The US warns other countries not to violently repress peaceful protests, but at home has built a paramilitary police to do just that, writes TCBH! journalist Dave Lindorff

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(Article changed on February 26, 2014 at 10:37)

(Article changed on February 26, 2014 at 09:38)

By Dave Lindorff

Ukraine's new rulers, in one of their first acts, have disbanded that country's riot police.

Now without getting into the complex politics of the ongoing struggles in that country, or into the question of the covert role of the US in backing the protests that brought down the old government in Kiev, this elimination of a brutal paramilitary police organization got me to thinking: If Ukraine, which has just gone through a spasm of deadly violence, and which is still in a very dangerous and politically unsettled situation, can get along without riot police, why can't the United States?

Lately, with political struggles occurring in the streets of Venezuela, Thailand, Ukraine and a number of other places, the US government has been declaring over and over that the governments being challenged should not resort to violence against their own people. 

Here's US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Venezuela:

"We support human rights and fundamental freedoms -- including freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly -- in Venezuela as we do in countries around the world." 

And here is President Obama, speaking about the police violence in Ukraine:

"We hold the Ukrainian government primarily responsible for making sure that it is dealing with peaceful protesters in an appropriate way, that the Ukrainian people are able to assemble and speak freely about their interests without fear of repression."

Even in Thailand where, unlike in Venezuela or Ukraine, the US is backing the government against protesters seeking new elections, with State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf still insisted that the US supports:

"...a democratic process to resolve the ongoing political tensions in Thailand...We also continue to urge all sides to refrain from violence, exercise restraint and respect the rule of law...and we do, I would note, applaud the restraint shown thus far by government authorities in this regard."

Now let's compare those fine, high-minded scoldings and warnings -- and remember, we're talking about three countries where the protesters have been seeking the overthrowof their existing governments, not just for reforms in the system, and protesters, particularly in Ukraine and Venezuela, who have themselves resorted to violence and especially to property damage -- to how our own government these days responds to peaceful public protest. 

We need only look back just a little over two years to the brief and numerically rather small Occupy Movement...

For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF in ThisCantBeHappening!, the four-time Project Censored Award-winning online alternative newspaper, please go to:www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/2165

Authors Website: http://www.thiscantbehappening.net

Authors Bio:

Dave Lindorff, winner of a 2019 "Izzy" Award for Outstanding Independent Journalism from the Park Center for Independent Media in Ithaca, is a founding member of the collectively-owned, journalist-run online newspaper www.thiscantbehappening.net. He is a columnist for Counterpunch, is author of several recent books ("This Can't Be Happening! Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy" and "Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Penalty Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal"). His latest book, coauthored with Barbara Olshanshky, is "The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office (St. Martin's Press, May 2006).