Are there no Constitutional lawyers in America willing to take on such an important issue?  The cases of the few among us that are willing to stand up for the First Amendment for all of us?  How will these obscene anti First Amendment laws ever begin to be  questioned if the cases are not even making it before a judge?

Recently a protester I really admire for his grasp of facts, and the respectful articulate manner in which he confronts people in power, was unconstitutionally harassed at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.  I thought if anyone was smart enough, connected enough and ballsy enough to take it to the man, Luke of We are Change would be the one to do it.  But being like most of us, with limited means to defend himself, when it was time for him to return for his first court appearance,  he made the decision to take a plea deal.

So, if even this staunch advocate of truth and freedom is unable to amass the means, or is too afraid of the state, to defend himself and have his day in court, who will.  We can’t count on congress to change the laws, they are the ones who got us into this post 9/11 police state mess in the first place.  It must go higher than our representatives in congress and directly to the Supreme Court.

It is sad that the current militarized system is fighting against the freedoms of the people, and instead is set up to protect the interests of the state first.  This is backwards from the America I was taught to believe in. When protesters are treated this way in other countries, the state acts outraged, supports the protesters rights and threatens sanctions or worse against the countries accused of violating protesters rights.  However when the exact same thing occurs on U.S. soil, these same people demonize the protesters, call them horrid names,  attack them on a personal level, then praise the police for keeping these “crazies” under control by using the same tactics we condemn others for using.  The hypocrisy is sickening.

More protesters need to do as our brave oppressed black brothers and sisters did last century, and put their personal freedom and comfort aside for the greater freedom of all, and  go to jail in mass.  But the next step must be taken and actually go to court and stop pleading out.  Maybe then the Supreme Court will once again begin to hear cases of Constitutional civil rights abuses by the state.  Hopefully the courts will decide to rule in favor of the Constitution, and the freedoms it in steals to the citizens of the United States of America.  But this can not happen as long as the state continues tricking protesters into accepting guilty pleas on lesser charges thus giving up their day in court.  And if we continue to allow the state to abuse our rights, it will continue to abuse more and more of our rights until we wake up and have no rights, or country, left at all.

Rawstory.com reports

“After a month of negotiation with the city and the Secret Service, we have come to an impasse and today we filed a lawsuit in the US district court,” said Witold Walczak, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)…

…Jules Lobel of the Center for Constitutional Rights offered support for the filing.

“The first amendment prohibits the government from deciding to allow or not certain people to speak whether they have different messages. The government can’t dictate who speaks their message.”

The First amendment has been killed by the US Patriot act.  The term patriot is quite reminiscent of the term comrade.  The similarities to the Aftermath of 9/11 and the rise of the Nazi’s, or any totalitarian regime in history,  to power is shocking.  Those open minded enough to see it hidden behind the mask of “Patriotism” are considered enemies or worse enemy combatants.

The rights of the people to peacefully assemble have been compromised.  The constitution has been subverted in a rouse to keep us “safe”.  When freedoms are allowed to be subverted in the name of safety, we all lose!  As Douglas Adams wrote

Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word ‘safe’ that I wasn’t previously aware of.

For those Constitutionally illiterate, here is the First amendment to the Constitution…

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