Anti-war demonstrators attacked with pepper spray for protesting at tax payer-funded Air and Space Museum (Video)

Activist attacked – credit: War is a Crime

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. was shut down when anti-war activists attempted to protest an exhibit promoting deadly military drones, for which they were attacked with pepper spray by security guards.

John Gibbons, the Smithsonian’s spokesman, estimated that 100-200 people attempted to enter the National Mall museum around 3 p.m. after which security guards assaulted them with pepper spray, sickening a number of protesters.

However, activists say that about 250 people from the October2011.org encampment at Freedom Plaza marched together to the museum chanting, “When drones fly, children die.”

Individuals who participated were affiliated with a number of groups including the October 2011 Stop the Machine demonstrations along with the Occupy D.C. protests and Veterans For Peace.

Ad

On a quick side note, the legitimacy of the Occupy D.C. protests became highly questionable after it was revealed by an organizer that some individuals were actually paid to attend the demonstrations.

However, the protest aimed at the drone exhibit, which glorifies the remote killing machines that have been utilized by the Obama administration to conduct covert wars in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya, not to mention the obvious nations like Afghanistan and Iraq.

These same drones, which the exhibit is blatantly promoting as positive, are infected with a keylogging virus which can transmit classified information to unknown non-military entities through the public internet.

After he was pepper sprayed, David Swanson, a 41-year-old Virginian, author, journalist, and a co-founder of War is a Crime.org told the Associated Press, “I began choking and vomiting and got a headache”.

Swanson was among dozens of activists sickened by the pepper spray after they attempted to bring signs into the museum.

Swanson said that the activists didn’t want to shut down the museum, but instead wanted to protest the insanely bloated military spending and the utilization of the deadly drones around the globe.

He said that the security officers went on the offensive when some demonstrators began to unfurl a banner inside of the museum.

Among those attacked were roughly 50 members of Veterans For Peace.

The Acting Director of Veterans For Peace, Mike Ferner, said that he saw no reason for people to be attacked with pepper spray.

“I was at the first entrance way, holding the door open for people to enter. I saw a police or security officer in a white shirt hold his hands up, telling people to stop. The marchers continued and the officer began pepper-spraying everyone,” Ferner said.

“From everything I saw until that moment, there was no reason for the pepper-spraying. The door of the museum clearly said ‘free admission.’ It did not say ‘Free admission if you are quiet’ or ‘Free admission unless you have opinions contrary to government policy.’”

Veterans For Peace is an anti-war organization composed of veterans of U.S. military operations in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Veterans For Peace are not taking this incident lightly.

“This was a clear abuse of authority and a use of force far beyond what was called for.  Our members are consulting with National Lawyers Guild attorneys who are working with the october2011.org encampment,” Ferner said. “We are aware that one of the marchers shoved aside one of the officers.  We do not condone this behavior.”

The following are videos of the incident posted on the War is a Crime website.

This is yet another disgusting example of government overstepping its bounds and infringing on our right to protest the further indebting of our bankrupt nation and the slaughter of innocent people around the globe in our name.

This is not only an assault on innocent people including veterans, but it is an assault on the American way of life and all of our rights.

If you care about the sanctity of human life, the right to free speech and the disturbing direction our nation has taken, I highly recommend you bring attention to this issue and the implications.

The Smithsonian is administered and funded by the federal government of United States of America, meaning that it is funded by our tax dollars; in fact the Smithsonian requested a staggering $797.6 million from Congress in 2011.

We own the Smithsonian, we pay the salaries of the “police” who attacked protesters, and we have every right to protest the glorification of the murder of civilians.

This is simply unacceptable and hopefully legal action will be taken against the Smithsonian and the thugs who attacked the protesters.