“The Only Terrorist Most Americans Will Ever Encounter Is a Policeman with a Badge, Nightstick, Mace and Taser”
September 27th, 2007Via: Populist America:
Bush’s “war on terror” quickly became Bush’s war on Iraqi civilians. So far over one million Iraqi civilians have lost their lives because of Bush’s invasion, and four million have been displaced. Iraq’s infrastructure is in ruins. Disease is rampart. Normal life has disappeared.
Self-righteous Americans justify these monstrous crimes as necessary to ensure their own safety from terrorist attack. Yet, Americans are in far greater danger from their own police forces than they are from foreign terrorists. Ironically, Bush’s “war on terror” has made Americans less safe at home by diminishing US civil liberty and turning an epidemic of US police brutality into a pandemic.
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. Some entries are foreign and some are probably duplications, but the number is so large that a person could do nothing but watch police brutality videos for the rest of his life. A search on “You Tube” alone turned up 2,280 police brutality videos. PrisonPlanet has a selection of the most outrageous recent cases.
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.
Someone once observed that one of the hallmarks of a police state is when people who have done nothing illegal get nervous at the sight of the police.
How many of us get tense when we are driving the speed limit and a cop appears in the rearview mirror? Its because you know these assholes are just looking for some flimsy pretext to pull you over and give you a massive fine.
No decent person would go into that line of work.
I used to teach first-year Writing at a tech college in NY, and one of the scariest students I ever encountered was a female majoring in criminal justice. Her goal was to become a cop, and her essays were chock full of seething anger at all those “law-breakers” out there. Her lust for power in order to crush the public was almost palpable. Not once did she crack a smile in the classroom, and lawdy I made sure my students were having some fun in this required class. She was a budding JBT (jack-booted thug). Even her fellow students were looking askance at her.
Pookie, I used to be one of those JBTs in southern California, seething with anger and viewing the power of the state as a legitimate tool of my self-righteousness. Like your budding JBT, I was so bad one of my fellow deputy sheriff’s called me “Lurch,” I suppose after that character in the Adam’s Family TV show. She was being too nice. Anyway, God got ahold of me and told me if I didn’t leave that line of work, there was no hope for me. I reluctantly resigned, still not understanding at the time who I really was and what was motivating me. Now a few years later I can see I was the ultimate fascist goon. I’m ashamed of it all, but glad to be free. A friend of mind once told me back in those days, “when this all collapses, that uniform will be your death warrant.” I understand why now. I believe there will be a terrible backlash soon. Best regards.
But REAL terrorists ARE a threat in Australia!
“Terrorism greater threat than climate: Howard”
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22496929-12377,00.html
jeffwb — I had assumed it was almost impossible to renounce that kind of power to control others, and so I’m glad you found help in High Places. There’s hope for us all, eh?
Best wishes to you.
jeffwb–
When I taught school–an on-again, off-again thing over a period of many years–i was hooked into the same mentality: Sit down and shut up. And now we will read from Shakespeare….
Please check out an article at the lewrockwell.com
site in Thursday’s(9/27) grouping written by
John Whitehead. It really supports what is being
discussed here. Much scarier than any terrorist!