And you thought it was just police brutality

As if a 19-year old University of Oregon student activist being tasered repeatedly by the police at a rally in support of Lane County ending the practice of roadside pesticide spraying wasn't fucked up enough, it has now been discovered that it wasn't just the Eugene Police that were harassing peaceful demonstrators. In fact, it seems that police presence was demanded by the Department of Homeland Security. No joke.

Last month’s Tasering of a UO student was more than just the Eugene Police Department (EPD) overreacting to a peaceful protest. It was the result of the monitoring of an anti-pesticide group based in Lane County by the Department of Homeland Security, according to recent documents concerning the incident.
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According to the police reports, Federal Protective Services (FPS), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, was made aware of the rally in support of Lane County’s no-roadside spray policy by the EPD on May 22. That is the day EW published an article on the planned rally, featuring a photo of Ian Van Ornum, one of the leaders of “Crazy People for Wild Places,” the student group that organized the rally. Van Ornum was Tasered twice and arrested with Owen and UO student (and Eagle Scout) Tony Farley.

The reports show that Homeland Security thought the rally was organized by the Pitchfork Rebellion, a group of rural Lane County residents who want to put a stop to pesticide spraying by large corporations (see EW cover stories 3/16/06 and 2/28/08). “That’s either a blatant lie or poor police work,” says Owen, who spoke at the event but did not organize it. The Pitchfork Rebellion, he says, has never been involved in “property damage or anything like that."

COINTELPRO returns! Every time a citizen is tasered for exercising their right to free speech, a radical is born. It's like they're begging for a social movement.