Fuck the Police State

[TempestTS]

Excellent post Cuchulain...and an excellent suggestion.

The problem is not that we’re a police state (which would imply that these examples of brutality were orchestrated) but rather we’re a nation with too many random and brutal incidences of police misconduct. This is no doubt a result of social ills__some already identified and some yet to be identified.

I’m not sure we can attribute all this emphasis on putting more police on the streets to fear. Yes there’s a lot of fear mongering, but crime is actually down. I don’t meet a lot of voters who are genuinely afraid to walk the streets or are fixated on fear. Most only think about it when it comes up in a political context. What I do meet is people who project testosterone laden personalities. People who like to talk a big game and walk with swagger. People whose reaction to any social ill or problem is to get tough on it. Too much poverty? Those lazy louts should get jobs. Children crossing our southern border? Put more soldiers on the border, increase the number of border guards. Too many drugs? Build more prisons. Establish mandatory sentences.

What America has is an identity crises. We’re a nation of couch potatoes who wannabe tough guys.

These are more than isolated incidents - they are pervasive - and there is little to no accountability and no checks and balances for the actions of the police. Our freedom of speech is in serious peril - ever notice that when the NRA assembles to protest about gun rights they can be well armed and freely assemble without being hassled by the cops - but if a group assembles to protest a bank or corporation in a peaceful manner its met with a HUGE police response... explain that one to me - Im dying to know...

I met a lot of voters afraid to walk the streets when the RNC was here in Minneapolis - the mass of the police force was unfreaking real protesters were hassled in their own front yards and told they had to go back inside their homes or take it elsewhere. I wouldnt even drive within a mile of any rally because they were running people in for anything they could find. I know a good number of homeless or minorities who are terrified if they see a squad car - hell Ill Ill walk a block out of my way or at least cross the street if I see a cluster of cops with nothing to do... I dont want to be their entertainment for the evening.

My partner works social outreach and was handing out flyers for food shelters and other social services and she was yanked aside by the cops and told she had to empty her bags (which are big and bright GREEN sampted with STREETWORKS OUTREACH) bacause they said she was passing out drugs - WTF ok first off who just goes around handing out drugs for free - secondly they had no evidence no complaints nothing at all - yet she was told if she didnt want to be detained she had to comply WTF - bullshit bullshit bullshit - I probably would have stood up for my rights and been locked up but she's a bit more reasonable when it comes to unreasonable requests.

Crime is down but prison population is way way way UP - funny how those two numbers dont seem to correlate.... furthermore how do we know crime is down - we have been told that year after year after year - you'd think it would be completely gone just from how many times we have heard it - oh I forget the people who tell us that are the Fucking Police Departments - they supply the numbers. Ever notice the only time "Crime rate is up" is when they want funding ?

Fuck-balls Trish - I thought you were smarter than to buy into all that bullshit.

[TempestTS]

The politicians ARE listening. What they're hearing is people want more police, more guards, more prisons and tougher policies. Instead of advocating revolution, I'm suggesting we change our collective attitude. Don't vote for these policies and the numbskulls who advocate them. Currently that would mean voting against the prevailing culture. But hey, you're a rebel; you can do it. But not voting isn't enough. You also have to vote. You got to find your local candidates who support sane policies and support them.

Really? I see and hear about protests against opressive policing, the NDAA act, the NSA, The TSA and the privacy invasions by all the other 3-4 letter agencies out there.

I cant recall one single "Please tap my cell phone" or " We want you to read our email " rally.

Who are these politicians listening to - themseves and the millitary industrial complex that has been on the rise in our nation for decades - Eisenhower a strong conservative warned against it because there was a rapid growth in power happening by the financial institutions and corporations - Thomas Jefferson warned against it saying that banks and corporations were more dangerous to our country than any standing army - and that was 200 years ago...

A cabal of wallstreet bankers do exist and wield MASSIVE MASSIVE power there is money in war - Many banks have actually funded BOTH SIDES - do you think the homeland "war on terror" is any different at all - do you have any idea how much money is being made to militarize our police force - who wants that - the people selling the guns and providing the money to buy them of course - IE right back to banks and corporations - OCCUPY understood that and if you ever were a part of that movement you would too.

