibrium point between us, only power.

  • 131. Natalie  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 7:40 pm

    The behavior of the cops is appalling. It disgusts me that you were treated like this! I believe cops like to inflict pain, it is a mindset that comes with the job, in my opinion. I am a paralegal who works with prisoners. Some of the prisoners have been in prison since before they turned 18 and they are now 50 years old or older. Some are innocent. Some aren’t. Recently I received a letter from a 20-year-old inmate who had a pillow case put over his head and was beaten into unconsciousness by prison guards. What I’m trying to say is, I hope you join us in opposing unconstitutional and inhumane conditions for all human beings.

  • 132. Natalie  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 7:41 pm

    Oh, if you want to get involved, please email me at njsmith0309@gmail.com

  • 133. Xenophon's Mama  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 8:00 pm

    Back just to report: this article was posted on Reddit and made it within the top 100 threads there today. That is probably why you eX-fags are getting the Treatment from statists and cop-suckers.
    http://www.reddit.com/search?q=yasha+levine&restrict_sr=off&sort=relevance

  • 134. dirk  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 8:04 pm

    Why did I waste 5 minutes of my life staring blankly at the comments on that dreadful gynphobic blog? There’s a “manosphere?” They spend their free time hating women and licking boots? They think being “politically incorrect” makes them a persecuted class? What have we come to as a species?

  • 135. Robert Hdge  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    I wonder how the cops will feel once the banksters take their wonderful pensions.

  • 136. ungernsternberg  |  December 3rd, 2011 at 10:19 pm

    without strong leaders, ows is a dead end. youre playing by their rules and can never break the media monopoly. you either get organized quickly and strongly or keep on wasting your energy time and nerves to this club of impotent do-gooders.
    as a german i cant deny that it does give me a certain satisfaction seeing you pay the bill of your 50 year folly and self delusion, thinking of your oh so great country as the saviour of the world, when in fact, the last worldwar against us germans was exactly the same beating down of the Hitler, who everyone knows was a rebel against wallstreet and bankers dictatorschip.

  • 137. charliebucket  |  December 4th, 2011 at 12:29 am

    @133: Agree. It’s really pretty ridiculous. The point of being “politically incorrect” is supposed to preclude that you don’t act like a crying bitch, ever.

    And you have to love how these supposedly “big government” hating douches are fully behind state-sponsored violence, the most bare and egregious form of big government abuse there could possibly be.

  • 138. Liz  |  December 4th, 2011 at 1:29 am

    “might have been drunk” “But he might have been allegedly drunk” “City News provides breaking and sometimes in-depth coverage” hahahahaha they just threw that in there. nice try

  • 139. boson  |  December 4th, 2011 at 3:26 am

    ok, perhaps i should’ve specified what i mean exactly. by “rethinking nonviolent tactics” i don’t mean throwing molotov cocktails and things like that. that’s clearly counterproductive.
    it’s just that there is something curious about emphasizing nonviolence so much while the state-corporate apparatus uses violence against protesters all the time.
    protests in their current form do not seem to frighten the 1%, they treat the protesters like shit. so what i had in mind were protests that are still basically nonviolent but show the power of the masses. say like blockades, occupation of public buildings or banks, strikes etc.
    maybe that would make the 1% think again whether they can treat the rest of us as they are treating us now. BTW this was (one of the things) what helped pass the new deal in the 30s: sitting strikes in the auto industry in 1934.

    (btw the AEC rewriting my comment pissed me off especially as I just donated you guys some $ just 3 days ago. but OK, my comment was not clear and it could have been understood as provocation, so fair enough.)

  • 140. Mike S.  |  December 4th, 2011 at 5:57 am

    @Robert Hdge,
    then you might like this:
    http://www.baycitizen.org/occupy-movement/story/pepper-spraying-cop-was-bankrupt/
    John A. Pike III, identified as the police officer who pepper-sprayed a line of sitting Occupy movement protesters Friday on the University of California, Davis campus may have more in common with the discontented 99 percent than previously suspected.
    Pike, who was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into the Nov. 18 incident, last year emerged from a bankruptcy where creditors took possession of his pickup truck, his wedding ring, his barbecue grill, several handguns, and even $265 worth of clothing.Pike earns more than $110,000 a year as a UC Davis police lieutenant. But federal court records and county mortgage records reveal that Pike and his wife, Erica, borrowed heavily before the 2008 financial crisis, and were left insolvent when the value of their Roseville home declined.

  • 141. purple  |  December 4th, 2011 at 7:33 am

    The main thing every idealistic protester should know is a large majority of Americans could care less about their abuse.

    Yes, Americans are ‘angry’ but they are angry over not winning their personal lottery ticket. That is not a pre-condition for any type of progressive movement.

    If you love the struggle, then go for it. But if you hope to change this country, realistic examination will probably show that it’s futile. We are in dry rot.

