This Is Not America

As we move away from the RNC Convention, I hope that the brutal treatment by law enforcement of peaceful protesters doesn't get completely ignored. The major media hasn't raised much of a peep about it, but there are so many outrages - really police state outrages - that occurred last week that at least somebody should mention it. They used tear gas, concussion grenades, physical barriers, and nightsticks; snatched people off the streets, arrested hundreds and raided homes.

This is really the kind of thing you'd see in the Soviet Union or its satellite states. And our silence equals complicity. I don't know what to do about this. The media views protesters with scorn and ridicule, making it acceptable to deprive them of their civil liberties and brutalize them. They have few advocates anywhere in society. And yet each outrageous assault makes the next one more likely, and expands the police state. We haven't reached a breaking point because there is a systemic barrier to allow anyone to reach it.