We've all seen the recent images of the police brutality against Occupy, but this conduct hasn't occurred overnight. For years, US police abuse has been spiralling upwards, this article sharing a uniquely insightful vision of what that's meant, how it's occurred, and one person's efforts to awake America.

Investigative Journalist Who Blew Whistle on CT Cops Looks at Occupy Movement from Exile in Sweden
By Joan Brunwasser
Op-Ed News

Excerpt:

When we see these brutally nightmarish visions of police violence against innocent protesters, we're shocked because we haven't been aware that our police have behaved this way for many years now. We want to believe that while our police and government aren't perfect, there are certain limits as to just how wrongfully they may act, but -- as evidenced by too many videos of brutalized Occupy supporters -- sometimes we vastly underestimate the capacity for wrongdoing.

Of course, that's also why we see -- despite the video evidence -- some people blaming the Occupy supporters for their own brutalization, refusing to believe that our police could do such harm without good reason. Even worse though, our 'authorities' are well aware of this tendency, and play upon it, i.e., the claims that the UC Davis police felt 'threatened' in an attempt to legitimize the brutal pepper spraying videotaped there.

Attempts to somehow 'demonize the victim' are an old story, and it's far easier to blame most victims than face the far harsher reality of what our society has become, how empty some of the assumptions about our police, about our own safety, are.

Continue reading at ... http://www.opednews.com/articles/Investigative-Journalist-W-by-Joan-Brun...