Hello, Democratic Underground.

Some of you may remember me. Two weeks ago I woke up with an almost total loss of hearing. I haven't posted since then for various reasons, foremost among them that I simply don't have time to do so. That, and the sheer enormity of the adjustment that I have had to undergo almost defies my powers of description. But that's not what this post is about.

I saw a very disturbing series of posts tonight about police abuses and excesses (thank you Mr. Scorpio and Joanne98 among others) that got me thinking about the ultimate implications of what is happening to our "law enforcement" entities and how this fundamental shift in combination with our current economic situation could turn very ugly very quickly.

This country is in bad shape. Perhaps the *worst* shape since its inception. The populace is angry, and rightly so, because the gains in their standard of living that they have so painstakingly fought for generation after generation are being rescinded by the machinations of the economic elite. The inequalities that ultimately stem from Reagan's trickle-down idiocy have only magnified under every President that has followed, Democrat and Republican alike.

We live in a time in which the wealthy have managed to accumulate literally unprecedented power. They control our political system (and our politicians), they control our media, they control what we eat, et cetera, ad nauseum. They dump oil into our once beautiful Gulf, and act like it's no big deal. They fleece the hopeful city fathers of small towns across America when they tell them that if they're given free reign (and free utilities, no taxes, and a free road with a traffic light) they will improve the local economy.

With 40 jobs that pay $9.00 / hr. And they're all part time. After all, the poor suckers can just go get food stamps or something.

How's that for a bailout?

I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that Corporate America has accumulated the power to do whatever the fuck they want at any time, and if any restriction is imposed on their behavior, they cry foul and our duly elected legislators will bend over backwards, Republican and some (most?) Democrats alike, to see how they can better serve the interests of the plutocrats.


Yeah, I know, the preceding is the standard (and incidentally correct) DU doom and gloom...

But here's why I ended up taking as much time on this screed as I would have on a proper update to you wonderful people:

The exponential increase in egregious abuses of power by law enforcement.

This isn't a situation that seems like an escalating phenomenon but actually results from better reporting of incidents, rather, the police have become more hostile to even overtly innocent citizens. The recent case of an elementary school teacher being tazed / tortured after calling the police for protection is a shining example of law enforcement officials running amok, as is the case of a Pennsylvania woman who was tazed and accused of using cocaine after her friends called 911 to provide assistance when she had a seizure.

Please see Mr. Scorpio's threads on the Greatest page for reference (or if a helpful DUer could link these in a reply, that would be fantastic).

"So what's your point?", you must be asking yourselves about now. What is she getting at? Well...

Historically speaking, totalitarian despots required (and continue to require) a military force at their disposal in order to force their will on society.

Our military, flawed though it may be, would not obey orders to hurt, kill, or otherwise oppress American citizens. By and large. Some soldiers might, but the vast majority would not. I know this because I have a brother who has been to Iraq twice, and a cousin whose husband has been to Afghanistan three times. They will do what they are told when they are in the theater of war, but back here, at home, most of them would never even entertain the idea of killing people who might as well be their friends and neighbors. The military isn't the threat.




But who needs the military when you have police to fill that role?

Make no mistake about it, the economic overlords have taken no small notice of the militarization of law enforcement. Nor have they ignored the consequences of a mass uprising, or how it would ultimately conclude. And the pervasive sense among law enforcement is that citizens are always to be treated with suspicion, because, y'know, 9-11 and shit.

Flippancy aside, I see a very disturbing future in which the police no longer maintain the pretense of protection and service but instead enforce the rules of the rapacious to the detriment of us all. \

After all, who wants to upset the apple cart when you're getting so many apples?

http://www.policebrutality.info/2009/01/police-abusing-and-shooting-ill-kid.html

This mentally disabled fifteen year old was holding a pair of scissors, but the "officer friendlies" I grew up with
would have diffused the situation. If they felt shooting was the only option it would have been a non-fatal shot
to disarm the kid...not today. The cops are drunk on power and dangerous. My sons are law abiding adults, but I
ask them to please have nothing to do with the police if at all possible. If you're in a traffic stop situation give them
your ID and registration and do not get engaged in conversation. Mother's in the African-American community have
had to have these talks with their sons for decades, it now applies to all of us.

Yes. Thank you for pointing this out.

And absolutely not necessary.

