The hypocrisy is pretty annoying.
The city of Pittsburgh has banned PVC piping in the city out of fear of left wing activists using it to make “lock boxes” during the G20 protests next month. Lock boxes are tools used by forest defenders and direct action activists to enhance peaceful blockades. They have been used in many an Earth First! blockade and helped shut down the WTO in Seattle in 1999. Out of fears of mass non-violent unrest with the leaders of the largest industrial nations in town, the city’s police and the Dept. of Homeland Security have decided to turn Pittsburgh into a militarized zone.
Contrast this with reports coming in from anti-Obama protests in places like Phoenix where right wing protesters are seen with their assault rifles and pistols less than 15 feet away from the president.
For years, police have clamped down on global justice, anti-war, anti-capitalist and environmental protesters with heightened security and surveillance measures that flush the Constitution down the toilet. This is baffling to me. The state has spent millions upon millions to suppress dissent at various protests, yet they allow the right to carry weapons at Obama’s speaking venues and angrily disrupt town hall meetings.
How are they getting away with this?