This is a beautiful example of how it works from the Twin Cities City Pages.
Read this and keep telling yourself that we live in a free country:
Paul Carroll was riding his bike when his cell phone vibrated.
Once he arrived home from the Hennepin County Courthouse, where he’d been served a gross misdemeanor for spray-painting the interior of a campus elevator, the lanky, wavy-haired University of Minnesota sophomore flipped open his phone and checked his messages. He was greeted by a voice he recognized immediately. It belonged to U of M Police Sgt. Erik Swanson, the officer to whom Carroll had turned himself in just three weeks earlier. When Carroll called back, Swanson asked him to meet at a coffee shop later that day, going on to assure a wary Carroll that he wasn’t in trouble.
Carroll, who requested that his real name not be used, showed up early and waited anxiously for Swanson’s arrival. Ten minutes later, he says, a casually dressed Swanson showed up, flanked by a woman whom he introduced as FBI Special Agent Maureen E. Mazzola. For the next 20 minutes, Mazzola would do most of the talking.
“She told me that I had the perfect ‘look,’” recalls Carroll. “And that I had the perfect personality—they kept saying I was friendly and personable—for what they were looking for.”
What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”
Terrorist.
YOU are the potential terrorist.
YOU, the peace loving schmuck at the vegan potluck in suburban Minneapolis.
YOU ARE THE POTENTIAL TERRORIST.
This is how the government looks at you.
Get that?
Do you like peace, oppose war and want to exercise your First Amendment right against the war criminals of the Republican Party?
Terrorist.
And the way that the term ‘terrorist’ is now defined by the Federal Government anyone who even advocates against the so-called ‘war on terror’ can be defined as a terrorist by the President of the United States and taken to Guantanamo Bay.
Just because it isn’t happening en masse now doesn’t mean the authority isn’t there to do so. It is.
And the way the bastards in US and local law enforcement are recruiting people to spy on their fellow citizens IS REMINISCENT of the methodology used by Nazi Germany and Communist Russia.
And of course:
Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.
“I’ll pass,” said Carroll.
For 10 more minutes, Mazzola and Swanson tried to sway him. He remained obstinate.
“Well, if you change your mind, call this number,” said Mazzola, handing him her card with her cell phone number scribbled on the back.
(Mazzola, Swanson, and the FBI did not return numerous calls seeking comment.)
The brave cops turn cowards and hide behind their badges when questioned about their nefarious goings on.
Typical.
And note that Carroll would get money if he gave the FBI some skins to nail to their wall. THAT ENCOURAGES ENTRAPMENT AND LYING TO GET PEOPLE ARRESTED. It’s bounty hunting by other means. And of course, the FBI and cops can renege on the deal at any time and literally pay him nothing. He’s a patsy and a fink - unleashed to spy on his fellow citizens and can be used or thrown away by the FBI at their whim. Carroll has no protection under law nor recourse if something goes wrong or he is arrested.
And of course, the agent provocateurs:
Carroll’s story echoes a familiar theme. During the lead-up the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, the NYPD’s Intelligence Division infiltrated and spied on protest groups across the country, as well as in Canada and Europe. The program’s scope extended to explicitly nonviolent groups, including street theater troupes and church organizations.
There were also two reported instances of police officers, dressed as protestors, purposefully instigating clashes. At the 2004 Republican National Convention, the NYPD orchestrated a fake arrest to incite protestors. When a blond man was “arrested,” nearby protestors began shouting, “Let him go!” The helmeted police proceeded to push back against the crowd with batons and arrested at least two. In a similar instance, during an April 29, 2005, Critical Mass bike ride in New York, video footage captured a “protestor”—in reality an undercover cop—telling his captor, “I’m on the job,” and being subsequently let go.
Minneapolis’s own recent Critical Mass skirmish was allegedly initiated by two unidentified stragglers in hoods—one wearing a handkerchief over his or her face—who “began to make aggressive moves” near the back of the pack. During that humid August 31 evening, officers went on to arrest 19 cyclists while unleashing pepper spray into the faces of bystanders. The hooded duo was never apprehended.
And what often happens when these slimy cops instigate this violence is that innocent bystanders get beaten and arrested by cops just for getting caught in the crossfire that the cops themselves create.
And for what?
To arrest otherwise peaceful protesters, intimidate others who would protest, and to discredit anti-war protesters as violent.
And thanks to the complete control of the media coverage and the knee-jerk pro-cop reactions of too many dumbed-down Americans, it usually works.
“This is all part of a larger government effort to quell political dissent,” says Jordan Kushner, an attorney who represented Ganley and other Critical Mass arrestees. “The Joint Terrorism Task Force is another example of using the buzzword ‘terrorism’ as a basis to clamp down on people’s freedoms and push forward a more authoritarian government.”
Yes, but for what purpose?
Why would those in power want a more authoritarian government in the United States? Ask yourself that. Americans aren’t generally known for being shit disturbers. We’ve generally been a pretty contented lot the last 50 years or so.
Well, when you have:
Rising oil prices
Collapsing economy
Growing unemployment
Destruction of the value of housing, people’s wages and their labor,
Rising food prices
A possible new war scenario with Iran,
One has to seriously wonder what the endgame is.
Why are ordinary citizens being regarded as potential terrorists for merely speaking out?
