Utah paramilitary blitzkrieg raid on dance party

Remember the War on (Some) Drugs? It tends to get lost behind the ones we're fighting over in Iraq and Afghanistan (or as The Daily Show likes to call the region, "Mess O' Potamia"). But the Wo(S)D is going every bit as well as the one in the Middle East, as shown by this recent raid by Utah stormtroopers on a rave: Daily Kos: UTAH RAVERS TREATED LIKE TERRORISTS! (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/22/13030/7546)

The helicopter dipped lower and lower and started shining its lights on the crowd. I was kind of in awe and just sat and watched this thing circle us for a minute. As I looked back towards the crowd I saw a guy dressed in camoflauge walking by, toting an assault rifle. At this point, everyone was fully aware of what was going on . A few "troops" rushed the stage and cut the sound off and started yelling that everyone "get the fuck out of here or go to jail". This is where it got really sticky.

No one resisted. That's for sure. They had police dogs raiding the crowd of people and I saw a dog signal out a guy who obviously had some drugs on him. The soldiers attacked the guy (4 of them on 1), and kicked him a few times in the ribs and had their knees in his back and sides. As they were cuffing him, there was about 1000 kids trying to leave in the backdrop, peacefully. Next thing I know, A can of fucking TEAR GAS is launched into the crowd. People are running and screaming at this point. Girls are crying, guys are cussing... bad scene.

Because, you know, what with the threat of terrorism, a new energy crisis, global climate change, the disintegration of our health care system, and all the other challenges our nation faces, the most important thing we can do is point guns at our own innocent citizens to make sure they can't make unapproved choices about their own bodies.

I love the cop-talk in the state's version: women are "females" and people are "individuals", sounds very official and dehumanizing. Allegations of problems at completely unreleated events are trotted out, and any protests againt violations of civil liberties is "disorderly conduct."