Above: Protester being abusively arrested in September 2011 during Occupy Wall Street march.
Protests in Weliweriya, Wall Street, Bahrain and the different responses of the United States to each one of them.
Commenting on the incidents that occurred on Thursday, August 01 in semi-urban Weliweriya in the Western Province’s Gampaha District due to a clash between a sit-down protesters and law enforcement officers, the American embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka reminded the authorities of this South Asian nation the people’s right to peaceful protest.
Sri Lanka once again was forced to bear these American advice and counseling because, in the mind of those who handle foreign affairs for the state, incidents, as described by the American embassy, never happen on the American soil.
That’s the impression the authorities in the Government of Sri Lanka get as well as the media, the general public, and most importantly, those who are handling external affairs when the media note of the U.S. mission professes “The U.S. Embassy is concerned about the violence in yesterday’s protest in Weliweriya, and urges the Government of Sri Lanka to respect the rights of people to protest peacefully, and urges restraint from all sides.”
The protest was the result of the residents claim that the chemical waste of a factory has polluted their drinking water. Police had used tear gas and water cannons to disperse residents of the area who were blocking the road in protest of the issue and, army personnel were later called in to assist the police in dispersing the protestors, which had resulted in a tense situation as they refused abandon the agitation.
The Government of Sri Lanka has already commissioned its army, Human Rights Council for an extensive investigation into the incidents while taking steps to provide uncontaminated water to the people of Weliweriya.
So the U.S. State Department’s Colombo diplomatic mission thought fit to counsel Sri Lanka the importance of free expression and peaceful protest, and Ambassador Michele Sison was confident that Sri Lanka, especially its diplomatic arm – the Ministry of External Affairs – would listen to yet another lecture as the American Mission was confident having had experience in dealing with them that they have absolutely no memory of the brutal crackdown of the US Departments of Justice and Homeland Security during the ‘Wall Street March’ in New York and many major American cities; and the ignoring of brutal crackdown of mass protests in Bahrain by the Obama White House because it was a close and strategic ally.
Or, Ambassador Sison was confident that Sri Lanka will never raise such sensitive issues with the United States but will continue to absorb the ‘American rhetoric’ on free expression to which her own government failed to observe on many an occasion.
The Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutolu reproached his U.S. counterpart John Kerry over four different statements that have come from Washington criticizing the police crackdown on Turkish protesters.
“These sorts of incidents happen everywhere and they are considered unexceptional. Then why are they regarded extraordinary when happening in Turkey?” Davuto?lu said in response to statements from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Following the fourth statement from Washington since last week, most recently on Tuesday July 30 from Vice President Joe Biden urging Turkey’s government to respect the rights of its political opponents, the Turkish foreign minister called his U.S. counterpart by phone on July 30, to respond to criticism of the police’s violent crackdown against anti-government protesters.
“There is not a second class democracy in Turkey,” he said.
“In democracies, these protests may happen. There is a right to demonstrations in Turkey. We respect peaceful demonstrators, but there are also ones who abuse,” Davutolu told Kerry.
The minister recalled the protests on Wall Street in the U.S and said similar incidents were regarded as ordinary, but the ones in Turkey were considered extraordinary.
That’s how Turkey showed its ‘guts’ to stand to American lectures and rhetoric.
The Asian Tribune is not prepares to ignore the ‘American rhetoric’, ‘counseling’ and ‘lectures’ while exposing the measures taken by the American authorities in suppressing ‘popular agitations’ or turn a blind eye to what’s going on in some of the countries that are close strategic allies.
Suppressing free speech on August 1 in Washington
Dozens of leaders in the immigration movement were arrested Thursday August 1- just this year 2013 – after they blocked a major intersection near the Capitol Building (where US congress meets) in a protest of Republican opposition to an immigration overhaul that would include a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million immigrants who are in the country illegally.
More than 40 leaders were taken into custody after they walked onto Independence Avenue and locked arms, chanting in Spanish “Si, se puede” – “Yes, we can.” Another, smaller group of activists was arrested later in the afternoon after they blocked the hallway outside the office of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
“We have to turn up the heat,” Jess George, executive director of the Latin American Coalition in Charlotte, said minutes before she was arrested. “We have to let the House of Representatives know that America deserves a vote on citizenship. The vast majority of Americans want this. It’s democracy, and we need to make (House leaders) pay attention.”
An immigration overhaul remains in doubt despite the Senate passing its own comprehensive bill. Boehner has said he has no intentions of taking up the Senate bill. The House favors a more piecemeal approach focused on separate provisions that address border security and measures to help children who were brought to the country illegally.
Wall Street Protests 2011: Police Crackdown
The September 2011 Wall Street March ( New York financial district) was a massive gathering to oppose and denounce the manner in which ‘corporate America’ is making the lives of the middle class and the working people miserable. This was a wide expression of peoples strength to show their displeasure toward the indifference of big corporations.
But to the amazement of the free world the freedom of expression was suppressed on the soil of the land that professes civic rights to the wider world.
