IRS employees at the Austin Accounts Management center on the south side of town have been protesting and picketing their employer recently. From what I have gathered from reading and hearing about it here and there, they seem to have some a good reason to due to shabby treatment by the IRS. Two days ago, ten minutes after they began their picket line, Homeland Security police were called in to shoo them away, which they attempted by demanding the union members get a permit to protest.

Very interesting. Having spent some portion of my life protesting and picketing, I know it used to be true that Americans, and perhaps even more so union members, had the right to assemble in public and air grievances without needing permits. Knowing what I know about the USA today, I suppose they have to apply for a permit so a Free Speech Zone can be set up a few miles away for you to hold your protest where no one will be bothered by the grievance airing. It is a sad fact the United States is no longer the country I grew up in, and free speech and the freedom of assembly is a mere shade of what it used to be.

Snagged for posterity, a screen capture from the accompanying video of the Homeland Security truck … in case I need it for later reference. I didn’t know we had Homeland Security forces lurking around town, but there they are, plain as day.