It's a pair of scissors for Christ's sake... It's not as if he has a gun pointed at someone. If ever there were a time to use a tazer, this would be it. What ever happened to talking the kid down? Or just waiting out the situation? Or God forbid, putting yourself into some degree of peril and disarming the kid manually?

Thank God the boy survived.

I'm just under 30, and I do NOT remember incidents like this several times a day, every day, across the country being the norm of my youth. This is an urgent problem that needs to be addressed immediately.

Among them police will no longer require sex offenders to register. 80 police officers were laid off just days ago because of budget problems. There is going to be a lot of crimes in Oakland and the criminals are going to have a field day. This will not end well. The list is below

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Suffer-These-Crimes-in-Oakland-Dont-Call-the-Cops-98266509.html

Oakland's police chief is making some dire claims about what his force will and will not respond to if layoffs go as planned.

Chief Anthony Batts listed exactly 44 situations that his officers will no longer respond to and they include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism. He says if you live and Oakland and one of the above happens to you, you need to let police know on-line.

Some 80 officers were to be let go at midnight last night if a last-minute deal was not reached. That's about ten percent of the work force.

"I came her e to build an organization, not downsize one," said Batts, who was given the top job in October.


That deadline has been extended to 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Here's a partial list:

* burglary
* theft
* embezzlement
* grand theft
* grand theft:dog
* identity theft
* false information to peace officer
* required to register as sex or arson offender
* dump waste or offensive matter
* discard appliance with lock
* loud music
* possess forged notes
* pass fictitious check
* obtain money by false voucher
* fraudulent use of access cards
* stolen license plate
* embezzlement by an employee (over $ 400)
* extortion
* attempted extortion
* false personification of other
* injure telephone/ power line
* interfere with power line
* unauthorized cable tv connection
* vandalism
* administer/expose poison to another

more at the link

no drug offenses.

Maybe drug offenses just didn't make that story, but I'm curious as to whether they will still be on call for non-violent drug calls.

Can you summon them if you find a pot seed on the street and they'll zoom right over to confiscate some property?

But don't bother calling them if someone's poisoned you, smashed your car windshield or is breaking into your house?

wow - even possible life hreatening situations. I guess they figure the paramedics will deal with it and to leave it at that.

Recommended.

and good to hear from you. I've been thinking about you and wondering how you have been doing. Any news on your visit with your ear specialist?

Too busy. But I'm doing OK with my hearing loss thus far. I'm even getting a feel for my music again.

And thank you for asking. I appreciate it.

and please keep us all posted. Your DU friends CARE!

If you need a shoulder to cry on, or just talk, just throw me an PM....

I'm heading to the Deaf Nation World Expo next week in Las Vegas.... can't wait!(Yeah, Netroots Nation is also happening at the same time)

:)

Have fun in Vegas.

And trust me, steer clear of Roulette.

Never was. I'd rather play a skill game (Poker) which I intend to do.

None of my friends will invite me to their poker games anymore because I almost always end up winning.

I learned from one of the best, a guy I dated in college who actually won a seat to the WSOP in a tournament in Atlanta.

Poor guy couldn't take the time off of work. But he sold his seat for a few grand, so it's not an unhappy ending.

But seriously, any time you want to play, if I have the spare minutes, let's do it.

Honestly, my favorite casino game is Blackjack, because I have a pretty good memory for what cards have been dealt out of the shoe. I'm not a counter per se, but I can recognize when a favorable (or unfavorable) situation exists and act accordingly.

But that damn Roulette, it gets me every time.

It must be something about colorful spinning things...

But I'm quite serious when I say that we should sit at a table some time, virtual or otherwise, and see who is the better bettor.

:)

Thanks - and i've been playing live poker at local bars.

I've always managed to finish the top 4, won one tournament.

Hawkeye-X

Corporate full spectrum dominance.

And thank you once again for recommending my threads

Too many people in this nation own firearms.

Many cities and counties are having to cut back on law enforcement. Fewer cops, less control.

There just won't be enough cops to subdue everybody with a handgun or rifle if things ever did come to "Martial Law."


Having said that, I agree that cops are testing the waters in many ways, seeing just how much they can get away with. But if all hell broke loose in America, most cops would go home and protect their own families, just like the rest of us.

Some cops are out of control, but most of the ones I see on a daily basis are just regular people who are part of the communities they serve, and they would no sooner tase one of the old women around here as cut off their own arms.

