"Rev Dr" Lenny Flank
Posts: 2560
Joined: Feb. 2005
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| Quote (Dr.GH @ Jan. 21 2007,13:24) | | I had a friend who spent 4 years in Levenworth as a war protester. (This was in the 1950s) He was never the same. |
I'd have to say that of all the times I've been arrested (at rallies, demonstrations, protests etc), the worst by far were the Philadelphia cops. I pissed blood for days after they were done with me.
The New York cops weren't far behind.
The DC cops were actually pretty decent -- I suspect they've seen so much of the political stuff that it just doesn't faze them anymore.
The military MP's at the Pentagon were actually pretty nice to me, except one dude who seemed to be a bit sadistic at heart.
The FBI was always impeccably polite when they interviewed me. I suppose if they had been actually arresting me, things might have been different.
I only dealt with the Secret Service once, and they were assholes. This was in '87 or '88, back when Bush the Elder was Prez. He was giving a speech at a local school, so some friends and me camped out overnight to be right by the front door the next morning, waiting for him with signs at the ready. Alas, the folks in the black suits saw us and came over to inform us that we couldn't stay there, and they had set up a "Free Speech Zone" **at the back of the building** for all us protestors. Gee, thanks. I, in turn, informed them that I, um, wasn't a lawyer or anything, but the last time *I* checked, the **entire United States of America** was a goddamn 'free speech zone', and perhaps they could point to some law that indicated otherwise . . . ? The dark-suited ones then ran off to huddle with some other dark-suited ones, and after some chattering into their walkie-talkies, they came over and declared that we couldn't stay there and had to move. After some discussion during which the words "police state", "South Africa" and "up yours" were mentioned, I then informed them that I was staying right where I was, and the only way I was leaving would be if they dragged me away, kicking and screaming and hollering my head off --- right in front of all those TV cameras that were busily setting up nearby. More huddling, more chattering, and the guys in the dark suits declared that, well, maybe we could stay there after all.
The pricks.
I suppose that if the same situation were to happen today, though, they'd simply "extraordinarily rendition" us all and send us to Slovakia or someplace to be tortured and indefinitely jailed as terrorist enemy combatants. (sigh)
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