...Police Brutality "A Ramble by Mike."

Recently a news article was posted on Yahoo.com about the Occupy Wall Street Movement. For those who know nothing about the movement, Occupy Wall Street is a series of demonstrations which hope too take the corporate influence out of government, and too end the current unemployment issue. But I digress, the article was written on the subject of the movement finally having an iconic image too focus on, that of 20 year old Brandon Watts. The young man "supposedly" threw a battery at NYPD officer who were in the process of erecting a barricade, and then grabbed one of the officers hats. After viciously hurling him too the ground and "arresting" him, he sustained a gash too his forehead and his blood covered face was plastered across the news sphere. It seems that OWS finally has it's iconic image. Maybe I'm sheltered in some way, but I find that the amount of force police exert on protesters on a regular basis is far beyond that which is necessary. The people assembled protest peacefully, and then are brutally retaliated against with "non-lethal" weapons such as rubber bullets, pepper spray, and tear gas. I've read about, and researched the effects of such deterrents. Rubber bullets are not harmless in the least bit, they leave massive, and I mean soft ball sized, welts on their victims, and can kill if used in the wrong way, which they are often enough. Pepper spray and tear gas are anything but non-lethal and have been known too kill as well. Don't even get me started on tasers. When did police brutality become ok, was it the Vietnam protests, or Korea? When did officers sworn too "serve and protect" become the brutish bully boys who strike fear into the hearts of those who see them? When did the friendly neighborhood Officer Johnson die off? In a country founded on open rebellion, civil disobedience, and riots the irony of an over zealous and brutal police force does not escape me.