There are plenty of instances where protests/gatherings in the United States were squashed brutally by police force, and people were either severely injured or killed.
The WBC, the Tea Party, and the birthers aren't squashed by the club only because the government doesn't consider them a serious enough threat.
Anyone who is considered a serious threat is brutally beaten, tortured, detained, etc. whether or not their actions were noble (i.e. PFC Manning), or likely cases of mistaken identity, false accusations (Guantanamo, etc.), or living in the wrong part of the world (Iraq, etc.).
Of course, you also don't have to be considered a "real threat" either to feel the weight of the club. Simply act out of line with the law, regardless of whether the law is just or not, and you will feel it smashing down upon you. Just because we have fancy formal proceedings before we hit you in the head doesn't mean the club has somehow disappeared. Its impact is just delayed, that's all.
Past uses of the club included having the wrong color of skin or being of the wrong nationality (blacks a few decades ago, Japanese during WW2). All of these happened during times when we supposedly lived in a "free, civil and open society". The big club is always there, just sometimes it doesn't care about you.
And you have conclusively proven that the government is not always good.
This might surprise you, but I agree completely. I do feel that it's better on the average (at least for the U.S.) than the counterexamples you might see elsewhere of where government is ineffective or nonexistant.
The WBC, the Tea Party, and the birthers aren't squashed by the club only because the government doesn't consider them a serious enough threat.
Anyone who is considered a serious threat is brutally beaten, tortured, detained, etc. whether or not their actions were noble (i.e. PFC Manning), or likely cases of mistaken identity, false accusations (Guantanamo, etc.), or living in the wrong part of the world (Iraq, etc.).
Of course, you also don't have to be considered a "real threat" either to feel the weight of the club. Simply act out of line with the law, regardless of whether the law is just or not, and you will feel it smashing down upon you. Just because we have fancy formal proceedings before we hit you in the head doesn't mean the club has somehow disappeared. Its impact is just delayed, that's all.
Past uses of the club included having the wrong color of skin or being of the wrong nationality (blacks a few decades ago, Japanese during WW2). All of these happened during times when we supposedly lived in a "free, civil and open society". The big club is always there, just sometimes it doesn't care about you.
Watch yourself. http://th05.deviantart.net/fs70/200H/f/2010/027/5/7/Obama__y...