  • 142. TOUGH LIBERTARIAN TERRY  |  December 4th, 2011 at 9:02 am

    .OH big deal, something happened to you, a worse thing happened to someone else. I didn’t cry when my grandpa died cause I know that some people’s grandpas and grandmaas have died on the same day.

    I’m tough. I’ve learned a lot of good fighting tactics online, and if i was going to protest I would use them and say “HEY, COP, you know, that i have these good tactics.. and the cop would surrender his weapons to me and my friends. My friends and me would dress up like cops and go to the white house and say, “HEY, the gold standard.. is really good. and the president would say “Even though I am muslim, I agree,” and he would resign, Ron Paul would be appointed president and they would give us jobs as the new army/cia/richard marcinko secret commando force.
    IN closing, be like me “yasha” “levine” and maybe your movement would be serious, like mine, libertarianism. Go libertarianism! The toughest guys online!

  • 143. radii  |  December 4th, 2011 at 10:39 am

    these union cops are going along with torture protocols perfected by israel

    just think about the planning that went into the lockup, wait, and poor conditions … LAPD had weeks to plan a different response

    LAPD could have set up a tented intake station with tables of water-bottles, food, music, etc and slowly walked the peaceful protesters into the jail for processing (there is no reason for those arrested to have been taken to more than one facility) … everything that happened to the arrested protesters was planned … the choice could have been made to treat them civilly, without malice and with dignity

    the similarity to police responses all over the US speaks to a national policy

  • 144. Anton  |  December 4th, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    Setting aside the question of what might be the optimal tactic or how futile any approach might be, isn’t it quite obvious that wether ‘we’ want it or not, sooner or later there will be bodies in the streets? And then, more hard ammunition, more bodies. I’m not saying now or next year, but within, say, next five years.

    Not because the elites or the OWS or pretty much anybody – save the total loonies – perticularily want it, but just because the mass has been set in motion and there ain’t no stopping it. People are angry and scared on both sides. The OWS aren’t the scared ones, nor unfortunately are the real elites, but there’s a hell of a lot other ‘folks’ – Mr Nobel Laureate Sugar Daddy O loves to use this word, folks – who are quite bonkers plus scared shitless and they are well armed, to boot. Once the situation really escalates it might just develop into a vicious circle.

    One part of the corrupt technocrat culture is, that there is no real leadership. So here’s the scenario: serious social unrest, something actually approaching class war, higly polarized climate of ideology, ethnicity, politics, a broken system with corruption rampant in evert sector, politics, police, military, courts, universities… and NO leadership – even in the self interested, self-preseving sense – ANYWHERE. (I mean in no place of higher authority.)

    So would it be so ludricious to suggest two sceanarios: 1) Anarchy – meaning anarchosyndicalism – will rise as an alternative political force to compete with the current system of subhuman scumbaggery, (how nice whould that be!) or then 2) there’ll just be plain anarchy in the sense it’s used in common vernacular, ie. total chaos, and possibly a Egypt-style crackdown by the military.

  • 145. Jim  |  December 4th, 2011 at 5:04 pm

    Wow. that sucks. i guess I should have never left the Man-o-Sphere and realized that I’m just a gutless baton-swallower, and not a real man like you.

  • 146. Vendetta  |  December 5th, 2011 at 5:41 am

    @136: Go back to Stormfront, Hitler was no progressive hero.

  • 147. franc black  |  December 5th, 2011 at 9:18 am

    You had me until you mentioned the vegan stuff … now I’m not sure if this is a humour piece or a first-hand accurate reporting. Because I’ve dealt with so many situations like this first-hand, it seems funny to my Gen-X irony-poisoned little pea-brain.

    What happened to Justice in the USA?

  • 148. internal exile  |  December 5th, 2011 at 11:14 am

    Look at it this way, Exil-ies. Some of those “protestors”, probably at one time “did drugs”. So, according to Mark Ames, the police are completely unjustified in whatever “brutality” they meted out to these “druggies” because as Ames wrote in his attack on Ron Paul, drugs should be decriminalized at the federal level, whereas Ron Paul and the libertards want to transfer the drug war fascism from federal government level to state government level.

    http://exiledonline.com/two-things-to-say-about-ron-pauls-allegedly-awesome-position-on-drugs/

    A few of us libertarians have been in jail for biting our girlfriend’s thumbs and breaking our girlfriend’s eye sockets, so we’re the libertarian ones you want to defer to on this issue.

  • 149. alijah assadian  |  December 5th, 2011 at 12:04 pm

    I live in Isafahan, i would live in usa even wioth this police burtality on show. You wanna try living here, ifit stops religious taking over then bring it on the jackboots!

  • 150. Angel Morales  |  December 6th, 2011 at 6:33 am

    Don’t pay attention to the freaks who are just trying to start trouble. Some of them are paid minimum wage to take the side of the banks. Sad as that is. I know of someone who was offered that type of job. I mean, why would anyone else waste their time?

