that's no war zone but the good old u.s. of a land of the free and home of the lover is brave enough to take on a militarized police force the tear gas tasers and sound cannons many police forces are now arming themselves with weapons found in the battlefield. some of the. occupy los angeles protesters are getting a firsthand look at the police crackdown from the diction notice to an overnight raid police officers in california shut down the movement and the tougher of darkness while also limiting media access.

and as police in the u.s. try to curb the social unrest labor unions in the u.k. are rising up and what is arguably the largest strike in decades millions come out all in a battle over public sector pensions so listen it's time for american protestors take a page out of the u.k.'s guide to social uprise well compare. the reasons for holding the elections useful to be able to return home to corruption and crime. as the arab spring moves into arab winter so does a better reality the egyptian elections might not have been a free and fair as everyone was hoping for artsy is on the ground with the latest in egypt. it's wednesday november thirtieth five pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our t.v.

. well over the past couple of months we've seen shocking video of police brutality directed at peaceful protesters from firing pepper spray into beating protesters with but times the loss and rubber bullets we're seeing image after image of police of my. me cracking down on demonstrators and then there is the overwhelming police presence warms of officers decked out in riot gear have surrounded occupy wall street sites and beyond the local police homeland security has gotten involved in many cases amid these images questions arise over the role of police officers today are we seeing a military invasion of the police force are to correspondent on a stasi a cherokee takes a look at how police tactics used against protesters have grown more fierce over the recent months. america's fight to promote democracy abroad looks like this. images like this get applauded.

but a similar uprising you believe you must turns into a crackdown on that seen gemma right will. is the u.s. now in new york on its own territory against its own people or basically our entire history and we didn't your realestate say to call me a better time before and serialism a bride starts acting individual liberties at. the methods being used and civil disobedience in the us has been increasingly reminiscent ignored there is a lot of casualties so you can see it's a war zone in school students pepper sprayed while seated. demonstrating americans beaten into we believe that you wouldn't war veterans injured each one cringes our police forces have been militarized they are working more in cooperation with the pentagon they're. being given military surplus quitman that has been kind of designed for use in war and this is something that leads to treating the public as

you would treat an enemy thirty seven year old boy and artist on the scene recalls his own arrest as if they're are being but don't make a move just put your hands behind your back and. six people jumped on me tried to wrestle me to the ground they wrestled me to the ground and they just kept meeting me in the back. for about five minutes i mean says the only political right not cracked down on in the u.s. is the right to vote on election day everything else is seen as a threat to the united states has created a space for people to shop for people to buy you know you know buy cards go on picnics do things like that but the moment that they're politicized in any way that's probably hundreds of arrests throughout months of occupy wall street demonstrations have shown the world an image of america not seen for a long time an image authorities have tried their best to hide by demanding special

credentialing for journalists covering demonstrations and evictions i have d.c.b. the first passes. as well as threatening to teach me a passes away. the only thing we're seeing this trend and it's very disturbing and a lot of reporters aren't seeing it because they're getting thrown out of the action and being arrested and this is something which is outrageous and so. police presence and aggression overwhelming nonviolent protests since the patriot act was passed they used instances of violence to revoke liberties some of those have been part of the protests since day one the officials turned the movement into a civil war that was to show we source the court needed at times right national where the homeland security chose this coming from a federal level even would be use of militarized tactics summarize those fighting for change are not planning to give up on their battle the police overreaction in the political reaction only emboldens us only strengthens our resolve and many are

saying we'll fight is yet to actions of a dying regime become more aggressive and crazier and we're just going to see more of that two thousand and twelve will be the year a year of american revolution the aggressive vigor with which america's biggest protest years have been met has been the latest example. of the fact that what the west preaches is not necessarily what it practices only heeding the outreach of its citizens who want the system to change. or to you. angela deeper into this i spoke to alter net reporter rania colic to start things off i asked her police brutality is a growing problem in the nation or are we just seeing more images of it here is her take. please or suddenly growing increasingly violent for the past forty years between the war on drugs and the war on terror we've been arming and training police in the same way that we train military welders and it's

only it only makes sense that at some point that seem the same tactics being used by the military would. if you well and you know and we're also seeing this massive presence on the ground you know in some instances it looks like there is more cops than protesters especially when they were trying to evade them from zuccotti park kind of look about why why is there such a strong response to these mostly peaceful protests well i think it's because these protests pose a threat to the status quo i mean there's protests that don't pose a threat you don't see this kind of presence and you don't see this kind of brutality this is what happens i mean any movement that has grown large enough to really threaten the powers that is treated this way throughout american history i would say especially in the sixty's and seventy's of the civil rights movement so we're just seeing a present day version of the way the power of the powerful people in power acted

