[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&w=640&h=360]

This video shot at UC Davis during a peacefull Occupy Movement protest, captures a campus policeman  mercilessly pepper-spraying seated, non-threatening UC Davis students who were … protesting police brutality.

How is this, and dozens of other examples of police beating and spraying peaceful demonstrators a good thing some might ask? Well, contrary to what the “authorities” and the police might think, this only adds fuel to the fire and is the best recruiting tool we have.

As Americans we are outraged at a corrupt political and economic system that serves the interests of the few and not the common good. But until now, until Occupy Wall St., we were without a voice. We are outraged to see riot police and anti-terrorist units from NYC to Seattle mercilessly beating and spraying peaceful Americans who are exercising their Constitutional Right to peaceable assembly, the exercise of free speech, and the right to express our grievances to the Government. (The Bill of Rights)

As Americans we have to wonder about the hypocrisy when our President and Secretary of State condemn the very same acts of brutality and violence we have witnessed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya,  and Syria to name just a few, at the hands of oppressive dictatorships. So, I ask, why have President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton remained silent when our own mayors and governors are unleashing such brutality on our own people?

Police brutality and violence on our own people is a good thing because this will only cause students from Maine to California to stand in solidarity with each other and all of us who are protesting injustice and inequality in America. Just yesterday,  students at Casco Bay High School in Portland, Maine formed an Occupy support group and published a Facebook page. This will hopefully encourage other high schools to form their own groups.

And maybe churches of all denominations will realize that they need to be involved in this movement. I find it ironic that  churches which have traditionally been at the center of social justice and human rights issues have been mysteriously silent and invisible. It is time for them to convert their holy book messages and sermons into action and take to the streets. The churches in America have the infrastructure to educate, lead, and mobilize millions of Americans who have been standing on the sidelines.

When our churches and educational campuses show up en masse, this movement, which has been spreading like wildfire, will explode in every corner of America from border to border and from sea to shinning sea!

Dr. Martin Luther King showed us that non-violent protests can and will overcome injustice and inequality, and the willingness to be beaten and to die for a just cause can inspire a nation and change the order of the world.

(To see more videos of police brutality on Occupy demonstrators, go to Youtube.com and type Police Brutality into the search bar.)