By Jenna Orkin
December 5, 2014 As a friend and I were sitting in a coffee shop this evening, a crowd of protesters passed outside, shouting their outrage on the Eric Garner and Michael Brown verdicts. It took a moment to make out the words of the spondaic chant but then all at once, the meaning hit with the force of three punches: "I can't breathe! I can't breathe!"
The police response to this: "If he was talking, then it means he could breathe," is reminiscent of Elizabethan witch trials. They'd tie you up and throw you in the river. If you drowned, you were innocent; otherwise, you were a witch.
Mike Ruppert once said that the Rodney King protests and the official response, or lack thereof, were a dry run for more widespread riots when the sh*t hit the fan. Are the events of the past few weeks a still more refined rehearsal? Between Garner, Brown and twelve-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, it would seem that on the contrary, we're being goaded towards all hell breaking loose.
Philip Agee echoes Mike's view:
Can anyone doubt that the events of Los Angeles will recur? Those struggling in the 1990s for change would do well to remember the repression visited on progressive movements following both World Wars and during the Vietnam War. The government has no more Red Menace to whip up hysteria, but the 'war on drugs' seems to be quite adequate for justifying law enforcement practices that have political applications as well. The hunt for aliens and their deportation, and the use of ...sophisticated methods of repression following the Los Angeles uprising, reveal what has been quietly continuing below the surface for years. We should be on notice that in the current political climate, with clamor for change everywhere, the guardians of traditional power will not give up without a fight. They will find their 'threats' and 'enemies' in Black youths, undocumented immigrants, environmentalists, feminists, gays and lesbians, and go on to more 'mainstream' opponents in attempts, including domestic covert operations, to divide and discredit the larger movement for reform." -- CovertAction Quarterly, Tracking Covert Actions into the Future by Philip Agee