when when business as usual comes under threat by the people and you know the role of police officers are supposed to be public servants servants and serve to protect the public do you think that our role is now changing. i think well has been different for a while but it's not really consistent it depends where and what the circumstances are. police in the suburbs don't at the same way they act in let's say the interstate. inner cities that urban areas are very militarized the strong police presence. whereas you know if you live in the suburbs we're generally the middle class and. there's not as much crime or poverty you know you see the police are just you know pretty much there to. give traffic tickets and you know break up break up parties so i think it also has to do with the social factors i think the police are generally used. today are programs have been used really to deal with

america's social problems rather than you know whether it's addiction or poverty the police are the ones that are to do the arresting and things that are getting brittle and we see in some cases homeland security so the feds are now getting involved. or second what was. the department of homeland security in some cases we've seen has gotten involved so we're seeing the feds become involved in the end these crackdowns so i want to show you some of the machinery local law enforcement you quit with these days take a lock tear gas we see that used in the middle east in tahrir square that works by inflicting pain and literally making you tear up blindness occurs in some cases and next as what's known as the taser on steroids the albuquerque police department now have this and their arsenal so one police can't get close enough to their targets

to tase them they can shoot tasers out of one of these bad boys and take a look at this vehicle it looks like something you would see roaming in the streets of a war zone maybe in afghanistan but this is owned and operated by the tampa police department. so randy can you talk about the difference between military and civilian law enforcement and what should separate the two and is that is the line becoming hazy or. well i would say. military in a military is there too you know we train them to fight our foreign wars you go there to kill the enemy rates to zero defeat the enemy police officers of the families others are supposed to uphold the peace and hold the constitution while doing so so i think it's important to note that what the military has been doing that the u.s. military has been doing of in the world for a very long time now is very anti-democratic we send our military out to occupy it for their various reasons and they're often suppressing so that's expressing

democracies so it's only you know it makes sense that eventually they're going to come home and now we see that the civilian police force is doing the same they're uprisings over here you can have democracy at home and imperialism abroad i think chuck schumer's johnson said that it was hard for you see that's just a factor as well as the hardware is of the military starting to be mirrored in civilian martyrs in civilian police forces and so you know looking at the bigger picture what does this have to say about what's happening in america are our some of our fundamental rights in danger our freedom of speech freedom of assembly for example well absolutely but again it is to pens i mean over over the weekend when it was black friday you saw tents being put up great people waiting to go shopping and there was riots in certain stores and wal-mart's across the country to. bear to suppress the riots right but at occupy protest it's very different cause there's

a clear political message and it's large enough that it's people and powerful friends so again it depends what kind of speech you're talking about it could be said nobody cares about it doesn't really matter that it's fine but if you are. you know if you're practicing your first memory rights but you're part of a movement that is like occupy wall street wants work all of you wants more bareness and powerful people feel threatened that the police are going to be used to suppress the of. ranya thank you so much for your thoughts on all of this now. alternate reporter ranya colic. and be sure to stay tuned to our seven pm news cast we've all seen images of police power for pepper spraying protesters at point blank range fox news's neck and kelly even had this to say about pepper spray . ritual pepper spray which is burning your eyes right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. so what does the man who invented pepper spray happens

say about this what he like what he like the way police are using it these days well ask him just that and more that's all new at seven pm. and more police crackdown this time and los angeles early this morning police event that occupy l.a. protesters how we armed officers tore down tents and arrested at least two hundred demonstrators and we're hearing there was an effort to have banned the press from reporting on our kids or mongol and i was among those pushed out by cops he gives us a close up look at the chaotic scene. we still have several people sitting down in the middle of the city hall park here in los angeles occupy l.a. still story. i was rudely now going to

a crossword crossroads excuse me where it seems like the camera will finally be shut down now in the background we see that there are police and regular tearing down some of the tents we see several other of us is also in right here some of them holding the tongs some of them holding plastic ties created take people into custody some of them do have other non-lethal weapons which they say they are ready to use on rotator protesters excuse me here they remain peaceful no one has risen arms so far earlier there were some scuffles but the situation is that there has been an order for dispersal that also warns the media that if we do remain here while they are enforcing their operation we are also subject to arrest now a very select few media have done the mission to fail now we've been assured from the police that everything will remain closer to shore from their far violence that we shall see. in the morning whether that happens to be you have been ordered to

