The Chicago Tribune is playing its role as a lapdog that is willing to serve and be manipulated by the Chicago police. Here's an interesting nugget from the Tribune's coverage:The arrests were the result of a month-long investigation into a group suspected of making Molotov cocktails -- crude bombs usually created by filling glass bottles with gasoline, according to law enforcement sources and police records obtained by the Tribune.
Why does that strike me? The NLG attorneys representing the arrestees have not been shown any police records on any "month-long investigation." The details I have been able to gather from speaking to arrestees personally make it seem like the police have, in the past 48 hours, fabricated all of these details about having some investigation in progress. Yet, the press get to see the records on arrestees so that the police can be sure people take the charges against the activists seriously and do not suspect police abuse or repression of activists.
We've seen the US prosecute and imprison eco-protesters as terrorists.
We've seen many examples of police arresting people who photograph or video police making arrests or acting brutally.
We know that MOST of the terrorist arrests made in the US were after FBI agents or similar types got involved, provided materials, suggested targets and literally moved the actions forward.
We know that "terrorism tracking" organizations have repeatedly surveiled and reported that peace protesters are potential terrorists. This is part of a nationally orchestrated war on dissent
We know that the mainstream media routinely serves as delivery services for the lies and distortions of the military and the government.
We know that Innocent peace activists have been labeled as potential terrorists.
So, it is no surprise that protesters are being arrested and potentially framed for being protesters.
It is no surprise that the mainstream media are unquestioningly reporting that the people arrested were terrorists.
Here's a snippet from former OEN editor/writer, Kevin Gosztola, now with firedoglake, on the situation he's been covering.
It is only a matter of time when people who challenge the corporatocracy are legally defined as terrorists.
So far, except for the eco-protesters, who have already had laws legislated against them by congress, reporters and protesters seem to be getting acquitted.
But the rules are changing. The Justice Department-- headed by the worst Attorney General in US history, Eric Holder, is getting worse and worse-- going after whistleblowers instead of valuing them as allies of democracy.
As I headlined the article I referred to at the start of my article, I wondered if just headlining it, let alone publishing it, would put me and opednews in the gunsights. I wonder, as I write this, if there is someone in the FBI or homeland security trying to figure out an angle on how to get me, or how to stop people like me from writing articles like this. It's a matter of time. We are boiling frogs and the water is getting hotter.
flickr image By Steve Rhodes of police at Chicago G8 Protests
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