  • 151. John Merti  |  December 6th, 2011 at 7:43 am

    All good reasons not to become a bottom-troller for the lawless police state. I feel bad for the officers who had do deal with bootlicking troller scum like me.

  • 152. Eric  |  December 8th, 2011 at 5:18 am

    Sorry, but this sounds like absolutely nothing that I or my pussy bootlicking suckup rightwing friends would ever do. Instead, we hang out in our parents’ homes on the Internet, posting angry comments at Americans who have the balls to stand up for their rights–either that, or surfing child porn

  • 153. me  |  December 8th, 2011 at 3:53 pm

    troll me a river

  • 154. chronicol.  |  December 16th, 2011 at 10:42 pm

    Thanks for this account. I have a similar account of the post-eviction cruelty we experienced. I was the girl who was crying in your bus. I still have extensive nerve damage in both of my hands. I stayed in Van Nuys until the arraignment on Friday. The continued abuse and mistreatment that we suffered was inexplicably inhumyn. We need as many people as possible talking about what happened behind bars.

  • 155. Everybody Gets Ice Cream  |  January 5th, 2012 at 1:34 pm

    Dude, I just got back from the court. Should have kept an eye out for you.

  • 156. Jie Ke  |  January 5th, 2012 at 4:30 pm

    @150

    Many of them do it in the misguided belief that this is the start of a political or even intelligence career.

  • 157. Fubar  |  February 26th, 2012 at 4:23 am

    http://attackthesystem.com/beyond-conservatism-reclaiming-the-radical-roots-of-libertarianism/

    Beyond Conservatism: Reclaiming the Radical Roots of Libertarianism
    Copyright 2005. Keith Preston. American Revolutionary Vanguard. All rights reserved.

    excerpt:

    The demise of the Old Order in Europe and America marked the beginnings of the political divisions of “Left” and “Right” or “liberal” and “conservative”. Rothbard correctly characterized classical Liberalism, the revolutionary ideology of the eighteenth century, as “the party of hope, of radicalism, of liberty, of the Industrial Revolution, of progress, of humanity” with Conservatism being “the party of reaction, the party that longed to restore the hierarchy, statism, theocracy, serfdom, and class exploitation of the Old Order”. Given that “liberalism admittedly had reason on its side, the Conservatives darkened the ideological atmosphere with obscurantist calls for romanticism, tradition, theocracy, and irrationalism”. No better description has ever been written of modern American conservatism, whether one speaks of the neoconservative con artistry that passes for its “leadership” or the jingoist, pseudo-populist ideology used to rally its grassroots support base. As the antithesis of Conservatism, classical Liberalism was, in Rothbard’s view, “essentially radical and revolutionary”. Liberalism, as described by the great Catholic historian Lord John Acton, “wishes for what ought to be, irrespective of what is.”(7)

    If libertarianism has its roots in eighteenth century radical liberalism, how, then, did libertarianism come to be identified with conservatism? As the nineteenth century progressed, classical liberalism largely became the status quo. Like other movements that become corrupted or compromised with the achievement of victory, Liberalism began to lose its radical edge and started accommodating itself to the Establishment. Consequently, the old feudal ruling classes were able to reinvent themselves as a state-capitalist class, subsequently degenerating into neo-mercantilism and “liberal imperialism”.(8) Hence, the rise of the classical Socialist and Communist movements of the nineteenth century as a reaction against the deterioration of Liberalism. Rothbard described this process:

    “Into this gap, into this void created by the drying up of radical liberalism, there stepped a new movement: Socialism. Libertarians of the present day are accustomed to think of socialism as the polar opposite of the libertarian creed. But this is a grave mistake responsible for a severe ideological disorientation of libertarians in the present world. As we have seen, Conservatism was the polar opposite of liberty; and socialism, while to the ‘left’ of conservatism, was essentially a confused, middle-of-the-road movement. It was, and still is, middle-of-the-road because it tries to achieve Liberal ends by the use of Conservative means.”

    “Socialism, like Liberalism and against Conservatism, accepted the industrial system and the liberal goals of freedom, reason, mobility, progress, higher living standards for the masses, and an end to theocracy and war; but it tried to achieve these ends by the use of incompatible, Conservative means: statism, central planning, communitarianism, etc.”

  • 158. .  |  April 14th, 2012 at 11:05 am

    How do people take abuse from a cop like that and go on living? Maybe it’s a good thing I’ve never been arrested because if someone, cop or not, treated me like that while laughing in my face, I’d hunt him down and kill him and his family. Hopefully he’d be tied to a chair while I forced his wife and kids my shit.

  • 159. Sean  |  July 7th, 2015 at 7:29 am

    Occupy, lol. Libs, dips, milennials, and lefties loved the idea, even though they caused most of their own problems.


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