Perspective on G-20 protests in Pittsburgh

To Mike Ferner, author of Inside the Red Zone,

By the way, I viewed the Mark Crispen Miller video. http://markcrispinmiller.com/2009/09/robocops-in-pittsburgh/ With all due respect, it seemed odd that the person with the bull-horn would actually expect the working-class/middle class cops to risk their livelihoods by not following orders from the chief of police.

Also, comparing the cops’ unwillingness to deviate from those orders with people’s unwillingness to deviate from the muderous orders of the Hitler regime was a bit of an exaggeration.

If I may say, the cops, per se, are not the problem. Our problems have to do with the many ways in which too much power is in the hands of too few people, whether in terms of our media consolidation, our industrial food system, our concentrated banking system, the concept of ‘corporate personhood’, and so on and so on.

Our problems are systemic and changes to our political and economic systems are required. Focusing on the cat-and-mouse game in Pittsburgh between cops and people in the streets (at least some of whom weren’t even out there to protest any particular issue such as some of the U of Penn students), is a distraction, as far as I am concerned.

I better stop here, because I don’t think you’ve expressed any interest in interviewing me.

Thanks,
Tom Over 614 202 0178