The photo I posted Monday night of the police officer pointing a weapon at protestors of Bush's visit to Bellevue is getting a lot of notice.
Man of The People (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Some have wondered whether it was photoshopped. It wasn't. This was taken in downtown Bellevue, Washington. Shopping Town Washington some might call it. Clean skyscrappers, Hummer delight, charmlessly wealthy.
I snagged the photo from Yahoo. Here's another:
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
This is disturbing on so many levels. We're in a fight for our civil liberties. We're trying to save our Constitution. We're opposed to Bush's Iraq occupation. We're sick of the lying and corruption. And now we're targets at the end of a gun point.
These people are the targets: 
The Targets (John Lok / The Seattle Times)
Democracy and Freedom in the Homeland, Bush style.
6 Comment(s):
This is so frightening and disgusting. Did that trooper have any provocation to raise his weapon, or was he simply acting the tough guy? If it's the latter, that's enough to bring him up on disciplinary charges with his department.
Oh, I doubt there was any provocation that warranted such a display of force. These guys get delusions of grandeur when you give them a weapon and the thought they're protecting the President from terrorists.
The protesters were made up pretty tame, regular folks. About the worst they probably got was tell Bush to go "cheney" himself.
In fairness to the officer, I don't recognize the weapon but the bore on it suggests that it fires a very large projectile. That would imply that it is either a grenade launcher or some sort of "non-lethal" bean bag launcher. If it was a grenade launcher, it would probably be a tear gas cannister as any of the possible grenades wouldn't be suitable to stop someone before they had a chance to attack.
That being said, unless the officer actually saw that someone in the crowd was about to rush the vehicle or cause harm in any other way, there was no call for him to be in such an aggressive stance. Considering that the other officer standing next to him was in a much more relaxed position, I would even go so far as to accuse the officer of trying to goad a response.
Oh, and I can't tell from the picture what his jurisdiction is. Does anyone know if he is federal, state, county or municipality? And if so who should be called to file a complaint?
The second photo puts his actions into more context with his colleague standing beside him in a more relaxed posture. Other photos have shown King County Sheriff men in riot gear, but this guy seems to be wearing a slightly different suit.
He looks like a frightened little boy. Frightened by what look like tourists. Perhaps he was hoping his stance would show his boss he "means business". It's sad.
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