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Thursday, June 25, 2009

News / International New Video from Iran

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 6:33 PM

It's disturbing—of a demonstrator being shot in the street—but the first, I think, documentation of a protester being shot by security forces.

The videos resemble protest scenes from the WTO or the Republican National Convention—until you realize the police have swapped out pepper spray and tear gas for live ammunition.

James Longley, Stranger Genius Award winner and director of the haunting, conflictingly gorgeous-yet-tragic Iraq in Fragments, has been expelled from Iran, by the way. Someone from the security forces called his translator and told him to leave. He got out without being arrested and considers himself lucky. So what's Longley doing now that he's escaped the crucible of Iran? "Right now I'm in Cairo, working on getting into the Gaza Strip for a different project. What's up in Seattle?"

Longley is the definition of phlegmatic.

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All I gotta say (besides that I would love to personally stick a red-hot fire poker up the guys ass that shot that guy) is that no matter what goes down in the protests here in the States, we have it so damn good. We should consider ourselves really lucky.

Posted by JesseJB on June 25, 2009 at 8:16 PM

"The videos resemble protest scenes from the WTO or the Republican National Convention—until you realize the police have swapped out pepper spray and tear gas for live ammunition."

So basically nothing like the WTO stupidity....

Posted by Stupid White Man

on June 25, 2009 at 9:56 PM

That shit makes me so fucking angry

Totally agree Jesse

Unlike Fnarf's assertation on the 2nd Amendment thread earlier today, that shit wouldn't happen here. You have too many Americans with high powered rifles with scopes that would fight back a bullet for a bullet. Random scattered street protests like those shown in Iran would be a government security force nightmare. With greater than 50% of the populace possessing weapons, US government troops would not want to engage in a Hogan's alley scenario against their fellow citizens.

Unlike Iran, our soldiers won't willingly fire upon innocent protesting civilians on mass scale. It is one thing to control a protest in a defined and confined area like many official protest sites are setup for (WTO comes to mind)... however it is a whole different ball of wax for an undefined open vulnerable urban combat impromptu scenario (like is shown in this video)

I can see many sight lines and opportunities for a scoped sniper to take out an Iranian government official from a 1/4 mile away.

The problem is... Iranians don't have personal gun ownership like we have here. Hence the reason it would never happen like that here.

Posted by Reality Check

on June 25, 2009 at 9:58 PM

@3: Never? There is no such thing as never.

All those gun toting Americans you're talking about could just as easily be convinced turn their guns on "trouble making" citizens as opposed to the police.

Also, the US military would crush a few bands of citizens armed with pistols and shotguns and a few boxes of ammo.

As for US soldiers firing on innocent citizens, does Kent State ring a bell?

If you value your liberty, don't take it for granted.

Posted by seandr on June 25, 2009 at 11:41 PM

In addition to that you had the Draft Riots during the civil war. The Chemical/Biological experiments conducted on New York and San Francisco in 1953.

Posted by The Amazing Jim

on June 26, 2009 at 8:47 AM