Anyway, all the bad cop stories need to be told, so the cops know we are paying attention. They don't mind publicly naming the people they arrest and listing the charges against them. They should not mind being held up to public scrutiny themselves.

Glad to hear you are playing again, and great post

K&R

Americans own at least 5 times the number of small arms in Africa.

If it gets that bad, nobody will be in control of anything.

it will be a free-for-all.

You just have to hope you have good neighbors, in that case.

Thanks for your response.

I hope you can improve or restore your hearing if that is at all possible.

Google this. I had it years ago and lost my hearing for 5 months.

I've had it in my left ear since I was 15. Two weeks ago I developed symptoms in my right ear, and it's been adios to sound ever since.

for a couple of weeks cleared mine right up.

both a combination of increased inappropriate police responses AND a greater ability to publicize and report these things.

On the one hand, you no longer have the neighborhood beat cop who knew the community and was known by the community (although there are some police forces who are moving back to that with great success). Cops are being given greater access to supposedly non-lethal means of subduing the population which they are using indiscriminantly. Although a lot of cops still go into the profession because they want to help people, the notion of protecting is being replaced by the notion of punishing. There has been a lot of police brutality in the past which didn't really get heard about. Unless the news media was there, only a limited number of people heard about it. Police participated in lynchings in the south without being reported and the number of police rapes which were not reported was likely pretty high given the stigma. The behavior of the police in the 60's could be pretty nasty but unless it was very high profile, it didn't get national press.

Now people have cameras and videos on their cell phones and the ability to upload to you-tube. People are less afraid to report police brutality, especially rape. The increase in surveillance cameras makes it more likely that both criminal and not criminal behavior is caught on tape and that includes criminal police behavior.

What we might also be seeing is a higher incidence of these kinds of situations in white middle class neighborhoods - poor neighborhoods and predominantly minority neighborhoods have always had police/citizen problems.

Brown shirts and storm troopers eager for dissent suppression in order to start the repression....

it has been a worrisome trend to quite some time, and getting worse as time goes by. This, even in my little town.

A prison without fences or walls. We are all inmates.

The Police Militarization has been going on for at least a generation.

I can remember the days when the few Police were the cops on the beat. Everyone knew who they were. They were part of the neighborhood. If you needed help or had an issue that needed attention, you just had to ask.

Now, it's a bunch of unknown men, hiding behind dark face shields with little or no identification.

It's all been well planned. The boys knew there would be discontent when they pulled the plug on the Economy and plundered the banking system.

It cost a lot of money, but we all paid for it.

Scary and disturbing, but I think you're right. Funny how when things happen gradually you have to be jolted into seeing just how much things have changed.

I've been thinking about you a lot and am glad to hear you are coping with things and getting back into your music. I can only imagine what you are going through, but I hope you know you have friends here to support you however we can.

Take care and keep up the good writing; you have a convincing and credible style that makes people think without beating them over the head.

:hi:

"Our military, flawed though it may be, would not obey orders to hurt, kill, or otherwise oppress American citizens."

I agree that many would refuse, but contractors would probably do that job for them. The sad state of our current military.

However, like cops, many of them are good people.

Your disability has not diminished your thought process at all.

K&R!

Indeed.

Beer accomplishes that purpose.

And I don't think that I have ever properly thanked you for your tireless efforts to promote labor unions, so...

Thank you for your tireless support of labor unions.

I grew up in Steel country, so I know how important collective bargaining is for laborers.

In fact, most of the male members of my family worked at Weirton Steel at one time or another, which was the first 100% employee owned production facility in the country.

Unfortunately, their grand experiment in collectivity didn't work out in the end. This article gives a wonderful synopsis of the reasons behind the ESOP program's eventual failure:

http://labornotes.org/node/1732

In any case, I sincerely thank you for your efforts in promoting the merits of labor unions.

Please make sure to keep us posted on how you are doing with your hearing problems.

I have witnessed, read, and posted about my concerns regarding the attitude police are demonstrating more and more frequently. That aggressive behavior is compounded by an "above the law" attitude that has become prevalent.....which might have something to do with all the cover-up investigations going on.

Right on the money with this one. Been watching this situation for awhile now.

Good to hear you're doing well; been thinking about you.

People aren't born more stupid than they used to be. They're just conditioned to be more stupid.