Patriot Act Follies

Definitions matter, and a college kid was just awarded $167k on a false arrest for being a "known anarchist."  Seems our domestic intel ops caught some internet chatter on anarchists heading for an anti-war protest, in ahem,  Montesano, Washington. The Washington state patrol and assets from two counties had them under surveillance and made a pre-emptive arrest, allowed under the patriot act.

Problem is anarchists are by definition non-violent.  Yes, the media calls vandals anarchists, but one should not believe everything one reads.  For all of the money we spend on the 800 federal agencies snooping on citizens, you'd think they would be able to discern a vandal from an egghead.  Since these anarchists had no WMD, the driver was arrested for "being high" in spite of passing all field sobriety tests.  ACLU stepped in.

The government has a long history of employing agent provocateurs, people meant to incite violence by starting it.  Perhaps if this was forbidden, there would be far more peaceful demonstrations in USA.

Here is a chart for every law enforcement break room:

Anarchist - Dorothy Day



Vandal - Knucklehead

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