Magical Human Control Devices

by digby

I've been meaning to write about this and it slipped my mind what with all the panda activity and all. I'm sure most of you all are aware that there was a huge protest in New Orleans over the demolition of public housing the other day. Evidently a lot of people in the city are suspicious that they are going to tear down housing for poor people in the hopes that they relocate to another place. (Why do you suppose they would think such a thing?)

Anyway, CNN was showing pictures of the protest live when police went into the crowd with pepper spray and tasers to push back the protesters. It was the usual stomach churning sight of people covering their eyes in horrible pain, falling to the ground, screaming.

Anyway, as I watched these pictures, here was the CNN anchor blathering on and on, with no emotion about what was happening on the screen:

PHILLIPS: Got a situation happening right now in New Orleans, Louisiana. You're looking at New Orleans police officers trying to contain protesters just outside city hall.

Here's the situation. For years the housing developments in New Orleans have been just an incredible place for crime, drugs, murders, some of the highest rates in the country. And so there is a move to actually demolish the housing projects.

But see, people in New Orleans are saying, "Why demolish these housing projects when so many of us don't even have a place to live?"

So, you've got crime-infested housing projects. They want to finally tear them down. But you've got people in New Orleans saying, "We need some place to live. We can't afford to buy a home. Our homes have been demolished. Let us live in these housing developments."

So, while the vote is supposed to take place, the protesters actually tried to charge this gate at city hall. And you're seeing what broke out. About 300 protesters, we're told. Police had to get involved with stun guns and pepper spray.


CNN showed the footage of the melee on a loop while Kyra interviewed reporters and local officials blathering on as she does above, never commenting on the fact that police were spraying people directly in the face with mace and tasering the crowd while protesters writhed on the ground screaming in pain, attended to by their friends and then being picked up and carried off camera.

Later, CNN returned to the story and here's how Phillips characterized the situation:

PHILLIPS: All right. We've got live pictures now coming out of New Orleans. This is via our affiliate WDSU. They're chanting "stop the demolition now."

And just to give you a little perspective of what's going on, these protesters are just outside city hall gates right now, and this is actually pretty calm, compared to the way it was just a little while ago. We're going to give you an inside look on that in just a second.

It actually got pretty crazy there. About 300 people tried to charge that gate into city hall, and New Orleans police right here had to respond with pepper spray and stun guns. Some of the protesters even kind of dropped to their knees when that happened. But they were pushing the gate, trying to get inside because there is a move now to demolish some of the housing projects there in New Orleans.


They "kind of even dropped to their knees." Imagine that.

This is just business as usual in the United States. Back in the day they used to hit protesters and strikers with firehoses and batons, so it's not like using violence in these cases is new --- or even necessarily preventable. But with tasers and sprays it's so clean and easy now --- no blood, no bruises --- that when a reporter is narrating the scene he or she doesn't even mention that people are being hurt right before their eyes. The cops "respond with pepper spray and stun guns," the protesters just magically drop to their knees and everything is under control.

I guess that's progress...?


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