In my own trolling through online political discussion forums, here and elsewhere, over the past few years, a few stereotypical posts have turned into serious pet peeves. For example, I start to grind my teeth whenever anyone posts that other posters need to "Wake up;" it smacks of such smug self-righteousness. Another one is whenever anyone posts that a fellow needs to "read up" on whatever topic is being discussed; more often than not, the person demanding that everyone else read up on the subject knows less than others involved in the discussion.
So, it was with no small amount of self-loathing that, upon reading all of the shocked reactions to the arrest of Amy Goodman, the arrest of a 78-year-old nun and other protestors, the pepper-spraying of Donna Brazile, et al., my immediate reaction was: "Are you kidding me? Wake up, people! You need to read up on this!"
What started in Oakland in April 2003 became the national model for modern police crowd control after its use at the Free Trade Area of the Americas protest in Miami in November of that year. The so-called "Miami Model" is now the go-to tactic for controlling potentially hostile crowds. Embedding mainstream journalists with police, controlling what they see, and dispersing protestors by any means necessary short of live ammunition is de rigueur. It may be blatantly felonious according to the judge who heard the cases of FTAA protestors in December 2003, but it is also utterly effective.
I witnessed the birth of the Miami model firsthand. The acrid smell of tear gas, the wholesale barrages of rubber bullets, the hindsight justifications that amounted to so many lies. In the immediate aftermath, I sounded a lot like many of the voices in the blogosphere over the past couple of days. Outraged. Utterly incredulous at the very notion that an entire police department, or several (difficult to say since none of the police were properly identified that day, a simple "POLICE" on vests replacing any identifying markers of Miami PD, Miami-Dade sheriffs or other law-enforcement agencies), could commit multiple felonies in broad daylight, totally willingly, and never face even a whiff of repercussion. But after Miami, after it became obvious that police in America can flout the law at will in crowd-control tactics, I can't say I was ever again surprised to hear of its occurrence. It is the order of the day. It's the ugly answer to an old ethical quandary: If you could break the law and never get caught -- in fact, even be greeted by the laughing approval of other law-enforcement agencies -- would you do it?
All too often since Miami, the answer has been an indefatigable "yes."
(My own somewhat impolitic, rather foul-mouthed reaction to the cops-laughing-at-lady-being-shot-in-the-head video can be found at my old blog, Doomed Generation, here and here.)
We all know that youtube videos can be misleading. We all know that the media isn't fair.
But we don't know how it feels to be surrounded by riot police and tear gassed as a peaceful protester in your own town. Once you know how that feels, it kind of changes everything.
When everyone knows how this feels, it will be far, far too late.