leave within the next few minutes or else we are also subject to arrest. really our movement we don't need to be pushed like they are tearing down some new cabinets up there some of the riot police in hazmat suits are tearing down a. tree house that was left up there on the other side we're seeing tents being torn down and still definitely a huge presence if you just swing by over here real quick there's a temple shut down. was. there are several police officers as you can see tearing down tents tearing down makeshift structures on the putting everything in so piles what was once i saw angeles is now being torn apart by officers which are in protective suits in case

they run into some sort of chemical agents or anything like that now all the demonstrators today that we saw were peaceful we saw huge response we have gotten access to aftermath you see right now a major cleanup going on and once the sun like comes up we will see that entire city hall will be barricaded in order. so that the demonstrators in support of occupy wall street the people who have made this an encampment will not return now just one last look after nearly two months of occupying los angeles city hall occupy l.a. and it has been shut down and what we're seeing here is a complete tear down of the encampment we shall see tomorrow and in the coming weeks where the heads for now we're reporting here in los angeles.

well protests escalate in the u.k. in millions taking part today in a strike they're protesting slashes to public sector pensions over thirty labor unions from public health to tax collection have joined the movement much of the country now at a standstill of thousands of schools shut down employees at the airport simply walk out the correspondent laura smith is on the ground in london. it started with twenty thousand people out on the streets of london present to gauge how the public sector pensions and it ended like base a small group of protesters from the ok by the london stock exchange we didn't have reports of people like this building behind me it's a few stocks and the reason they got to fight is because one of the finest paid c.e.o.'s in the country what it is number the police have turned out to protect the building of the kid and they're trying to get the occupy protesters out as we speak now we've seen a huge rally in london state's twenty thousand people turned out such

a process to get cuts in public sector pensions two million public sector workers have been on strike today that's the biggest strike that we've seen in the paper round about thirty years it has had a massive impact reports leave nothing out of ten schools in london what closed today hossam all schools across the country that meant that millions of parents take time off work children trouble at the airports as well with water can show that they're still going on strike that's meant news that's going to bring since i know there are reports of late seem to like hospitals have been accepted emergency patients only and a huge range of people have been out of strike teachers nurses doctors groups of doctors who've never been there some strike before now we've seen more than thirty union support six days strike action which is a process to gates having to pay more into that pensions one can no longer and receiving less money at the end of their working life what they're hoping is that

the government was this up and take notice and go back to the table with the treasury renegotiate this still but the chancellor george osborne has already said that the strikes are going to cheat and that david cameron backs him up saying that they were done with if they have no impact then the people who've been striking say have said that they will strike again and they will strike a longer there's also been talk of the government saying constantly that it's got no money supply and shouldn't but at. same time funding bailouts will countries in the year a day in which people rescind isn't a part only i speak to alex kenny from the national union of teachers he was pleased that about that certainly people are saying we didn't play for the crisis we didn't play to the banking crisis and they bailed out the banks and now working people are being made to pay for that and they won't accept it so we have an unprecedented thirty three unions taking action money of whom have never taken so i could go through and we will see just how strongly people feel about the government

when it comes to get me off to the strike except fixing the impact of how many place to place but i guess this is a destructive it's not the kind i gotta take i think it's a stick if you like it will be mood strikes. those are to his own laura smith with the latest from london and as we just saw the government in the u.k. wants workers to pay more for their pensions and retire later unions are saying no way now union certainly pay for them a lot of challenges in the u.s. but we have yet to see anything close to the backlash we're seeing abroad why not labor journalist my calc with here a little earlier to talk more about this looking across the pond to the u.k. i asked them why can't americans come together for a collective day of strike here's what he had to say. well i think the big issue that you look at here is that you know the response of american labor leaders to even concessions that they're asking like that has not been a strike it's been a given and accepted shared sacrifice so i think the biggest problem is that we've

gotten this kind of stockholm syndrome where the labor leaders are afraid to take on their captors a lot of the big bosses and quarters public officials and so i think that's the first problem the second problem is obviously the laws are different in britain where they have the right to strike american labor laws restricting britain doesn't have that much higher union rate than america. so yes the unions here are more restrictive and they're right they're right strikes but even if they were not i mean this with a straight without that there wildcat illegal strikes all the time in american history the issue is that there's simply an issue of courage and they're willing to do it i maybe talk a little bit more about why this is the case what is contributing to the demise of the power of unions in the u.s. i know that you've written about the federal government playing a role in this yeah i mean i think it's basically three factors that have contributed to the demise of organized labor in this country one is union busting you know companies can fire workers legally without any serious penalty from the

