Parmailitary Police Block Road at War Memorial in Quantico , Photo By Ellen Davidson
Police
showed how much force they were willing to use to prevent vets from laying
flowers on a war memorial. Riot
police started to march down the hill.
Dressed like Imperial Guards in Star Wars, 30 of them stood
shoulder-to-shoulder covering the width of a four-lane road carrying large
shields, wearing black helmets with plastic over their face in most cases only
the eyes could be seen and many of them were covered by sun glasses, body armor
covering their chest and arms, knee pads, shin guards and heavy boots. Behind them were an equal number of riot
police without shields but similarly dressed. There were about a dozen SWAT
team troops with large assault rifles, wearing green military-like clothing and
also helmets with masks that hid their faces. There were eight police on
horseback, the horses also wearing riot gear covering their face with plastic
and the police troops riding them were wearing helmets and riot gear as well. They were accompanied by police with police
dogs, two buses and an armored vehicle.
There were numerous other police from Prince William County, Manassas
and Quantico.
Heavily armed SWAT police threaten peaceful protesters. Photo by Ellen Davidson
Five different police forces were involved in responding to the flower laying threat. Quite a show of paramilitary force to stop a flower laying ceremony by five vets and a military mom!
There was no violence from the peace protesters who had all pledged to be non-violent at the event. Some of the protesters were treated roughly by the paramilitary police.
Paramilitary police push forward knocking people on top of each other. Photo by Ellen Davidson
Even the horse were wearing riot gear. Photo by Ellen Davidson.
What was the root cause of this expensive and unnecessary show of force? The Marine Command insisting that vets could not lay flowers at a public war memorial. Did they forget their oath? Perhaps the most important part of the U.S. Constitution is the First Amendment which protects Freedom of Speech, Assembly and Petitioning the government. The language is clear: "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech . . .; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Rather than defending the Constitution, the actions of the Quantico Marine Command are undermining critical constitutional guarantees and violating the soldier's oath.
Daniel Ellsberg with Paramilitary Unit as he is arrested for attempting to lay flowers in an "unlawful assembly." Photo by Ellen Davidson
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