Because the plutocrats have gotten so close to closing their fists around government completely that they don't even feel the need to pretend that police are here to 'protect and serve' the 99% as opposed to simply being what they are in many places - the tools of the powerful and wealthy to subdue and pacify the rest of the populace.

under Fascism.

Some people think we are headed toward a Socialist state and miss the point that fascism is already here.

the US gov. kept giving them more and more military equipment until today many have become like stormtroopers. Also, many are from the military and we are seen as the enemy. It's a dangerous situation IMO.

But now we hear about it more often and cell phones record it more often.

There is just less total control of all information because of the internet, but I'm sure that'll be locked down shortly.

Accomack County on the eastern shore of the Virginia Colony. That region of VA and MD is still quite rural and poor, I know it somewhat. Henry 'Lighthorse Harry' Lee III, the American revolutionary patriot became indebted from land speculation which blew up in the Panic of 1796-97. Lee was tired of evading creditors and in 1809 finally turned himself in. He was placed in debtors prison in Montross, VA in Westmoreland Co. across from the eastern shore and Accomack. Lee spent a year in prison and was bankrupted when he got out.

Charlie Chaplin who was born in Victorian England knew poverty well from being sent to a workhouse for the poor as a boy after his music hall family had hardships. To see the US returning to debtors prison which was banned by federal law in the mid 1800s is a dystopian neoliberal outgrowth and horror.

Wiki, Debtors Prison
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtors'_prison

so they use the slightest excuse to use their weapons and "training."

private companies! They mob does this too, wonder if there will be a turf war?
They need to file suit!

Just another 3rd world country to be exploited and abused to fulfill shareholder dreams.

we need to take it all back. No more playing soldier in American cities and towns. In addition, there should be a separate statute (beyond search and seizure which cops don't appear to know) that would allow a person brutalized over a foolish, minor offense to easily sue. The fine would come from both the municipality and the individual and it would be substantial. The only thing that seems to have an impact in this country is money, so take some away from the powerful and give it to the oppressed.

"...a family home and killing their dog because they are unable to pay their natural gas bill…"

Abso-FUCKING-lutely right. This was in the St. Louis, MO MSA, yes?

Uh-huh...

because Hitler.

… Just like they explain how they support women and call the kettle black with statements like this -

http://sync.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2483614

Sorry, Warren… I sort of hijacked the thread, but my point before running off to work is to point out how some people never really mean what they say, anyway!

without the obligatory NYC SKP reminder.

"The raid was carried out because police said they needed “to check if her home had electricity and natural gas service.”"

So the gas and light companies sent a notice to the police department and to have them to be sent out to see if she had a utilities still working, because she apparently did not pay her bill--------------the police was being used.

Common sense would tell you that the utilities instead of using the law enforcement as a pay collection service would have sent out a utility personnel------------------that is there job function.

Then in their police raid (them being the utility companies representative bill collectors-----------they have assault weapons--------------great way to see if the meter and the gas valve are shut down ) they determined that she had siding that was not in compliance to the building codes--------------so all of these officers are now building inspectors---------------wow, what a way to cut down on city building inspector's and utility employees ---------------have the law enforcement do the job.

Welcome to the new American century if you are poor they send in the cops, the new public army-------------we don't need any damn excuses----------you are a poor excuse.

If you are rich and powerful, they protect and serve the oligarchies, wealthy and rich -----------to hell with the scum

and only now is it getting the attention this ugliness needs.

article explains the sub-citizen and cast systems that are forming out of neoliberalism and it's very ugly. Migrant workers who can never achieve citizenship, blacks in urban area ghettos and semi rural whites whose jobs in manufacturing and other sectors left long ago living on the edge. Lengthy article but well worth reading,

--"NEOLIBERALISM HAS CREATED A NEW DUAL CITIZENSHIP (CLASS), POOR AND THE 1%", Alternet, May 29, 2015, by Bill Fletcher, Jr.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/neoliberalism-has-created-new-system-dual-citizenship-poor-and-1

In impoverished eastern Kentucky last month, 900 people were thrown off SSDI, Social Security Disability Insurance, because the lawyer on their cases is under suspicion although he has not been charged yet. Three of the people have committed suicide.
*And the GOP budget now includes cutting SSDI for the disabled and poor 20%, across the board.

--"THREE SUICIDES IN EASTERN KENTUCKY BECAUSE OF SUSPENSION OF SOCIAL SECURITY PAYMENTS",
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026773764

Criminalizing and punishing the poor and most vulnerable, what a horror. All from the pursuit of profit, America's invisible poor are living in 'sacrifice zones', writes journalist and activist Chris Hedges and illustrator Joe Sacco covered in the book,
"DAYS OF DESTRUCTION, DAYS OF REVOLT" (2012). Native Americans in Pine Ridge, S.D, rural whites in Welch, WV, urban blacks in Camden, N.J. and Caribbean migrants in Immokalee, FL.

