And this time, it hits a bit “home”.

Check out the video below, it features J.T. Sexton, a friend and Andiamo alum who I met three years ago when he and his cohorts came aboard to do a sail from Panama to Colombia. He’s a rather colorful, loud, unapologetic dude who does not understand the words “subtlety” or “restraint”. He’s the author of the sporadic, disjointed and nonetheless entertaining blog “God Damn Stories”, which is listed on my blogroll. He’s also passionately “anti-institution” on virtually any level. In other words, the perfect guy to get actively involved in the “Occupy” movement.

Well, lo and behold, involved he became. To top it all, in grand fashion, he was violently arrested by Denver police two days ago. And of course, it’s all on video. The footage of his outrageous arrest and the ridiculously beyond excessive force treatment by the Denver PD is all over YouTube and global media. Check out the clip below (and SHARE IT!). JT is the one on the ground in the black t-shirt and what looks like a light blue bandana, who the cops are tackling en masse during most of the clip.

I’ll tell you what bugs me the most about this footage, other than the fact that JT is getting pummeled. It’s obvious, PAINFULLY OBVIOUS, that the cops raised the stakes on this entire situation. Had they not shown up in RIOT GEAR, I highly doubt any of what ensued would have happened at all. This seems to be the going trend among police and the way they are handling these “Occupy” demonstrators. I really don’t get it. Do they really think they look good in ANY of the hairy situations that have been documented thus far? Beating people? Tear gassing them? Trashing their camps and their personal property?? Do any of these delusional dolts think they are winning any points at all with their citizens, or with the world who is watching?

Ok, so to be fair, I’m sure that not everyone has behaved 100% peacefully, and perhaps some even deserved to be arrested for whatever reason. Don’t get me wrong.

However, it’s clear that the overwhelmingly vast majority of these people are not out to do any harm. Many of whom are senior citizens and disabled veterans for crying out loud. These are people who are out to be seen and heard. That’s what demonstrations are all about, are they not?

And yes, I STILL believe that these protests will not be enough to initiate REAL, lasting change. Ultimately it will take ACTION to make that happen. But it doesn’t mean that they don’t have a point. It’s clear that they do. It also doesn’t mean that their constitutional rights should be stomped upon. It’s clear that they are.

At this point, I do believe that we are at the baseline of a steep crescendo on the chart. Especially when it comes to the commitment of the protesters. At this point, all many of them can do is continue to double down. The forces of the “institution” are doing everything they can to dismiss and marginalize them in the media. Meanwhile, the police in certain cities are stomping all over their rights. While in others, they simply leave them be. Here’s hoping that the protesters and the people on the sidelines who get why this is all happening, are thinking hard. Understanding that the actions they take, will far outweigh the words they chant. And for everyone else, barring the greedy plutocrats who instigated all the problems in the first place, accept that there is no other choice but to support the protesters. After all, they are the “99%”. They are NOT lying about that. Like I said in my earlier post, picking a side should be the easy part.

At least for me, because of what happened to JT and his compadres, it’s now personal.