Unprovoked attack on Occupy Phoenix protesters at an anti-ALEC protest. 

Watch that video. Look at the guys sitting on the ground. Look at my brother, Robbie, have a barricade shoved on him, then get dragged away and arrested. Look at that.

And listen—listen to it. No warning, no ANYTHING. Nothing. They just DID it, and used it as an excuse to arrest, beat, and pepper spray these innocent, peaceful people.

Now get this:
My brother, the guy you see on the ground, confused as a police officer shoves a metal barricade on top of him, was arrested. But what was he charged with, you may ask?
CROSSING A POLICE BARRICADE/BARRIER.

If that’s not a pathetic joke, I don’t know what is.

Now he has to go to court and solve this. My mother just spoke with him and recommended taking that video in as evidence. But, let’s remember this: The police (no matter how corrupt) will almost always win when it comes to garbage like this.
They’ll lie and claim that they gave him some massive warning. They’ll try and bullshit their way out of it, no matter how obvious and clear it is in that video that what they did was without warning, and unprovoked.  

Get this out there: People need to know this happened, why/how it happened, and that people are actually being charged with crossing a police barrier when the barrier was placed on top of them.

And for your entertainment, here are two pages about ALEC.
Wikipedia.
And ALEC Exposed.

Also of interest, NDAA has passed in the Senate by 93 votes to 7.
This bill would allow any American citizen to be arrested upon suspicion of terrorism, without having their rights read, without a trial, detained indefinitely, possibly sent to Guantanamo Bay, and a specific section of the bill allows for any interrogation methods to be utilized, i.e., torture.
I’ve summarized, and I believe I’ve reblogged something about an hour ago that explains it further.
Here are some links, as well:
http://theopenglobe.org/wiki/US_Senate_passes_its_version_of_NDAA_bill,_which_would_allow_military_to_detain_anyone_on_US_soil 

http://www.opencongress.org/vote/2011/s/218

https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3881

Have at it.

Here’s a link to the unprovoked attack. 

Let me note a few things, here:
1. The intersection featured here in the video was shut down by police for about 10-15 minutes before this video began. It was not interfering with the public in any way, and was NOT on private property.

2. As you can plainly see, the metal barricades were set up and ALL protesters were a good distance BEHIND them. 

3. The cops are all standing around, no big fuss. Nothing’s happening.

4. You see those five guys sitting on the ground several feet behind the metal barricade? The one closest to the camera with the handerkerchief around his face, is my brother. See him sitting peacefully, not moving, not doing anything to provoke ANYBODY?

5. Watch at around 1:00 as some cops come out of nowhere, circle around the barricade, pick it up, and attempt to place it ON TOP OF the five guys sitting PEACEFULLY on the ground. See my brother attempt to keep it off of himself? 

6. As the crowd gathers, the barricade is essentially beaten into the crowd. In this mess, my brother, along with at LEAST one of the guys who was sitting with him, are dragged away and ARRESTED. (note: when my brother was held in jail for 11hours, then taken in front of a judge, the judge LAUGHED and said, “I have no idea what you’re even being charged with.” They worked it out though. They charged him with [of all things] CROSSING A POLICE BARRIER.)

7. I’d like to reiterate this: NO PROVOCATION FROM THE CROWD. NONE. WHATSOEVER. NONE.

8. Now keep watching. You’ll notice people with banners being BEATEN back. When they try to move forward towards the ORIGINAL location of the barricade, they’re beaten FURTHER and then PEPPERSPRAYED. The police’s explanation? “They came at us with broken pieces of wood with nails in them.” Let me know if you spot any psychotic protesters attempting to whack the polices’ heads off, because I saw no such thing.

9. Possibly MOST important: THEY NEVER GAVE THE PROTESTERS ANY NOTICE THAT THEY HAD TO LEAVE, OR MOVE BACK. If you’ll notice, they just DO IT. No rhyme or reason. They had no legal reason, or security reason, to move the barricades back, and instead, ATTEMPT TO INCITE VIOLENCE by intentionally attempting to harm peaceful protesters sitting on the ground. 

10. After they’ve beaten back the people with banners again, they rip and destroy the banners, and then pepper spray the whole lot of them.

11. An HOUR after this video was taken, THE INTERSECTION WAS STILL BLOCKED OFF. This caused NO CHANGE. The protesters were NOT removed, there was no notice for any of this, and they did NOT interrupt ANY day-to-day public business by being there. 

12. I forgot to mention something most intriguing: NONE OF THE POLICE OFFICERS ARE WEARING NAMETAGS. None of them. After what happened with Lt. John Pike, I imagine they’ve “learned their lesson”. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right lesson.

13. Reblog/retweet/repost this to as many people as you can. What happened is just…completely insane. 

Let me note a few things, here:
1. The intersection featured here in the video was shut down by police for about 10-15 minutes before this video began. It was not interfering with the public in any way, and was NOT on private property.

2. As you can plainly see, the metal barricades were set up and ALL protesters were a good distance BEHIND them. 

3. The cops are all standing around, no big fuss. Nothing’s happening.

4. You see those five guys sitting on the ground several feet behind the metal barricade? The one closest to the camera with the handerkerchief around his face, is my brother. See him sitting peacefully, not moving, not doing anything to provoke ANYBODY?

5. Watch at around 1:00 as some cops come out of nowhere, circle around the barricade, pick it up, and attempt to place it ON TOP OF the five guys sitting PEACEFULLY on the ground. See my brother attempt to keep it off of himself? 

6. As the crowd gathers, the barricade is essentially beaten into the crowd. In this mess, my brother, along with at LEAST one of the guys who was sitting with him, are dragged away and ARRESTED. (note: when my brother was held in jail for 17 hours, then taken in front of a judge, the judge LAUGHED and said, “I have no idea what you’re even being charged with. Free to go.”)

7. I’d like to reiterate this: NO PROVOCATION FROM THE CROWD. NONE. WHATSOEVER. NONE.

8. Now keep watching. You’ll notice people with banners being BEATEN back. When they try to move forward towards the ORIGINAL location of the barricade, they’re beaten FURTHER and then PEPPERSPRAYED. The police’s explanation? “They came at us with broken pieces of wood with nails in them.” Let me know if you spot any psychotic protesters attempting to whack the polices’ heads off, because I saw no such thing.

9. Possibly MOST important: THEY NEVER GAVE THE PROTESTERS ANY NOTICE THAT THEY HAD TO LEAVE, OR MOVE BACK. If you’ll notice, they just DO IT. No rhyme or reason. They had no legal reason, or security reason, to move the barricades back, and instead, ATTEMPT TO INCITE VIOLENCE by intentionally attempting to harm peaceful protesters sitting on the ground. 

10. After they’ve beaten back the people with banners again, they rip and destroy the banners, and then pepper spray the whole lot of them.

11. An HOUR after this video was taken, THE INTERSECTION WAS STILL BLOCKED OFF. This caused NO CHANGE. The protesters were NOT removed, there was no notice for any of this, and they did NOT interrupt ANY day-to-day public business by being there. 

12. I forgot to mention something most intriguing: NONE OF THE POLICE OFFICERS ARE WEARING NAMETAGS. None of them. After what happened with Lt. John Pike, I imagine they’ve “learned their lesson”. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right lesson.

13. Reblog/retweet/repost this to as many people as you can. This is just rubbish.