Ray McGovern is a 27-year veteran of the CIA who worked at high levels in the White House of George H. W. Bush, but who has since become a vocal critic of what he sees as the wrong policies of the CIA and the US government. See what happens to him when he protests at the hearing for torture-lover and war criminal Gina Haspel’s nomination to head the CIA. The brutality and sheer excessive force shown to a 78-year old man simply for speaking out is disgusting to see.
Here is video of the incident.
Former 27-year CIA officer Ray McGovern just protested at the Senate confirmation hearing for torturer Gina Haspel.
Police responded by violently brutalizing the 78-year-old whistleblower, throwing him to the ground and dislocating his arm.
(Credit: https://t.co/Z4TU2a38Xz) pic.twitter.com/dwJuozjSe8
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) May 9, 2018
This took place under the very eyes of elected officials in Congress, none of whom seemed to have been moved in the slightest by this assault of someone done on their behalf. The bystanders were the ones who seemed appalled by this brutality. It reminded me of the infamous incident in 2007 when a protestor at a speech by then presidential candidate John Kerry screamed for help and ‘Don’t tase me, bro!’ to police as he was tased, and Kerry did nothing but continued with his speech.
Ah, but this is America, so-called land of the free, where the police will throw you to the ground and dislocate your arm even if you are old, alone, unarmed, and pose no obvious threat to anyone other than with your words, just because you dare to challenge the elite.
johnson catman says
I think you have an “old” in the first sentence that should not be there. Besides, a 27-year old would not have been old enough to serve in Bush 1’s administration. (Unless he was a very bright baby.)
Mano Singham says
Thanks! I’ve corrected it.
EigenSprocketUK says
In the US they train your “protect and serve” cops to be not just stupid, but Vogon-level belligerently stupid: they train the cops to push someone off-balance to make them really difficult to carry out of the room and to give them reason to complain they are resisting by being difficult to carry; trained to apply unreasonably excessive (but still “reasonable”) force to cause injury to give them reason to complain that their natural and unavoidable reactions are evidence of deliberate non-compliance; trained to bark multiple overlapping conflicting orders impossible to obey in order to prove that involuntary non-compliance with any subsequently randomly picked order was reason for appliance of force before it even happened. Then they train them to be afraid of normal people so that they can themselves react unreasonably. Any blood or injuries become evidence of resistance. Compliance with orders to turn out pockets become reason to shoot them because they’re reaching for a gun, or a mobile phone. Being non-white expedites this process and unlocks extra levels of lethality.
But you know this already.
None of this is natural: it’s all by design.
The trainers know this: the citizens know this. The politicians know this, but they think the citizens are too stupid to realise the plain facts in front of their faces.
So far, they think they’re right about that.
EigenSprocketUK says
Not that anyone needs yet another video of totally unreasonable police brutality (Twitter link and video) designed to elicit a charge of resisting arrest and create an opportunity to shoot someone.