government who is outsourcing it's very easy to threaten workers in the private sector the jobs we were three days and three is the incompetency of relievers. we have a woman that's supposed to represent the ninety nine percent but it's leaders too often with like the one percent you know salaries of six figures that are obscene and not really just making decisions without any consultation and ninety nine percent of the members they represent so that's currently the crisis we have organized labor i think is a big one of crisis because if you look at the workers striking here the public employees nobody's threatening to move public employees jobs overseas public employees don't suffer the same type busting it's that the public employee its leaders in great britain are much more willing to take dramatic actions like strikes and well. ali we are seeing this difference between in the u.k. and the u.s. do you think it's possible for america to rebuild its labor movement and if so how can they do that i mean certainly throughout american history you know the leave room has been some of the low levels in the one nine hundred twenty s.

it was crap staff through no one they can do it but it really requires in my opinion a revival of unions that you know to really do a revival of organized labor we first have to kick out many of the incompetent we witness leading this movement. and in order to do that i mean we really have to get reagan for democracy so i think now we're at a moment where i think if we can learn the lessons of occupy wall street which is to have democratic ownership of the institutions then i think we can really have a revival and i mean unions that have supported publicly supported occupy wall street some of them have even come out and protested with them but still we're not seeing anywhere near the impact that we're seeing in the u.k. yeah i mean if you look at what happened a lot of unions like a c.e.o. you have seen occupy wall street they've supported it meaning it's leaders got to rest it. remove the seeing it as a social movement that they can use leverage to make a deal behind the scenes i mean look at what president major henry did she got

a record it rested on the brooklyn bridge couple weeks ago and then she went around and she endorsed president obama saying that he was going to fight against the elite one percent on behalf of the ninety nine percent i mean they're still stuck in this corrupt mode of back when do you make your fatherly so but i mean do you think that if they are it's a kind of use this energy around the occupy wall street movement that this could also be part of the labor movement yes i think in order to see that leverage rebuild that we have to completely rework the democratically controlled institution which it is not right now all right michael thank you so much for your thoughts on all of this that was labor journalist like ellen. i'll still have on our t.v. dreaming of democracy but waking up to a different post. far reality one for elections might not be as free and fair as everyone hoped for our teams on the ground with the latest on. next.

year still at least the option to. test nobody seems to know. never break the face but the argument that they're being overly dramatic. and.

i'm. concerned only. i have a right to know what i. want to know why i pay taxes. i would characterize it as a charismatic version of american exceptionalism. if you like archy share with the world a long line and check out our brand new internet official our chief broader. question more. well gyptian sees signs of democracy as they take part in the first free election but are dreams of democracy really becoming a reality injection still fighting for government control to shift from military

civilians meanwhile court workers there refused to accept a shipment of tear gas from the united states the country's interior ministry ordered it but workers are afraid it will be used against protesters in tahrir square are you correspondent and use the now we is on the ground in egypt to bring us the latest. signs over your democracy miles long lines at the polls vote stained fingers and bill joy of participating in egypt's future and nothing but you the signs that. election excitement and dreams are democracy overshadowing of course reality there's little doubt egyptian enthusiasm for this poll is genuine they're excited to be voting in a real of action for real candidates but for our heart of a man that will have no power does that make us part of a real transition than from the old regime and the problem is you know what of that you're going to produce

a parliament that cannot appoint ministers that can work going to government. whose constitution whatever it turns out to be is going to be guarded by the army some one percent this boycotted the polls like some you're in right now protester that knows all too well all tactics are still rampant virginity task is performed on her and other women protested don't talk to me or long after mubarak fell over to. the women told me to lie down for so she examined me and the men came in and and then at the country examined man i was naked it was like to show this people watching all of those officers and soldiers she was too upset to tell me the details of her ordeal but to say this about the book i guess. the main reason for holding the elections is for the military to hide the corruption and crime in stead of voting a group of protesters marched to call for justice and show solidarity for victims.

it was a few cameras and no egyptian press it remains the fact that both before during and after the selection of the ruler of egypt is an unelected man called field marshal muhammad ali and as long as he's an elected this is not a democracy but the west was quick to praise the election as a. great step towards cheney salute the american units are going to be honest about this beat down. to keep the army i mean if you give one point three billion dollars a year to the egyptian army which the americans to you was expected to do what it was this leaves little room for the people to get what they want to egypt might be waking up for more of a nightmare of the sweet dream of democracy once election settles at least in our way r.t. . well that is a for now for more of the stories we covered but are to. say .