Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer  response to orders given to the officer, or in response to governmental or administrative policies .
 
We proclaim how much we love our "freedoms" but do we as a nation despise those who actually exercise them? The Constitution in the First Amendment protects free speech and free assembly precisely because those liberties are most important to a healthy republic.
 

Don't forget to listen to Thom on his third and almost last day of Air America's coverage of the Republican National Convention, which you can hear and see right on AirAmerica.com.

Janet Robert who owns the local progressive station here in Minneapolis/St. Paul and I were having lunch on Monday afternoon after the radio program. Three cops chase this kid down the street, grab him in front of us, throw him to the ground and he's down, he's subdued, and one of them starts banging his head into the cement. Janet and I watched this in horror.
 
Right across the street is another outdoor cafe that was filled with folks from the convention, mostly Republicans. And when this kid was having his head smashed to the ground, they all stood up and applauded the cops beating this kid up.
 
Then yesterday Amy Goodman, Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous of www.democracynow.org were on the program to tell of their brutal arrests.
 
Here’s a few excerpts:
 
[Nicole Salazar]: …I'd run out of the office with my camera, and, you know, I was moving back but filming, moving back, moving back, they were coming towards me, they basically pushed us back into this parking lot at which point, you know, they were getting, they were getting closer. I videotaped them telling one person who identified himself as a journalist, "I don't care, move, move". We were moving. One protester was running away, ran by me right in front of the camera and you can see it on the tape an officer takes his wooden rod and knocks her to the ground. She falls out of frame. I keep trying to move back, they say 'move, I say, 'where do you want me to go?' I'm trying to get back and I'm holding up my press pass in my hand, my left hand. My camera's in my right hand and at that point they slam be back into the cars and I am surrounded by officers. They push me to the ground, they say get your face to the ground and I'm trying to tell them that I'm press and hold up my pass and hold on to my camera so they won't take it from me. But at that point they take my arms, put them behind my back and an officer puts his foot on my back. I see officers all around me and someone else is holding my face to the ground while I'm trying to tell them that I'm press.
 
[Amy Goodman]: One officer had his boot on her back. And another was pulling her leg, as they were telling her to keep her head down. Which would have meant that her head would have been dragged on the gravel. Already it was bloody.
 
[Amy Goodman]: I, They pulled me to the back, they forced me to the ground. I saw Sharif, I demanded to stand with Sharif, I saw that his arm was bloodied and that he had dirt over his T shirt. I demanded to see Nicole, I couldn't find her, they said she was probably in the wagon already, they, I said, 'this is outrageous. You know, we're all fully credentialed and we're wearing our credentials'. I had just come from the convention floor so I also had my security pass to be on the convention floor and I said, 'Look at this, here's my convention pass'. Secret service comes over, they rip away the convention pass. So that was the end of that. And they just wouldn't respond. We said, 'where's the receipt?' If the police take anything from you they have to give a receipt that shows they have taken it from you. They would not do that. That was the end of that.

[Sharif Abdel Kouddous]: They took mine as well.
 
Could the point of this obvious police brutality be to announce to American citizens they should stay in their homes and be good compliant people unless they want to be brutalized? Will there be an outcry or will our silence insure that this brutality will continue. Will we all then be grateful for “police brutality” for keeping us safe and maintaining nice, quiet order? Please say no.
 
Democracy begins with you. Tag – You’re it.