--NPR book review, "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt", Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco, 2012.
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/02/157813661/drive-for-profit-wreaks-days-of-destruction

So sad for the family... And the dog...

This sounds like my neighbors -- for ten years they tormented us. Nobody could do anything. Social services, the police, the fire department, code enforcement, nobody. They would be loud and threatening, letting their dogs run wild (killing our pets), dumping their trash all over our place. It was surreal. The fire department refused to step foot on the property without a police escort.

This was upwards of 30 people (!) living in a single-wide trailer, over a garage, and in tents in the backyard. When we complained, they build a pig-pen in the spot closest to our house. Later, they slaughtered one of them on the property and roasted it immediately afterwards. (Luckily, we weren't home, but our Dish installer will never be the same.)

One time, after complaining about the noise, we wake up t find a sign posted on the property line, only visible from our house, that had a picture of a revolver and read "Never mind the dog, beware of owner".

They ended up brawling with the neighbors on the other side, drunk and with baseball bats, sending multiple people to the hospital. My wife got to call 911 that night. Ironically, she got called for jury duty for the assault case. To hear them in court, in their "Sunday best", you would think they simply sat in there, sipping tea and crocheting, never raising a fuss.

The only thing that worked for us (somewhat) was building a 300 foot long stockade fence, and never, NEVER, directly engaging with them. They were opportunists, and so their gaze turned to the new neighbor on the other side instead. They had driven the previous neighbor away with the brawl, and then proceeded to break in and trash the house while it was vacant. If not for the fence, there's no telling what they would have done to us.

This went on and on for years, until foreclosure eventually caused them to leave in the middle of the night and not come back.

makes my junk-hauling, thieving bad neighbors seem like angels!

Calmness in the face of adversity, using all of the resources available to you, and not being baited.

Every time they would do crazy things, or taunt me from the property line, I would just turn and go inside and call the state troopers. I would say that I knew they probably couldn't actually do anything, but asked them to come anyway, if they weren't too busy. They would come out, and we would make a huge show of walking the property line together, with me pointing out all sorts of things, and they would nod and write things in a notebook, and then we would return to my house, I would thank them, and they would leave. The neighbors would watch all of this from their windows. Kabuki theater, to be sure, but they didn't know that.

Every few incidents, I would write a letter to the Town Supervisor, detailing everything, and nothing would happen. But the paperwork certainly accumulated...

After the brawling incident, when one of them was charged with assault and battery (that would be the parolee living illegally above the garage) I spoke with the DA and provided him with all of the paperwork, and then I went in and watched the trial. I was the only one in the gallery. There were two things that were hysterically great:

The first was when they called the fourteen-year old to the stand, "Ronald Boyle, Senior". It took the jury a minute to think that one through, and then they almost burst out laughing. Apparently, he knocked up his cousin. Really.

The second was when the matriarch of the family was on the stand, and was going on about how they were just minding their own business when the mean, awful neighbors came on to THEIR property and started the fight. Uh huh. So the DA asked if they even had any trouble with their other neighbors. Oh no, we all got along swimmingly. He's got a stack of paper in his hand that I recognize as my paper trail, and he says, what about Mr. [me]? Who? Your neighbor, Mr. [me]! Who? At which point he turns and points directly at me and says Him! Your neighbor! Mr. [me]! At which point the jury again almost lost it.

They are long gone, now, thank goodness. We would regale our friends with stories, and they would laugh, but then they would come visit and say "Wow, you weren't exaggerating! The stories were great, but we never really believed them."

Date: Wednesday, March 3, 1999


Mr. Town Supervisor:

As per our phone conversation Monday, we are writing to provide you a list of difficulties we are having with our neighbor, Matriarch, of Address, and all of the people living on her property.

Over the past two years (since we moved to Address), our situation with the people living next door has steadily worsened. Over the past year, the following problems have become unacceptable:

Trash burning. Multiple times per week our neighbors burn trash, usually including toxic plastics, in an open-air dumpster in their front yard. The fumes from this burning is carried by the wind directly toward our home. (Worse, we believe that the dumpster is actually on our property, along with various other items, including broken down cars and appliances. We will not be able to get a surveyor out to confirm this until spring.) Additionally, because of this burning, at least one of our trees is being destroyed, since it is next to the dumpster, and is repeatedly burned in the process. On one occasion, we discovered them burning a sofa in their driveway. The flames were at least twenty feet high, since we could see them over the treetops. When we confronted them, we found that they were all drunk and quite hostile to our presence, even though we were on our own property.

