We can rest assured there were plenty of beatings and tasings involved - that's a big part of why some "people" become police officers in the first place.
But the point is that the same thing happens everywhere. Not that long ago, Hong Kong's people protested against China appointing their rulers. They were beaten and maced etc.
Brazilians protested against a massive waste of their money on The World Cup (or some such), and got swiftly brutalized by the police. Venezuelans protested economic destruction etc, and got brutalized.
You see, as long as people just endure whatever bullshit their rulers are inflicting on them, the rulers don't have to give a fuck about them. But when people actually resist, they are violently repressed.
Otherwise the masses might start entertaining the notion that maybe they don't have to just take all the bullshit bureaucracy, massive looting/exploitation, surveillance and abuse they're subjected to after all, and their rulers definitely don't want that to happen.
The whole point of being a ruler is exploiting your subjects. Surveillance and brutality are mostly just a part of what it takes to maintain your rule over them.
I'd like to point out one difference: as far as I know, in the US police are never given orders to hurt protesters. In theory, they can even get in trouble for doing so. In the other countries you listed, this was official policy.
In any case, my point was that in the Occupy Wall Street case, these things occurred, but they are not what caused the final blow. The final blow was a court ruling that said they have to clear out. (The wording was a bit more subtle, but that's what Wikipedia is for.)
> as far as I know, in the US police are never given orders to hurt protesters. In theory, they can even get in trouble for doing so. In the other countries you listed, this was official policy.
Well, they don't need orders to hurt protesters. Some of them will actively seek out opportunities for doing so, because that's what they signed up for. Those would be the psychopaths, by the way.
Yes, in theory they can get in trouble for hurting people, but in practice we all know they don't.
> The final blow was a court ruling that said they have to clear out. (The wording was a bit more subtle, but that's what Wikipedia is for.)
I have no clue if that's accurate, but it sure would have been convenient for Wall Street.
But the point is that the same thing happens everywhere. Not that long ago, Hong Kong's people protested against China appointing their rulers. They were beaten and maced etc.
Brazilians protested against a massive waste of their money on The World Cup (or some such), and got swiftly brutalized by the police. Venezuelans protested economic destruction etc, and got brutalized.
You see, as long as people just endure whatever bullshit their rulers are inflicting on them, the rulers don't have to give a fuck about them. But when people actually resist, they are violently repressed.
Otherwise the masses might start entertaining the notion that maybe they don't have to just take all the bullshit bureaucracy, massive looting/exploitation, surveillance and abuse they're subjected to after all, and their rulers definitely don't want that to happen.
The whole point of being a ruler is exploiting your subjects. Surveillance and brutality are mostly just a part of what it takes to maintain your rule over them.