Non-violent Peace demonstrators BRUTALIZED at White House

[Bennyboy]

Source: peace action peace blog

ON-VIOLENT PEACE DEMONSTRATORS BRUTALIZED

BY SECRET SERVICE AT WHITE HOUSE TODAY

Activists had sought a meeting with the Obama Administration to urge an end to the war in Afghanistan


Washington, D.C. – Twenty-three non-violent peace activists calling for an end to the US war in Afghanistan were violently pushed and dragged away from a White House gate by Secret Service officers this afternoon. The activists, participating in a larger demonstration of over 300 people organized by the National Campaign for Non-Violent Resistance, had sent a letter to President Obama last month requesting a meeting today to discuss their opposition to the war.

After a non-violent “die-in” at the White House gate, the peace activists waited for over three hours while various police departments, including the Washington, DC Metro Police, Park Police and Secret Service, gave conflicting stories about whether the activists would be arrested or not, the group’s request to meet with someone from the Administration having been summarily rebuffed by White House guards.

Suddenly, with no warning and with dozens of other police officers watching, a group of about a dozen Secret Service officers swooped in to push and drag the protesters, who included a number of retirees, away from the White House gate and outside a police perimeter that had been established in the normally public area in front of the White House.

(((((SNIP)))))

Read more: http://peaceblog.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/news-release-non-violent-peace-demonstrators-brutalized-by-secret-service-at-white-house-today/

[tomhayes]

1. Is this like Ronnie Dobbs being brutalized???

Toughen up anti-war protesters, y'all is sounding pretty whiny.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Hmm... wonder if the Obama WH bothered responding to the letter:

>>>>>The activists, participating in a larger demonstration of over 300 people organized by the National Campaign for Non-Violent Resistance, had sent a letter to President Obama last month requesting a meeting today to discuss their opposition to the war.>>>>

[Freddie Stubbs]

40. I'm sure that President Obama is well aware that peace activists oppose the war

What useful information are would they be able to provide to him?

[Smarmie Doofus]

43. Key-rist.. Even *Nixon* met with antiwar demonstrators....

... when they came to DC.

>>>>>What useful information are would they be able to provide to him?>>>>

Listen to yourself. Yikes.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Damn

Why won't Obama meet with them?

[jberryhill]

4. They blocked a gate for three hours and weren't arrested?

Sounds pretty tame.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Oh yeah

Martin was shoved hard in the back by two Secret Service officers, causing him to fall into National Campaign for Non-Violent Resistance Co-convener Joy First, a grandmother from Wisconsin. First was roughed up by several officers and was still in tears twenty minutes after the incident.

[jberryhill]

8. One person was bumped into another person

...and another person cried for twenty minutes.

Yes?

I'm going to guess you haven't been to too many die-ins or other types of protests were people go limp, sit down, and are required to be moved.

Phrases like "shoved" and "roughed up" are colorful.

Who sustained injuries and for what were they treated?

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. Yes I have participated in several die-ins.

And that's why I find this behavior by the SS particularly appalling.

[jberryhill]

15. What specific behavior is appalling?

Letting them block a gate for three hours, or removing them from the gate without arresting them.

Also, please explain to me your technique for removing people who are blocking a gate, when those people do not want to be moved.

Oh... I know... the new White House access policy should be that any group of 20 people who blocks a gate and says they are peace demonstrators should immediately be ushered into the Oval Office. Is that it?

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. If none of them had been hurt we would have a completely different story

It's possible to contain a group at a die-in without brutalizing them.

[jberryhill]

31. What story would we have?

The "brutality" seems to consist of one person being bumped into another person.

Usually, if someone is "shoved hard", they fall down, go boom.

The story seems to suggest these people blocked a White House gate for three freaking hours.

I don't care if they are peace protestors, teabaggers, anti-abortion activists, or Jehovah's Witnesses wanting to give Obama a copy of The Watchtower, they don't get to block a gate at the White House and distract security from its job for three hours.

[KittyWampus]

6. brutalized?

[tekisui]

7. That does seem a bit hyperbolic.

I am sure there will be video of it soon enough.

