They are emboldened by your silence.
This is history being made before your eyes. The anti-corporate movement is being met with illegal action by blindly-obedient police, under orders by corporate-owned politicians.
From the original article on the Huffington Post:
Josh Fox, director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Gasland” (trailer below on this OccupyEducated.org page) was taken into custody by Capitol Hill police this morning, along with his crew, after Republicans objected to their presence, according to Democratic sources present at the hearing. The meeting of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment had been taking place in room 2318 of the Rayburn building.
Approximately 16 officers entered the hearing room and handcuffed Fox amid audible discussions of “disorderly conduct” charges, according to Democratic sources present at the arrest.
“Gasland” received strong critical acclaim and takes a critical eye toward the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a process in which several tons of highly pressurized water and chemicals are injected into the ground, allowing valuable natural gas to escape. The practice is decried by ecological experts for destroying ecosystems and polluting groundwater. The energy industry keeps the actual content of fracking chemicals secret.
A separate ABC News crew, which did have official Capitol Hill credentials, was also denied access to the public hearing.
Arresting journalists, attacking citizen documentarians… you see it on the streets of Occupy every day. Today you see it on Capitol Hill, right in front of your face, because they are betting they can keep turning up the heat as they boil the American frogs — you. They are betting we will keep becoming ever-more complacent, apathetic, or helpless. We sit online and complain, but do not get out in the streets to stand up against it.
Do you not know that fracking is no fringe issue — it is the permanent destruction of your water supply? Do you not know that fracking, not unlike the Canadian tar sands, is simply a last-ditch effort to get at the last few drops of fossil energy accessible, just so these corporate heads can make a quick billion bucks on development and exorbitant higher rates on your energy bill, getting as much capital as possible before the entire fossil energy sector collapses, at the expense of permanent destruction of entire swaths of American homes?
When and where do you stand? Democrats, Republicans, the American people… they have proven to be ineffective, apathetic, or in on the game, so what are you going to do?
Get educated. Find out how they’re doing it. Learn why it’s madness to do this when we’re at the end of economic and environmental-destruction growth. Learn what this will do to you, your economy, and your environment — you know, that place you get your food from.
For the sake of all that is American, open your eyes, open your neighbors’ eyes. Get to the hearings, get to the streets, and do whatever is necessary to stop this corporate takeover of your government happening before your very eyes.
Commentary by Ben Zolno