Hippies...

Hippies.

It's somewhat of an odd word, bringing back drug-laced memories of the 1960s and early 1970s for some people, while others simply dismiss it as young women with beads in their braids and hairy arm pits.

One way or another, however, it seems to be a word that still polarizes people, making crazy liberals jump for joy and grumpy conservatives sigh with contempt. And, as the ongoing Occupy Wall Street rages on in New York, people around the world are seemingly choosing sides between the hippies and the country's ultra-wealthy, which makes up less than 1 percent of the population.

The hippies, a leaderless group backed by the New York City General Assemblies, aren't the least bit shy about their demands, either.

“Like our brothers and sisters in Egypt, Greece, Spain and Iceland, we plan to use the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic of mass occupation to restore democracy in America,” the occupiers — it sounds slightly less subjective as hippies — announce on their website, occupywallst.org. “We also encourage the use of nonviolence to achieve our ends and maximize the safety of all participants.

“Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that we are the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.”

That common goal, it seems, has been enough to spur hundreds — possibly even thousands before this thing comes to an end — of people from across the country to travel to New York's Zuccotti Park and set up make-shift shelters.

And while these types of protests are nothing new — just check out some vintage reels from the Vietnam War era, if you don't believe me — there does seem to be one new addition to this recipe: technology.

Protestors alleging abuse or police brutality 30 or 40 years ago had to rely heavily on the value of their word to see any kind of action taken against heavy-badged law enforcement. And, even if the complaint did find its way into a courtroom, it quickly became a game of “he said, she said,” not a very convincing argument.

Today, however, virtually ever cell phone out there has a built in camera. Some even have video cameras capable of filming hours of footage. The story a person tells you is one thing, but seeing it on video, well, that's something altogether different.

And that's exactly the situation I found myself in today, as I read several articles about allegations of police brutality coming out of the daily protests. Undeniable video of police officers using unnecessary force, ranging from pepper spray in a pair of young women's faces to protestors being slammed up against cars and walls.

Now, bear in mind I'm not quite gullible enough to believe all the people arrested during the protestors were of the peaceful variety. Common sense and well over a decade in journalism have taught me there are always three sides to every story: his side, her side and the truth.

However, the video is downright damning. In one scene, as police use a large, orange net wall to corral protestors and marchers, we see a white-collar New York Police officer run up to the barricade and spray a pair of women in the face with either pepper spray or mace. As the women immediately hit their knees, the officer quickly runs back behind a police car, laughing and pointing out the incident to other officers.

There are videos all over YouTube depicting similar acts of violence enacted on peaceful protestors. In one of them, we see a man arrested and thrown to the pavement because he was taking pictures of the violence with his iPhone.

After seeing democratic revolutions in Egypt and Libya this past summer, and the deadly violence used against protestors simply looking to gain their freedom, I have a hard time equating that to the alleged attacks in New York. However, both come as a stark reminder to Americans that a heavy price is to be paid by those who seek freedom or fair treatment.

Are the hippies in New York — I can't even write the word hippie without thinking of dreadlocks and hacky sacks — patriots working through peaceful protest to ensure fair treatment of our nation's “99 percent?”

Who knows.

The only thing at this point that is certain — in this writer's opinion — is the violence caught on tape and uploaded to the Internet will be around for a long, long time, and will serve as a reminder how quickly our civil liberties can vanish, right before our eyes.