[TempestTS]

Most of the time, the offending cops get away with it. Their own departments investigate and clear them. Even when they do get fired, they can usually get hired by another police force. Why does this happen? Because, as someone pointed out, Americans are too complacent or scared to do anything about it.

Cops are less likely to act up when they know they are being filmed.

Check out http://photographyisnotacrime.com/ I think it's an important site. And BE CAREFUL OUT THERE.

Per my previous I just wanted to add this

These are all good points - but the police know we all have a camera in our pockets as part of our cell phones - and yes they really REALLY hate being filmed - You can read it on their faces when the camera comes out - if they thought for a second they could get away with smashing it and running someone in they would - actually they have - it makes the news if the overlook the person with the other camera but it happens.

Now on to the first statement about Americans being too afraid to do anything about the police violence and misconduct - if this was anyone other than the police who used force, fear and intimidation to control or manipulate a population it would be called a terror tactic now wouldn't it?

hell someone else posed in this forum about animal rights activists being charged with domestic terrorism for freeing animals - now why do the police get away with far far worse?

[the_unnatural]

This is one of my favorties...

http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/bo...9bb30f31a.html

[trish]

If these are incidences of police abuse are neither isolated nor random but orchestrated, then which Wall Street banker ordered the cops to beat up a little old lady? Name some names.

[TempestTS]

http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/i...come-war-zone/




Indiana sheriff wants military vehicles because “the USA has become a war zone”

"The United States of America has become a war zone," said Pulaski County Sheriff Michael Gayer.

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Site Staff in News
(Source: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty)

PULASKI COUNTY, IN — As the Department of Defense continues to flood America’s local police departments with military equipment, some cops are letting the propaganda and the free toys go to their heads. One sheriff in Indiana let out a disturbing admission that he views America as a battlefield — making it imperative, in his opinion, to equip his deputies with gear fresh out of the hands of U.S. soldiers fighting overseas.
“The United States of America has become a war zone,” said Pulaski County Sheriff Michael Gayer in an interview with the Indianapolis Star.
His department has received attention after it sought out and acquired a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle through the Pentagon’s police militarization program.
Pulaski County (Indiana) Sheriff Michael Gayer (Source: WKVI)

Sheriff Gayer remarked about the MRAP, “It’s a lot more intimidating than a Dodge.”
Pulaski County is extremely rural, containing only 13,124 residents. In 2012, Pulaski County only 11 theft (or larceny) incidents, 1 murder and a grand total of 17 property crimes. Despite this, sprawling farm county has procured hundreds of military items, valued at over $5,000,000.00, under Sheriff Gayer’s leadership. The items, listed in a database at the Indy Star, range from dozens of vehicles, weapons, tactical equipment, bayonets, tools, and more.
Gayer defends the lucrative federal handouts by spreading paranoia about crime in America.
“There’s violence in the workplace, there’s violence in schools and there’s violence in the streets,” said Gayer. “You are seeing police departments going to a semi-military format because of the threats we have to counteract. If driving a military vehicle is going to protect officers, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Sheriff Gayer elaborates about the perceived battlefronts he faces on the department website: “With the threat of homeland terrorism, rising violence in our schools, drug and alcohol abuse, our society and freedoms that we so dearly cherish are being challenged,” Gayer wrote.
So there we have it. The enemies Pulaski County faces are terrorists, unruly students, and prohibition violators.
“I will do this to the best of my ability and will not allow The Thin Blue Line to weaken by those who would do us harm,” Gayer added on the website.
Larry Thomas, a Hoosier, veteran police officer, and past contributor to Police State USA, wrote the following in response to Sheriff Gayer’s statements:

