Lessons in liberty from Ukraine

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http://www.sptimes.com/2004/12/05/Columns/Lessons_in_liberty_fr.shtml

By ROBYN E. BLUMNER, St. Petersburg Times
Published December 5, 2004

Watching events unfold in Ukraine has been thrilling and inspiring. Every day since the election for president, hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Kiev, the capital, to express their outrage over the what appears to be a stolen election.

Government police, while out in force, have not disrupted the protests. Demonstrators have been so numerous and determined they have closed government offices. Yet the police have not confronted them with guns pointed at their faces or pepper spray in their eyes or bean bag bullets shot into their backs or orange netting rounding them up for indiscriminate arrest, as we've seen here in recent confrontations between demonstrators and police.

Maybe American law enforcement can learn a thing or two about freedom of dissent from this former part of the Soviet Union?

These days, on our shores, repressive tactics over restraint is the preferred police response to large groups of Americans joining together to criticize the government. The excuse is always the need to prevent another disruption like that at the 1999 trade conference in Seattle or worries over the "war on terrorism." But the truth is that police and government have never had an easy relationship with massive protest movements and they now feel freer than ever to block and disrupt demonstrations and treat those who have the audacity to dissent as presumptive criminals.

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1. Good article

This really hits the nail on the head. We ARE in a harsh police state. Other nations are doing better jobs handling protests, etc. Our country is having issues reminiscent of labor breaking tactics used in the 1800's. I just hope that people will get a clue.