Jailed for protesting the Iraq war

Indeed dissent has died. And where students or others have tried to march or protest the five-year long war in Iraq, an experiment that cost many lives, they have been arrested, charged and isolated.
Even student associations have distanced themselves from those who marched to get their voiced heard. In Binghamton, on the fifth anniversary of the war, several marched to Vestal Pkwy. Nine were arrested. Police used force to disperse the crowd, silencing the voice in a typical "by the books" fashion.
America, always glorified in the books, the movies and tales, as the land of freedom where right to the freedom of expression is supreme. But when the police can charge you with disorderly conduct for being on the wrong side of the road and for being in a group that they feel is up to something, it is similar to a police state.
What bothers me is they want to spread democarcy all over the world and will spend trillions to fund unjust wars, but have seldom looked inwards to see where they are failing. Democracy is not when you think twice before expressing your doubts, your dispproval and when state institutions can lock you up on any pretext.
People have the right to assemble and speak out. Afterall, it is the freedom of expression. Then why humiliate them, arrets them and make them seem as a bunch of hooligans that were disrupting public life.
In this country, where lives are dictated by a series of numbers and everything is recorded, and when your life is ruined because of a bad credit score and if you have a criminal charge because maybe you marched once to protest an atrocity, you can't get a job, of course people will cave in, and seldom speak out.