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Seven Arrested After Protesting Army Video Game Recruiting Center
GamePolitics writes "Seven anti-war protesters were arrested in Philadelphia on Saturday during a protest rally and march which targeted the Army Experience Center, a high-tech recruitment center which uses PC and Xbox games and simulations to attract potential recruits. GamePolitics was on hand to cover the protest, and took video of the arrests. A local news station also reported on the rally, and the Peace Action Network released a statement saying, "In its desperate approach to meet recruiting numbers, the military is teaching the wrong values to teenagers. Sugarcoating combat experience with virtual war is a dishonor to those with real war experience."
How dare you question the brave men and women in uniform! Show some patriotism! Those men and women are willing to give their lives to ensure the prosperity of the ruling class! That deserves respect! Do you not respect these brave men and women in uniform? Do you also molest little children?
Gotta love patriotism. Always good for a laugh :D
Well you know what they say: Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
You right wing extremists aren't welcome here. Take your truth back to the midwest and leave our fantasies alone. :)
A government agency is using a private entity to protect itself from free speech.
Bullshit. This would have been the exact same scenario were it a government building where this had been set up - say, the front of a public libary. The protesters would still have gotten themselves arrested, because their goal as morons was to get themselves arrested "for their cause."
According to you, the government has no right to rent space anywhere. That's bullshit.
There are laws for dealing with obstruction of traffic and disturbing the peace; but that's something to be done /after/ they begin to cause a problem.
Unfortunately, the difference between a minor scuffle, and a riot, is having proper precautions already in place.
Prior restraint is tantamount to censorship, and requiring 'permission' to speak your mind is exactly that.
Bullshit. "Prior restraint" is telling you that you can't say something. Requiring permission and forewarning before you assemble 300 people into a certain location, so that we can have proper emergency personnel and equipment on hand in the statistical likelihood (which increases with every warm body participating in the protest, no matter how "peaceful" your intentions) that something will go wrong and injury or confrontation will result, is public safety.
It's not about "Prior Restraint." It's about trying to make sure nobody gets fucking killed. Now get over yourself and go retake the civics class you should have taken in 4th grade.
There's a big difference between the soldiers who actually put their asses on the line and the commanders who decide the hand-wave the realities of war with a video game for recruitment purposes.
Yawn.
I know several Iraq War veterans, still in the service, who carry the equipment in and set up booths very similar to this, bringing recruitment efforts to job fairs, conventions, and yes, malls.
On their behalf - since also I've seen and met the sort of "protesters" that show up at these places, trying to goad them into a fight so they can cry and lie about "the military" infringing on their "right to protest" (even while they're doing their damndest to not allow the troops THEIR own right to speak freely) - a very sincere FUCK YOU.
You have no clue what the protesters were really protesting for but you hate them.
I wonder what the opinion of a veteran would be to someone like you, lamely ra-ra'ing everything into a "think of the troops". That sort of knee-jerk objectification of a soldier as this hero-object you send overseas and who dies gloriously for freedom, even if they're sent into an unjust war under false pretenses, seems pretty offensive to me. It's the same kind of handwavism towards the reality of war that the protesters were protesting.
I know the type of loonie who shows up at this sort of "protest" quite well. I also know first-hand the type of person who goes into the military - they're my FRIENDS AND FAMILY.
You're the fucking liar, because you obviously have no fucking clue what the goddamn fuck you are talking about.
But to remove them for expressing a reasonable opinion against the government, in a very relevant manner and location, simply because it's private property - that is unreasonable.
On the other hand, to remove them because they (a) are breaking noise ordinances, (b) are blocking traffic through the business, (c) refused to leave when told by the owner of the property they were unwelcome (they could easily have stood on the PUBLIC SIDEWALK and picketed the mall, but no, they had to go inside) and (d) are trying to provoke a fight with the cops, is plenty. And the video shows all of the above.
Perhaps you should pay attention to what really happened, retake 4th grade civics, grow the fuck up, and go fuck yourself.
Everyone's opinion here - in essence - can easily be boiled down to "waah I hate the military so they shouldn't be able to recruit."
Why not? After all, you people are all gung-ho on fucking the military, making sure that they don't have proper equipment, making sure that every battle they walk into is a losing one because they're tied down with a list of orders and restrictions thicker than a novel by Tolstoy.
Know what? The military recruits. We have a VOLUNTEER military. We have to ask people to join. We call that "recruiting." Showing them simulations of actual military operations today, is no different than they used to do in my childhood when they'd come around to places like our church festivals, give all the kids a tour of a tank, show them what the (unloaded of course) weapons really felt like, what the uniforms looked like.
They were "recruiting" kids just as much then as now. Or did you not play with GI Joe figures as a kid? Oh, wait - that's right, you were probably one of the boys playing with frilly dresses and trying on your mom's bra instead.
There is no difference. Then as now, there are a bunch of bleeding heart idiots who hate the same military that exists to keep them safe and serve them. The people who go out, fight, and die for the right of some left-wing bleeding heart asshole to come piss on their grave and everything they stood for later. And then, just as now, those same fucking ass retards are trying to stop the military from recruiting - to kick them out of malls if they set up a recruiting office, to kick them off college campuses. Hell, some of these ass-tards actually object to the existence of the GI Bill because it "recruits" people who haven't yet been through college yet - and yet it's proven to be a wonderful opportunity for many great citizens to get an education after serving their country.
Of course, the teabaggers were in fact bigots and fanatics...
snig