[Bennyboy]

10. Well I just used the headline I saw like I usually do...

And I really think had Bush been in the WH, your reactions would be a bit more condemning...

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Beat me to it!

:toast:

[jberryhill]

17. How did the word "Brutalized" manage to switch to all caps?

What emergency room were the injured taken to?

[Bennyboy]

26. Well that might have been a bit too much agreed....

[KittyWampus]

19. #1. Under Bush these people would have been in Free Speech Zones far, far away from the White House

#2. Under Bush, it's very likely all these people would have been beaten with limbs dislocated and broken.
#3. Under Bush, these people would have been taken to the police station and held.

None of that happened.

[Cant trust em]

23. I remember being in Washington in 2003 when the war was about the begin.

Before the war started, protesters were allowed in front of the White House, but behind the fence. I walked by Code Pink protesters every day at lunch. After the war kicked off, there was a huge black gate erected on the other side of Pennsylvania Ave. so that you couldn't even see the White House.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

37. Yes, brutalized.

This is worse than the Holocaust and Showgirls combined.

[jberryhill]

38. You are trivializing the historic trauma of Showgirls /nt

[jaxx]

9. Did they really think the President would come out the door and meet with them?

That's pretty delusional.

[Cant trust em]

I'm conflicted with feelings that this was unfortunate,

but calling it brutality is taking it over the top. I hope words like "brutality" don't lose their meaning.

[jberryhill]

16. But consider the massive injuries...

The blood, the broken bones, and tazings, which this group endured.

[Cant trust em]

20. Afterall, someone did cry.

[jberryhill]

25. You see? That counts as a bodily fluid

She could have become dangerously dehydrated.

[Cant trust em]

27. Such brutality!

[anonymous171]

12. The more coercion authority is required to use, the less legitimate they are.

:shrug: Just saying.

[jberryhill]

22. Who is employing coercion?

If I get twenty folks to block your door, demanding to be invited inside of your house, who is being "coercive"?

[anonymous171]

29. They sent Obama a letter asking for an audience at this date

They probably took his lack of a reply as a "yes" and showed up to talk with him.

[jberryhill]

32. Well that's what happens when you don't include an RSVP card /nt

[Karmadillo]

14. Meet with the administration? Do they think they're Billy Tauzin or somebody? The gall of

these citizens. Egomaniacs.

[Kaleva]

18. The '60's anti-war bunch were made of sterner stuff .

[Chulanowa]

30. And that's saying something

Considering what a bunch of whiny pansies they were compared to the protests their grandparents threw.

[Kaleva]

36. I think the article is an example of why the anti-war effort doesn't get any traction

10's of thousands overseas have been killed or maimed but in this protest, one person got shoved into someone else while another protester cried for at least 20 minutes and they are said to have been brutalized.

[Freddie Stubbs]

41. They're probably the same people, just 40 years older

[Nite Owl]

21. What is this administration

so afraid of anyway? Being called an evil liberal? Afraid the corporate leaders who control us won't like it? Someone could have met with them. Actions like this reveal alot about what their goals really are and they aren't for accepting all opinions.

[jberryhill]

28. "The Administration" isn't terribly concerned with 20 people blocking a gate

The security staff, likely has its own opinion of anyone doing so.

Were the teabaggers also supposed to be invited in?

[G_j]

33. we knew that was coming

comparing peace demonstrators to tea-baggers..

:banghead:

[jberryhill]

34. When it is your job to keep people from entering the White House

The "cause" of people blocking a gate is completely irrelevant.

The relevant identification is "people blocking a gate and demanding entry".

WTF difference does it make what is motivating them?

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. They WERE invited in

When Bush was president, they came to an anti-war march and assaulted several of the people in the march, including a father who had lost his son in Iraq. Next day Bush invited them to lunch.

No they weren't called teabaggers then but it is the same bunch of 'patriots'.

[Kaleva]

39. "ONGOING rape, torture, disappearances and murders in Honduras"

A link to a story here at DU about people being brutalized.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7429710

[Ocracoker16]

42. This is a real instance of brutalization