Littering. In addition to burning their trash, on multiple occasions our neighbors have actually dumped their trash onto our property. When confronted, they denied that it was their trash, despite the presence of envelopes and homework with their names on it. Frequently, trash blows from their property onto ours, and they have repeatedly broken empty alcohol bottles in our yard as well. They have expressed no interest in cleaning any of this debris up.

Dangerous overcrowding. It is common knowledge that upwards of twenty people currently reside at Address, which officially only contains a single trailer as a dwelling. At least some of the people there have renovated the garage and are living there. When we complained about this last summer (at the time they were renovating), the Building Inspector told us that he had no interest in pursuing the matter. Despite their having no permits, he refused to get involved because “he knew them” and felt that interceding would be a waste of time and ultimately unsuccessful. In the summer, people often live in a motor home behind the trailer, and in tents in the backyard. The Local Fire Chief told me that he was “gravely concerned” that if a fire broke out next door that many people in the house would likely be killed as a result. We share this very serious concern.

Dogs. Over the past year, at least fifteen dogs have lived at [Address], usually allowed to run free. These dogs are often found to bark at all hours, run all over our property as well as the road itself, and have been seen to chase deer from the woods into the road. The Neighbors have actively refused to do anything about either containing or controlling their dogs, despite repeated attempts on our part to discuss the matter with them. Because we have a young child, and because my wife has previously been the victim of a dog attack (not by our neighbors) in the past, we are unable to walk our own property, or even enjoy our front or back porch.

Noise / Uncivil behavior. Many nights this past summer, our neighbors hosted loud parties that lasted well into the night. When we attempted to ask during one such party if they could please turn the music down, we were told in no uncertain terms by Matriarch to “get the hell off her property”, and that if we had a problem with that, to call the police. We waited three hours for the party to wind down. When it didn’t, we called the state police. They expressed sympathy, but were unwilling to do anything about the situation. The next morning, we were shocked to discover that our neighbors had posted a sign on the edge of their property, directly aimed at our house (in fact only visible from our house), containing a picture of a gun and the words “never mind the dog, beware of owner”. (We have a photo of this sign if you wish to see it.) On multiple occasions, we have discovered them playing loud music in their backyard without anyone even being present. It became obvious that these events were intended to antagonize us, since only a few days before we asked them (again) if they would try to keep the noise down. Similarly, we have seen people from next door repeatedly come over to our property to urinate. When confronted about this, they deny it and then actually increase this behavior. Because of the layout of our property, although we can see this behavior, we cannot easily confront them “in the act”.

Reckless driving. On many nights, we have been subjected to our neighbors racing up and down the street, revving their engines. On some occasions, they have even done this without headlights! There have been a number of near accidents on our road as a result of this. We have seen them going well over 50 MPH on our road at times.

Junk cars. For well over a year now, there have been as many as five junked (non-functional) vehicles in their front yard, bordering our property. We were told that this is a clear violation of zoning laws, but unless we could prove that those cars were not registered, the Zoning Officer was uninterested in pursuing the matter. Worse, our neighbors often choose to work on these cars at night, making a great deal of noise.


Given this rather serious list of problems, We’re sure that you would agree that something must be done about this situation. We ask that you look into this matter as soon as possible. We also intend to inform other neighbors in the area that you have requested that anyone with concerns should write to you as well.

Thank you for looking into this matter.

Sincerely,

Sending in SWAT was still the wrong call. This would have been a job for normal police officers, at best.

It happens all the time in neighborhoods where someone the wrong shade tries to live in a neighborhood or attend a pool party they might have been invited to.

I have two neighbors that tag teemed my wife and I with false claims filed anonymously and had the inspectors over here measuring the height of the grass in the hopes that it exceeded 8 inches and looking for non existent trash and rats on dozens of occasions it never did and there never was any trash or rats but my wife's herb garden was called "weeds" and I had to go to court 4 different times with pictures to avoid paying the fine, luckily the judge did not care how ethnic we or our herbs looked and I won every time.

Just sayin' It may not just be the cops that didn't want the poor folk around, doubly so if they are the wrong ethnicity.

Persecuted for being poor.

The illusion that we're not a racist society. All are dangerous. Nothing will change until those illusions are shattered.

They had to trash the house, turn over all the furniture, etc. She might have... um... been hiding some natural gas under there.

Are the feds ever going to step in and take away their military strength weaponry? They are using it to harass and kill unarmed citizens. It's awful.

Easy. It's a lot like the old method for checking if somebody is a witch. Set the house on fire. If it blows up, there's gas.