I’m still in shock over the NYPD’s brutality this weekend.  I grew up learning about the unique rights we have here in the United States. Chief among them is our freedom of speech, which includes our rights of peaceful assembly and protest.

This weekend in NYC the police brutally assaulted young people exercising their rights, and corralled a group of women who were breaking no laws while a police captain – Anthony Bologna –  violated them by spraying them with pepper spray.  The video is below, in an entry posted Saturday evening.

This morning, I came upon USLaw.com, who slowed the video down to show us exactly what happened in slow motion:

Are you outraged yet? If not, read this account given to the Village Voice by the woman with the long hair. Her name is Chelsea Elliott.

I heard screams near me, and this young girl near me was shoved down

[by the police] — their hands were on her head until she reached the pavement (she was yelling because the cops were beating up some 19-year-old kid). I screamed something like, “Stop! Why are you doing this?” There was blood and shit; it was terrifying. I looked at the cop I’d been talking to, and he had a blank but worried expression. Then this cop in a white collared shirt came around and just sprayed us, not even one steady stream, more like you were spraying a plant — me and three or four other girls. I fell to the ground, and the girl behind me, this pretty, thin girl, a total hippie, with short hair and a gray tank top, they got her so bad! We were just lying on the ground, it was extremely painful. The cop I was talking to, he talked to the cop who sprayed us, and was like, “Thanks for the warning.” I think he got maced in the eye, too.

What happened then?
We lay on the ground like little worms. One of the other girls was a medic, and was able to pour milk in her eyes. The cops left. They moved the net. All I know from what happened afterward, I watched on YouTube. For like 15 minutes, I couldn’t see; I couldn’t breathe at first. It was so out of the ordinary and unprovoked. Our medical group poured milk into my eyes for like 10 minutes, and apple cider vinegar on my face.

Read more here... But the police claim they used the pepper spray “appropriately“.

Meanwhile, many people are gearing up to occupy Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. beginning on October 6 -the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan. One is a regular listener of my show, Carrie Stone, who is walking the walk!  She joined me on the show this morning, as she’s heading out tomorrow morning beginning at 8am ET, walking from her home in West Virginia to Washington DC.   Follow her on twitter @papercrete.

On her “Walking the Walk”  facebook event page, she explained what it’s all about:

On October 6, 2011, people from all walks of life and areas of the country will gather on Freedom Plaza in Washington DC to begin what organizers hope will be America’s version of the occupation of Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt and other cities across the Middle East.

To help publicize this event and inspire others to join in the occupation of the plaza, a group of us are planning to WALK 200 MILES from Clarksburg West Virginia to DC.

We will begin walking from the K-Mart parking lot, Eastpointe Shopping Center, Emily Drive, Clarksburg WV on September 27 at 8:00 am.

If you can only walk with me “in spirit” please consider contributing a bit to help with my expenses!

To donate visit http://www.builtfromtrash.com/ and click on the ‘Chip In’ button on the left side of the web page.

We mapped the route and determined – if we average 22 miles per day we can make it in 9 days, arriving the late afternoon or evening of October 5th.

A large majority of the American people support the following:

–Tax the rich and corporations
–End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending
–Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security –Improve Medicare for all
–End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests
–Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation
–Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages
–Get money out of politics

The government, dominated by elite economic interests, is going in the opposite direction from what the people want. The American people’s agenda is our agenda.

For more information about the Walk (and to see a map of the route), please visithttp://builtfromtrash.com/take-action/38-walking-the-walk. If you would like to join us for all or part of the walk, or if you live along the route and want to cheer us on or bring us water and/or sustenance, please send an email to walkthewalk@builtfromtrash.com.

For more information about the occupation of Freedom Plaza, visit http://october2011.org/

This morning’s show continued with Karl Frisch, syndicated columnist, Democratic strategist, and progressive radio personality.  We talked about the Occupy Wall Street movement, today’s politics, and his latest column, “Forget Class Warfare, Republicans Engage in Class Genocide”.

And as we do every Monday morning, I chatted with Crooks and Liars‘ Nicole Belle about the Sunday talking head shows in a segment we call “Fools on the Hill”.

Every week I become more discouraged by the failures of our media to even have an honest conversation, much less an honest reporting of the issues of the day. The media doesn’t want to discuss populist movements, like the OccupyWallStreet protests, doesn’t want to offer a point of view that doesn’t favor the very wealthy or the status quo or point out the contradictions or hypocrisy in politicians’ spin. In fact, often they are the very purveyors of these partisan narratives.

Like Chris Wallace, who did his level best while talking to WH adviser David Plouffe to keep that “class war” meme pointed at those below the poverty level. Listen to him tell Plouffe that the rich *are* paying their fair share of taxes.

And while we’re on the subject, can we just dispense with that notion that the very wealthy are paying their fair share altogether? On his sophomore weekend, Chris Hayes points out how that particular Republican talking point is not actually painting the real picture.

David Gregory can also always be reliably pushing Republican memes. On Meet the Press, he actually wasted three minutes grilling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he liked Obama as much as he liked Bush. No, seriously.

Of course, Bill Kristol, Brit Hume and AB Stoddard agree that they would like Barack Obama a whole lot more if he would just go back to that capitulating and accommodating politician willing to give just about everything for a “grand bargain.” Let’s hope Obama doesn’t take their advice.

And finally, Lamar Alexander made news this week by resigning his leadership positions within the Senate GOP. I had hoped that it was because he was just tired of the caricature that the tea party has made of his party, but based on this appearance on State of the Union, I think that was overly optimistic of me. After Mark Warner bemoaned the tea party antics bringing the country back to the brink of yet another government shutdown as the Democrats try to get much needed aid to Hurricane Irene victims, Alexander said that it was actually Harry Reid’s fault, for creating a crisis that doesn’t actually exist.