In younger days, I displayed a “Question Authority” bumper sticker on my vehicle. Though I am no longer much of a bumper sticker kind of guy, the sentiment of being suspect of “authority” hasn’t waned. The current scandal involving Penn State University and child molestation charges against a former assistant football coach, including the 2002 reported rape of a 10-year-old boy, highlights the frequent facade of “authority.”

Former Penn State assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky, 67, is facing a slew of charges ranging over a 15-year period. According to the grand jury report, several witnesses as well as individuals should have been suspect of Sandusky. Any one of them could have stepped forward and made a stand. They remained virtually silent, none so deafening as those at Sandusky’s alma mater Penn State.

From Wall Street to Main Street to Depot Street, our recent economic instability has forever changed the way the world conducts and supports business. Especially in America, our spending and saving habits have been altered so drastically over the past few years that we would practically be unrecognizable to our former selves! But what exactly has changed within our societies? And is it ultimately for the better?

One of the most popular grassroots campaigns running rampant across the globe has been to “Shop Local,” “Support Independent Businesses,” and “Start at Home.” But catch-phrases aside, are movements like these really capable of helping us stabilize and grow our local economies? Can something as simple as where you buy your loaf of bread or who prints your t-shirts make that much of a difference?

The violence in the Occupy movement has to be stopped. And by that I mean the violence perpetrated against the protesters during the last two months.

If you’ve been watching, you may have noticed that violence seems to erupt whenever authorities respond to the demonstrations in full riot gear, seemingly eager to unleash a hail of rubber bullets, tear gas and insidious devices like the sound cannon used on protesters at Zuccotti Park in New York City Tuesday morning.

The trend has been so common that Occupy protesters have designed posters recently that state, “You can tell who is planning on violence by what they’re wearing when they show up,” illustrated by photos of officers approaching in riot gear. It would be humorous if people weren’t actually getting hurt.

But the real causalties here are the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.

Life in the corporate police state

“Law is no longer what it was intended to be - a set of rules equally binding everyone to ensure that outcome inequalities are at least legitimate - and instead has become the opposite: A tool used by the politically and financially powerful to entrench their own power and control the society. That's how and why the law now destroys equality and protects the powerful.

What we see with the protests demonstrates exactly how that works. The police force - the instrument of law enforcement - is being used to protect powerful criminals who have suffered no consequences for their crimes. It is simultaneously used to coerce and punish the powerless: those who are protesting and who have done nothing wrong, yet are subjected to an array of punishment ranging from arrest to pepper spray and other forms of abuse.