As a retired law enforcement command officer I was dismayed to read the remarks of Pulaski County Sheriff Michael Gayer, who said, “The United States of America has become a war zone. There’s violence in the workplace, there’s violence in schools and there’s violence in the streets.”
During my tenure in law enforcement there was violence in those places too. But it did not motivate us to transform from public servants and peacekeepers into warriors, taking weapons that were designed for foreign battlefields and turning them on the American people.
We were reluctant to deploy SWAT teams, fully realizing the violent response that such a display could provoke and employing such tactics only in the most extreme circumstances. Law enforcement agencies are now eager to deploy such teams even in a total absence of demonstrated need.
Here in my own city of Carmel, an incident occurred, reported in these pages, wherein a SWAT team deployed and terrorized a local family, jamming guns in their faces and dragging them away in handcuffs, based on nothing more than a single, unverified, uncorroborated phone call that a shooting had taken place. The report proved to be false.
This would have been simply impossible in my day. When we received such a phone call we sent officers to the location, and we knocked on the door! Wow! What a revolutionary concept!
No, Sheriff Gayer…The United States of America is NOT a war zone. It is the place where Americans work, live and play. Law enforcement officers who are trained that America is a war zone do not regard citizens as individuals with rights to be protected, but as an enemy to be subjugated. And if the law enforcement profession does not wake up and change this attitude, we, the people, will be forced to call on our legislators to rein you in.
Lieutenant Harry Thomas

[TempestTS]

If these are incidences of police abuse are neither isolated nor random but orchestrated, then which Wall Street banker ordered the cops to beat up a little old lady? Name some names.

Dont be an asshat - thats like asking which general order a soldier so shoot a specific target.

Its more like a big corporation with billiions in funding who is making drones - the military wants the drones - protests are bad for the military getting them and the corporation selling them - this is a huge issue so they go to the local police department and say "you need to get these protesters under control this is massive to our interests" and because the airbase and corporations weild enormous financial power the police jump to it and end up locking up some old lady who was taking pictures to "Send a message" to all other protesters that the police are a force to be reckoned with and basically quell the free speech through intimidation.

Follow the money - always follow the money - greed is the worst thing that ever happened to this world but those who have it always have power.

[TempestTS]

there are over 18,000,000 empty homes in the US - thats enough for every homless person to have six - yet when a bank wants to foreclose the sherrif and police department hop to it like its their responsibility to put a family on the street and do the banks bidding -

why are the police doing the banks bidding? - this is a civil matter not a criminal matter - this country was founding by people fleeing persecution for debt - and here it is again

[trish]

In my town, once and sometimes twice a year, the school principal invites the police to come into the school to do a K-9 search of the lockers. This is a ridiculous policy. We have no problem with drugs and the search only ever comes up with Tylenol and cigarettes. I and others have written letters to the paper , the Principal, the local police, the Mayor and others. But the town as a whole believes it's a wonderful thing to do and when it's time to vote for a new police chief, or a Mayor or a school board member they vote for the get tough on drugs candidates. It's not Wall Street bankers directing the K-9 unit to search the school, it's the local school and the cops carrying out a policy endorsed by the electorate.

[TempestTS]

In my town, once and sometimes twice a year, the school principal invites the police to come into the school to do a K-9 search of the lockers. This is a ridiculous policy. We have no problem with drugs and the search only ever comes up with Tylenol and cigarettes. I and others have written letters to the paper , the Principal, the local police, the Mayor and others. But the town as a whole believes it's a wonderful thing to do and when it's time to vote for a new police chief, or a Mayor or a school board member they vote for the get tough on drugs candidates. It's not Wall Street bankers directing the K-9 unit to search the school, it's the local school and the cops carrying out a policy endorsed by the electorate.

Seriously thats the best you have - a dog and pony show of the school and police being "tough on drugs" twice a year to impress voters.

Weak.

Why do they want to be tough on drugs because its generally popular and its a known "evil" thats an easy target - and there is HUGE funding attached to it. I mean who wants drugs in schools - nobody - it doesnt matter that they never find any and that the cost to do the search is probably in the thousands of dollars per hour - we are afraid of drugs and the crimes that come with them so of course we want to make show about how local LE fights it the fear is so bad that no politician would ever come out against it no matter how useless it is. Fear = Control

How many times do I have to give this lesson - All Wars are Bankers wars - the war on drugs is just the same - its hugely profitable for LE and the industry that supports them and it goes on FOREVER so its like a money machine.