This was the one-week-old occupation of Wall Street, located at Liberty Plaza Park.
A group of protestors from the camp ventured outside the park and marched on Union Square one morning, and around 100 of them were arrested. Police sprayed peaceful protestors in the face with pepper spray, threw them to the ground and assaulted them with elbows, dragged a woman around by the hair, jumped over barricades to grab and rough up young people, and, when all was said and done, laughed to themselves triumphantly. This is exactly the sort of violence and brutality American authorities routinely condemn when perpetrated against non-violent civilians demonstrating for democracy in Middle Eastern dictatorships, even as they employ horrifying cruelty right in America.
Filmmaker Marisa Holmes was in Egypt sometimes before the Wall Street Protest, documenting the revolutionary movement there in its attempt to transform the ouster of Hosni Mubarak into a democratic society. Inspired by the movement there, she became involved with the group organizing the Wall Street occupation, hoping to emulate the Egyptians’ success in mobilizing the public to wrest their country from the brutal forces in power. Police abused her, confiscated her belongings and falsely alleged that she had resisted arrest.
One media outlet said: “As the reports came in and people in the camp began to see video and photos of the violence, nervousness turned to anger. These were our friends who had been brutalized for no reason apart from their earnest desire to avail themselves of their guaranteed First Amendment rights in order to call for a more just, more humane, more equal America. One young man implored those assembled, “There are people right now bleeding in handcuffs! Let’s march!”
The following year 2012 in April Newly-Released Documents Confirm that the Department of Homeland Security and Other Federal Agencies Coordinated Violent Crackdown on Protesters.
20 April 2012, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund received federal documents, in response to Freedom of Information Act demands from the federal court proving that:
– U.S. Park Police were communicating step by step, as they took action in regard to Occupy DC, with the Secret Service, DHS, and other police agencies as well as personnel affiliated with LEO.gov, the FBI’s nationally integrated network and alert system involving all aspects of civilian law enforcement, intelligence agencies and the military. As its website states, “LEO supports the FBI’s ten priorities by providing cost-effective, time-critical national alerts and information sharing to public safety, law enforcement, antiterrorism and intelligence agencies in support of the Global War on Terrorism.”
– Park Police officials executed a warrant to search a tent at Occupy DC in McPherson Square based on a “reliable informant” who told them there was a “pistol” present. The most that the police could find was alcohol.
The documents include emails between the Park Service and Department of Homeland Security which are hostile to the First Amendment (freedom of expression), such as:
Given that the government considers just about every action to be cause to label average people potential terrorists– and that the Department of Homeland Security has just placed an order for 450 million rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammunition – the involvement of the Feds is not very pleasant.
This is how the law enforcement agencies of the U.S. Government cracked down the peaceful protests violating its own Constitution’s First Amendment right – the freedom of expression, free movement and assembly.
U.S. Stays Mum during Bahrain Brutal Crackdown
In early April 2011 Bahrain, a key ally of the United States, launched a brutal crackdown on unarmed demonstrators who urged the kingdom to effect democratic reforms.
“No leniency.” That was the warning from Bahrain’s crown prince as government forces continued cracking down on protesters, activists, journalists and doctors. It was issued alongside yet another promise of reform by the Bahraini government.
The warning was also met with silence from the United States. But during the crackdown—as reports of increasing intimidation, censorship and brutality emerged—the U.S. didn’t seem to have had a public response. In one of the State Department’s statements, spokesman Mark Toner told reporters on March 22, “Our position towards Bahrain is crystal clear. We’re going to continue to work with the Bahraini Government.”
Human rights groups reported that at least 26 people have been killed since the Bahraini government declared martial law in mid-March (2011). At least three activists have also died in police custody. More than 400 have been detained and dozens are missing.
Yet no response from the United States.
One of those missing people is a human rights activist, Abdulhadi Alkhawaja. His daughter, Zainab Alkhawaja, witnessed her father being dragged down a flight of stairs and “beaten unconscious in front of me” by masked men. She described the incident in an April 11 (2011) open letter to President Obama, posted to her blog. “Tyrants, with US support, can live happily ever after,” she wrote on Twitter.
A well read and popular investigative Web Site ProPublica reported on 15 January this year: (Quote)The U.S. has been selling arms to Bahrain amid the small Mideast nation’s increasingly repressive crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, Justin Elliot of ProPublica reports.
The sales, combined with allegations of censorship by U.S. media, seems to corroborate claims that America has turned a blind eye to the bloody repression inside the country.
The Bahraini uprising — which initially called for greater political freedom and equality for the majority Shia population — began peacefully in February 2011. It was met with a harsh response by the U.S.-backed Sunni ruling party as unarmed protesters were allegedly detained, tortured, targeted by “live ammunition air strikes from Cobra helicopters” and thrown in jail for life.
Defense Department documents released to ProPublica reveal that between February 2011 and February 2012 the U.S. sold the Sunni kingdom items relating to ammunition, combat vehicle parts, communications equipment, Cobra and Blackhawk helicopters, and an unidentified missile system.