Police Brutality -- Americans Are Oppressed, Too

Police in the US now rival criminals, and exceed terrorists, as the greatest threat to the American public. Rogelio Serrato is the latest case to be in the news of an innocent person murdered by the police. Serrato was the wrong man, but the Monterey County, California, SWAT team killed the 31-year old father of four and left the family home a charred ruin.


The fact that SWAT teams often go to the wrong door shows the carelessness with which excessive force is used. In one instance the police even confused the town's mayor with a drug dealer, broke into his home, shot dead the family's pet dogs, and held the mayor and his wife and children at gun point. But most cases of police brutality never make the news.


Most who suffer abuse from the police don't bother to complain. They know that to make an enemy of the police brings a lifetime of troubles. Those who do file complaints find that police departments tend to be self-protective and that the naive and gullible public tends to side with the police.


However, you can find plenty of examples of police brutality on Youtube -- more than you can watch in a lifetime. I have just searched Google for "youtube police brutality" and the result is: "497,000 results." There's everything from police shooting a guy in a wheelchair to body slamming a befuddled 89-year old great grandmother to tasering kids and mothers with small children. The fat goon cops love to beat up on women, kids, and old people.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Police-Brutality---Ameri-by-paul-craig-roberts-110203-658.html

"We don't wasn't anyone getting hurt Johnny." "Just put the gun down."
Now they shoot the guy cause he was holding "something shiny."

and place a recently-fired 'plant' in the person's cold, dead hand and claim that they were 'fired upon.'

suspect for whatever. It seems all Americans are considered guilty of something just by default. The last sentence below contained in the article to me really highlights why this has happened and it's not healthy.

"Why are the police so aggressive toward the public?

In part because their ranks attract bullies, sociopaths and psychopaths. Even normal cops are proud of their authority and expect deference. Even cops who are not primed to be set off can turn nasty in a heartbeat.

In part because police are not accountable. The effort decades ago to have civilian police review boards was beat back by "law and order" conservatives.

In part because the police have been militarized by the federal government, equipped with military weapons, and trained to view the public as the enemy.

In part because the Bush/Cheney/Obama regimes have made every American a suspect."

I used to have in-laws who were police officers in a good-sized midwestern city (sorta like their family bidness). More than one of them alluded to the fact that cops inhabit the center of their 'circle of trust,' with cops' families occupying the next ring, and everyone else (perpetrators) in the outer ring.

You can meet police officers on an individual basis and they'll seem perfectly nice. But when they get among their fellow officers, there's a great deal of macho cameraderie on a level that we civilians rarely see or experience. When they feel threatened, whether with reason or not, they act like a hive of angry bees and attack on instinct.

I covered police as a newspaper reporter for many years, and got to know quite a few cops, but only at arms' length. One time, however, the state troopers association wanted to thank me for an important series of articles and took me to dinner. The editors okayed it. The troopers got insanely drunk and sat around the table casually tossing their guns to one another, while I silently prayed to be beamed up by a spaceship. Then it was time to go to their union hall, where they were planning to publicly thank me somehow. They jumped in their cars and raced like maniacs - drunk maniacs - along the local highway. I had to ride with one of them, and I was never so terrified in my life. I think they got a kick out of scaring me half to death. They were utterly lawless, drunk on their own power and drunk on alcohol.

Wow... Cheap liquor by the 1/2 gallon (aka handle), everybody trashed, guys going on and off duty with a big load on - Other than the short haircuts, it was like drinkin' with pirates. The bikers and outlaws around there were genteel by comparison.

Minorities were oppressed for considerably longer, of course.

Kent State was a blow at youth, intellectuals, parents and children, everyone.