At a time when violent crime was in free fall in America (due to technology and demographics and having little to do with incomprehensible Law Enforcement and incarceration strategies and tactics) our Federal government flooded our local Law Enforcement agencies with military equipment and tactics.
The result? Well, if the stuff is there, they will use it. For anything. Including late library books.
How did the NAZI's get their people, members of one of the most advanced civilizations in history, to be complicit in the murder of millions of people? They broke it down in small pieces, giving each person along the way a means to avoid accountability. One guy made the arrests. Another guy loaded them on the train. Another guy drove them to the concentration camp, etc...
While Law Enforcement, prosecution, and the judiciary in America should not be compared to the NAZI's , that would be incredibly unfair, it is much the same phenomena that has caused them to be the producers and architects of the U.S. prison population - irrespective of how hard I try to pretty up the language describing the outcome.
We, the U.S., has the largest prison population in the history of mankind! And no one working as a police officer, prosecutor, or judge has resigned in protest?
WTF???!!!! How is that even possible??!!
I had been waiting to write this post. I was afraid to mention what I thought would happen as a result of the police killings of unarmed people making headlines of late. I did not want to be the guy whose mere thoughts became a reality. But there is no shoving the shaving cream back in this can.
Two lunatics shot and killed 2 police officers as they were having in lunch in Las Vegas. Another lunatic shot 2 police officers, one fatally and the other has been left with life changing injuries, while pretending to be a sniper (there is nothing lower on this earth than a "sniper". Well, maybe a "bomber"). Shortly after, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, 2 unarmed "criminals", were killed by the police. Then another lunatic walks up to a police cruiser and murders 2 innocent police officers in cold blood. (I refuse to use the names of the killers. Their memory should be erased from existence. That would include government agents that are willing to kill and torture to enforce our inhuman drug laws.)
The response from Law Enforcement and their supporters on the Web has, so far, been to take the position that the police were somehow "justified"in all of the police killings of late... or in some cases it was just a "tragic accident". Some people did not see it that way and were willing to lose their lives to strike out at what they see as their oppressors.
These were crazy people, right? People suffering from serious mental illness? At this time that seems to be the case, but there are a great many crazy people out there. Think about that the next time you "support" Law Enforcement's position that it is ok that we are the only nation in the industrialized world that tolerates the killing of unarmed criminals by the police.
In the future I think family members of those killed by armed government agents are very, very likely to avenge the deaths of their sons and brothers - personally. In fact, I am kind of amazed that the fathers of some of these victims have not already taken the law into their own hands. In Sicily, for example, the police are very, very careful not to kill anyone. They know that their lives, in fact the lives of their family members, would not be worth a plug nickel if they did. I think it is highly likely that this will start to take place here in the U.S.
There have been other killings of the police that may not have been committed by crazy people. The Kentucky ambush smacks of someone getting even for an offense they suffered personally. Hopefully, that crime will be solved soon.
I think it is clear that we have reached a crisis point and I think it is urgent that we Americans reconsider the circumstances that government "force agents" interact with The People - from top to bottom. 1/3 of American adults has a criminal record! Not because we are more criminal than other industrial societies (well, if you take out the African America demographic, that is), but because we went f***ing crazy and lost our minds - we are insane with hypocrisy. This must be the moment that we reign it all in. The War on Drugs. No knock raids. Armed extortion via traffic enforcement. The list goes on.
If we don't you can count on more blood spilled by people made angry by the media. Soon blood will be spilt by people seeking revenge for the killing of a son or brother.
Is our goal to have order? Because this isn't it. Is this what "freedom" and "liberty" and our American ideals stand for? Tit for tat killings between the police and the citizenry? WTF did you people in control of our local law enforcement think was going to happen? That the police could kill people over drugs or cigarettes or prostitution (if you have laws they have to be enforced. That means GUNS, and DOGS, and PRISON CELLS, and the resultant GANGS) and the only form of protest would be flower hippies with dreadlocks singing Kumbaya? Do you know your history? The Federal Government showed up at Ruby Ridge and the Branch Davidian Compound and provoked a slaughter that a certain lunatic (whose name should be forgotten) avenged by blowing up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City killing 167 innocent people. This is what happens when the government over uses its monopoly on force. People will respond. Is this the kind of society we want to live in?
I don't want that level of "order", thanks. And if you give this some thought, you won't want that kind of "order", either.
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