"A Pandemic of Police Brutality" by Paul Craig Roberts

Subtitled "And They Usually Get Away With It."

This article, published on Sept. 25, 2007, is worth reading in its entirety. Here's an excerpt:

"The only terrorist most Americans will ever encounter is a policeman with a badge, nightstick, mace and Taser. A Google search for "police brutality videos" turns up 2,210,000 entries. . . Police brutality has crossed the line from using excessive force against a resisting Rodney King to unprovoked gratuitous violence against persons offering no resistance, such as the elderly, women, students, and elected officials. Americans are not safe anywhere from police. Police attack Americans in university libraries, in public meetings, and in their own homes."

"Last week we had the case of the University of Florida student who was repeatedly Tasered without cause for asking Senator Kerry some good questions in the question and answer period following Kerry's speech. Two days after the Florida student was gratuitously brutalized, Senate Republicans defeated Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy's bill to restore habeas corpus protection."

"A UCLA student was Tasered by police without cause for studying in the university library without having having his student ID on his person. Following police orders to leave, the student was walking toward the door when police grabbed him and repeatedly Tasered him. On September 19, 2007 a young woman was repeatedly Tasered without cause by a large brutal cop in a parking lot outside a night club in Warren, Ohio."

"On September 14, 2007, Roseland, Indiana, city council member David Snyder was ejected from a council meeting by dictatorial council chairman Charlie Shields. Snyder had protested being limited to one minute to speak. Police goon Jack Tiller escorted Snyder out, and as Synder exited the building, Tiller, following behind, pushed Snyder to the ground and without cause began beating Snyder in the head with a nightstick. Snyder was hospitalized."

more. . .

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts09252007.html

The only defense the average American has is to just blend in, like the wildebeest and zebra on the Serengeti trying to avoid all the carnivores. To even approach a policeman to ask for assistance is as foolish as approaching a lion, hoping that the beast is not hungry for more meat.

They have been conditioned in a way similar to fear-biting in dogs. They are told that they can never, ever back down in a confrontation, so that leaves biting as the only option for them. They will bite criminals, students, motorists, city council members, black people, white people, elderly, handicapped, all with the same amount of force -- as much as they can muster. And "non-lethal" weapons? They will quickly find a way to use them to make them lethal; witness all the deaths due to repeated Tasering.

In order to have a civilized society, police must also be civilized. Civilian oversight, termination for excessive force, improved conflict resolution skills are a start. There is a long, long way to go before human rights return to America.

As Roberts says in the article, attempting to defend yourself against police brutality will land you in jail. I remember when we didn't have to be afraid of police officers but that was a long, long time ago. Of course they're not all bad, just as all dogs don't bite, but you have no way of knowing what you're getting into when encountering a cop or a dog.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

I am really afraid of the police today. In the past, they didn't use nightsticks as casually as they're using tasers today and people are being killed as a result of tasers. Tasers should be banned, and cops need to be trained to be more humane.

I'd love to see this get some wider distribution.

This article is absolutely right. Police are the only terrorists most of us are ever likely to face.

Cadaver.

I wish it were my 'bon mot', but it was coined by an English correspondent of the News Chronicle, called A T Cholerton, as the Russian version of Habeas corpus. They were stationed in pre-war Russia under Stalin's regime.

I came across it with one or two other gems in 'Muggeridge, The Biography', by Richard Ingrams. He continues, "Cholerton, who, when asked by an American tourist if the confessions in the show trials were true, gave the memorable reply, 'Everything is true except the facts.'" It fits our mainstream media, too, doesn't it? Maybe the sayings are well-known by nearly everyone but me, but I quote them in case they're not.

On the previous page, he had written: "Malcolm was fortunate in that one of the best-informed journalists was the man he had been sent out to replace but who did not immediately leave: William Henry Chamberlin (he was always referred to by both Christian names), an American who contributed to the Christian Science Monitor as well as the Manchester Guardian."

snip

"A highly intelligent and industrious journalist, Chamberlin had a better grasp of what was going on in Russia at that time than almost any other reporter."

snip

"Chamberlin also had a highly developed sense of humour. He delighted Malcolm every week by cutting out an advertisement from the Weekly Manchester Guardian for a private mental home and posting it off to a public figure of whom he disapproved. One week it would be Mr Roosevelt, the next Bertrand Russell or the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore."