I believe that the next police chief should be asked to publicly declare that he or she will protect the right to assembly protest we are guaranteed in the Constitution.
Furthermore, I believe that the Mayor and City Council should address this issue by guaranteeing that protesters will not be quarantined from "sterile zones" around politicians or events in such a way as to insulate the protesters from politicians, public figures, or the press coverage of significant visits, meetings, or events in the city.
It seems to me that local government and civil leadership is withering away, starved into submission and then remade in the image of traditional fascism.
Michael Parenti writes: "Much of political life involves the rational manipulation of irrational sentiments by ruling elites." (from "History as Mystery", 1999, page 109) Fascism requires a de facto "police state" even if under the guise of "friendly fascism." Fascism justifies the de facto police state just as it justifies and glorifies perpetual war -- by manipulating the fears and frustrations of the citizenry through the media.
Globalized brutality is manifest as repressive militarized police forces replace human services and education while "journo-lobbying" is the norm rather than the exception.
I wonder if our local media will consider this issue explicitly, and from the point of view of protecting the Consitutional rights guaranteed to us as citizens. Our political _expression_ is vital to democracy. As so-called "freedom of speech" is limited to "freedom of speech if you can buy air time and ad-space" I wonder if there is much of a chance that this topic will even be brought up by local media, let alone an analyzed in a thoughtful way.
It is vital in this context that we speak out now about the role of our police force in our city. We do want leadership that is loyal to the Constitution and to the citizenry rather than to the political machinations of the shrinking ruling elite.
(See this article for a just a little background on journolobbying:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17222
or check out the latest Adbusters -- (Journal of the Mental Environment) at:
http://www.adbusters.org/home/
In a message dated 11/28/2003 10:23:41 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
We shouldn't take for granted that a police chief candidate would view
protests as a right and a necessary part of our democracy and, thus, we
should make this criterion explicit as we move
forward in the selection of a new chief.
Jeanne Massey
Kingfield
