Liberty Call

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

To the left are citizens holding guns. To the right is a Patriot holding the Ultimate Weapon: The Constitution of the United States.

Question to the group: Who will prevail, those 'war pigs' or that 'hippy'??

ETA: from the conversation, this intense image:


for more photos click the image above.

Comments

[ghostwes.livejournal.com]

Not exactly standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square. Still, powerful symbolism.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

they haven't brought out the tanks yet...

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

As I recall the Chinese Communists won in that case, not lost. Bad analogy.

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

No, what's funny is how the ignornant and foolish on both the "left" and "right" are incapable and unwilling to see either the Tea Party or the OWS Group in any terms other than their comfortable, status quo, no-additional-thought-required Punch and Judy paradigm.

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

That's because most people on the right respect police officers and military personnel.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

Great picture.

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna have Ozzy stuck in my head all day now.

[surferelf.livejournal.com]

Oh lord yeah!

We should all know that by heart. It is powerful.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridged the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble to petition their government for a redress of grievances

Re: We should all know that by heart. It is powerful.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Of course, back in the day, assembling meant establishing a governing assembly. That part of the amendment has since been repealed.

Re: We should all know that by heart. It is powerful.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

This is a free speech issue, yes. They're not assembling to petition the government, and one can argue they're not doing so peacefully, either.

I'm not in favor of the police breaking up these protests - people should be free to speak in any misguided manner they want - but let's make sure we're highlighting the correct right here.

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, while the brought-and-paid-for police force is roughing up the "hippies," real crime is skyrocketing.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Real crime is skyrocketing (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/us/24crime.html)?

The number of violent crimes in the United States dropped significantly last year, to what appeared to be the lowest rate in nearly 40 years, a development that was considered puzzling partly because it ran counter to the prevailing expectation that crime would increase during a recession.

...

They said the decline nationally in the number of violent crimes, by 5.5 percent, raised the question, at least in some places, of to what extent crime could continue to fall — or at least fall at the same pace as the past two years. Violent crimes fell nearly the same amount in 2009.

...

Nationally, murder fell 4.4 percent last year. Forcible rape — which excludes statutory rape and other sex offenses — fell 4.2 percent. Aggravated assault fell 3.6 percent. Property crimes — including burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson — fell 2.8 percent, after a 4.6 percent drop the year before.

...

There were 2,245 murders in New York in 1990, but the total has been less than 600 for the past nine years.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

This. None of those cops would last an evening on International blvd. Why are they not there solving the real systemic crime?

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

The power of this image really depends on what is standing behind the sailor, don't you think? I mean, is it a group of Girl Scouts playing with kittens? Is it 1000 more soldiers and sailor holding similar Constitutions and similar flags? Is it a big rowdy bunch of guys in black with bandannas covering their faces and rocks in their hands? It also depends on whether this guy is really a veteran. And it depends on what had gone on over the past day or so. Was it just this lonely sailor standing vigil? Was it rioting? I don't know. I'm just asking the question.

Re: I support hypothetical perfects, too.

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. Your assertion sounds floridly poetic, in a patriotic, liberty-loving way, but it is ultimately wishful thinking. History says the disease of empire is terminal and this republic has that cancer. You may venerate the Constitution as perhaps a brilliant attempt at instituting a government that protected rights and did not infringe them, but it is a flawed document because its aims were founded on a premise that is ultimately not true: "limited government" is a contradiction in terms in much the same way that being "half pregnant" is. It is a floating abstraction that can exist only as long as our suspension of disbelief can be maintained. The belief is crumbling as both the guys on the left and the guys on the right in that picture are being used by tyrants-wanna-be to implement government authority that the Constitution explicitly forbids the government from exercising. Eventually, each of the people in both groups, the guys on the left and the guys on the right, will have to stop evading and answer the question: is it possible to fulfill my sworn oath to uphold and defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic while following the orders of my superiors. Every day it becomes a little less possible to straddle the fence. It becomes a little less possible to exercise the double-think necessary to convince oneself that those representing the government are issuing orders in conformity with the Constitution's strictures or are instead flaunting them in domestic enmity to the document. The ambiguity is evaporating and bright lines emerging. Sooner or later almost everyone will have to choose a side. Some already have, whether they have announced their allegiance or not. Even that won't matter though. The Constitution is all but a dead letter now; we're just refusing to see the festering rot.

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic, and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State."
— Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

A better analysis of this photo would be: "To the left are police officers who swore and oath to protect and serve the public. To the right is someone in military uniform brandishing a flag and a pamphlet." I for one can't tell that's a copy of the Constitution just by looking at this photo, can you?

In any case, it seems to me like they're on the same side.

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

Oh the irony of you questioning the truth behind a picture.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Oakland PD just put a combat veteran into critical condition:

http://youtu.be/cMUgPTCgwcQ

There will be lots of lawsuits just like during 2003 when they shot down college women at the oakland docks.

I guess its safer to shoot at unarmed protesters than it is to try and stop the gun crime down on International Blvd. Those kids shoot back.

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

So you're selective in what punishments should be enforced when it comes to crimes?

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Today, 10/26/11 at 3pm at Oakland City Hall, a vigil will be held in support of Scott Olsen, a Marine veteran who was hit by a police projectile in downtown Oakland at the Occupy Oakland demonstration on the evening of October 25, 2011.

Olsen completed two tours in Iraq and is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. At this time, Olsen is in stable yet serious condition at an Oakland Hospital.

At the hospital, he is accompanied by friends and other Iraq Veterans Against the War. Olsen is a valued community member of Occupy San Francisco.









http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/oct/26/occupy-oakland-protests-live#block-9 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/oct/26/occupy-oakland-protests-live#block-9)

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

horrible. Game changing.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The ones with the guns, who will write history so that the ones with the Constitution are traitors.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

indeed

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpwYGp4a0cQ&feature=related

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK.