I remember a time some years ago when Governor Jesse Ventura had to explain to Howard Stern: "Didn't you know? You can be arrested for assembling now."

And apparently, it took the arrest of one of America's most hardened, evil, destructive criminals to up the ante on what was already fast becoming a regular practice...

Yes, Barbara Walters was taken away in cuffs yesterday during a protest in NYC. The 86-year-old news anchor and star of old women's gab show The View was somehow posing such a danger to the state of affairs she was removed as a criminal.

A whole shit ton of reasons for this have spilled into the news, everything from the fact she "could have" been "inciting people to leave the protest area" to simply "because the cops said so", which makes obvious the real motivation behind arresting an elderly journalist:

Didn't you know? You can be arrested for speaking to someone who is assembling now.

Already defenders of Walters point to the senior lawyer Stephen Kass, who was accosted as though by thugs before being arrested during the NYC OWS protests. And what evil caused his actions? He "wasn't a part of the demonstration."

Forget the fact that a street and sidewalk are public property, which means you have the right to be there at your will;

Forget the fact that, as Kass (a fucking attorney) explained, it doesn't matter if you're part of a protest or not, you never have to "move along" while on public property;

Forget also the fact that, while in public, you may record what you want, speak to who you want, and be free to observe what you want;

And forget the fact that, in Walters' case, even if police were removing onlookers from the immediate area, in the simple case of a small protest -not a goddamned nuclear drill- she would still have the right to be there, because she's the fucking press.

No, these basic liberties are not good enough reason to leave people the fuck alone. And there are already plenty of ass-lickers attempting to defend the actions of dim-wit police with no problem reminding you of your magically-now-non-existent Constitutional liberties. Usually by stating things like, "Walters was told multiple times to leave", or "they explained to her she was causing a danger".

Yeah... except she doesn't have to give a fuck if anyone tells her to leave - because she DOESN'T HAVE to leave. You know, just like you don't HAVE to allow police to search your property, you don't HAVE to consent to any invasion of your privacy, and a legitimate, legal reason is supposed to be necessary before you are arrested or especially, have hands put on you. You have the right to refuse when you know police are trying to manipulate you, because 9 times out of 10, that's exactly what they're doing.

This doesn't seem to matter to a lot of citizens anymore. I know the average cop gets chubbed at any opportunity to practice his bench-press with an unassuming victim, from the developmentally challenged, to a child, or even an 86-year-old woman. But the fucking public?

Be it gross ignorance of your own rights, a hatred of certain demographics, or complete lack of a soul, the masses' willful ignorance of the "red, white, and blue dick being shoved up their ass" is a major part of the problem here. And it's a problem that needs a remedy FAST.