America's Police Brutality Pandemic

by Paul Craig Roberts

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 rampant. 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 liberties 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 video" 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

Last week we had the case of the University of Florida student who was repeatedlt 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 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 nightclub 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 Snyder 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.

Local TV news stations throughout the US offer an endless stream of police brutality videos, which are then posted on the stations' web sites, often with an opportunity for citizens to express their opinion of the incidents.

There are many disturbing aspects to police brutality cases.

One disturbing aspect is that the police always arrest the people that they have gratuitously brutalized. There was no justification whatsoever to arrest Councilman Snyder, or the UCLA student, or the University of Florida student. The cops committed assault against innocent citizens. The cops should have been arrested for their criminal acts. Instead, the cops cover up their own crimes by arresting their victims on false charges that are invented to justify the unprovoked police violence against citizens.

Another disturbing aspect is that no one tells the police to stop the brutality. "Free" Americans are so intimidated by police that on February 19 of this year male customers in a Chicago bar stood aside while a drunk cop weighing 251 pounds beat a 115-pound barmaid, knocking her to the floor with his fists and repeatedly kicking her, for obeying the bar rules and not serving him more drinks.

Yet another disturbing aspect is that a minority of citizens will justify each act of police brutality no matter how brutal and how unprovoked. For example, WNDU.com's poll of its viewers found that 64.2 percent agreed that Snyder was a victim of police brutality, but 27.8 percent thought that Snyder got what was coming to him. "Law and order conservatives" and other authoritarian personalities invariably defend acts of police brutality. Perhaps the police brutality pandemic will bring the day when we will be able to say that a civil libertarian is a law and order conservative who has been brutalized by police.

The most disturbing aspect is that the police usually get away with it.

I remember decades ago when civil libertarians in New York City tried to stop police brutality by establishing civilian review boards to introduce some accountability into the police's interaction with civilians. Law and order conservatives at William F. Buckley's National Review went berserk. Accountability was "second-guessing" the police. The result would be a crime wave. And so on.

Police forces have always attracted bullies with authoritative personalities who desire to beat senseless anyone who does not quake in their presence. In the past, police could get away with brutalizing blacks but not whites. Today white citizens are as likely as racial minorities to be victims of police brutality.

The police are supreme. The militarization of the police, armed now with military weapons and trained to view the general public as the enemy, against whom "pain compliance" must be used, has placed every American at risk of personal injury and false arrest from our "public protectors."

In "free and democratic America," citizens are in such great danger from police that there are websites devoted to police brutality with online forms to report the brutality.

Nine years ago Human Rights Watch published a report entitled, "Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States." The report stated:

"Police abuse remains one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States. The excessive use of force by police officers, including unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and rough treatment, persists because overwhelming barriers to accountability make it possible for officers who commit human rights violations to escape due punishment and often to repeat their offenses. Police or public officials greet each new report of brutality with denials or explain that the act was an aberration, while the administrative and criminal systems that should deter these abuses by holding officers accountable instead virtually guarantee them impunity.

"This report examines common obstacles to accountability for police abuse in fourteen large cities representing most regions of the nation. The cities examined are: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Providence, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Research for this report was conducted over two and a half years, from late 1995 through early 1998.

"The brutality cases examined, which are set out in detail in chapters on each city, are similar to cases that continue to emerge in headlines and in survivors' complaints. It is important to note, however, that because it is difficult to obtain case information except where there is public scandal and/or prosecution, this report relies heavily on cases that have reached public attention; disciplinary action and criminal prosecution are even less common than the cases set out below would suggest."

There is no way to hold police accountable when the president and vice president of the United States, the attorney general, and the Republican Party maintain that the civil liberties and the separation of powers mandated by the US Constitution must be abandoned in order that the executive branch can keep Americans safe from terrorists.

Even before the "war on terror," federal police murdered 100 people in the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, and no one was held accountable.

Who is a terrorist? If the police and the US government have the mentality of airport security, they cannot tell a terrorist from an 86-year old Marine general on his way to give a speech at West Point. Retired Marine Corps General Joseph J. Foss was delayed and nearly had his Medal of Honor confiscated. Airport security regarded the pin on the medal as a weapon that the 86-year old Marine general and former governor of South Dakota could use to hijack an airliner and commit a terrorist deed.

In America today, every citizen is a potential terrorist in the eyes of the authorities. Airport security makes this clear every minute of every day, as do the FBI and NSA with warrantless spying on our emails, postal mail, telephone calls, and every possible invasion of our privacy. We are all recipients of abuse of our constitutional rights whether or not we suffer beatings, Taserings, and false arrests.

The law makes it impossible for Americans to defend themselves from police brutality. Law and order conservatives have made it a felony with a long prison sentence to "assault a police officer." Assaulting a police officer means that if a police thug intends to beat your brains out with his nightstick and you disarm your assailant, you have "assaulted a police officer." If you are not shot on the spot by his backup, you will be convicted by a "law and order" jury and sent to prison.

No matter how gratuitous and violent the police brutality, a "free" American citizen can defend himself only at the expense, if not of his life, of a long stay in prison. Osama bin Laden must wish that he had such power over Americans.

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Cartoons of Truth

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Their Only Weapon

http://westernsurvival.blogspot.com/2006/06/their-only-weapon.html

Fellow blogger Mark posted this a few days ago to his blog.

A correspondent on Lawrence Auster's site, commenting on republican Arkansas Governor Huckabee's feeling that racism is fueling the anti-immigration sentiment, wrote:

"All he has to do is stand up there, give one inane comment after another and use the word that puts trembling in the hearts of the American people and shut them down. Racist."

A cartoon I saw recently showed a Mexican-flag-waving illegal snarling at a white man, saying something like "Let me into your prosperous country, you damned racist xenophobe." It captured perfectly the dynamic involved in the immigration debate: people who have no leverage other than guilt are using it to control us.

What are they going to do the day that white people stop running from that word, "racist"?

I have begun, among my white friends, to acknowledge that I am a racist. I say, "If by racist, you mean that I think there are actual differences, genetic differences, between racial groups that have real consequences, then yes I am a racist. If you mean that I feel more of an affinity for people of my ethnic group, that I feel more comfortable and at home with them, then yes I am a racist. If you mean I put the interests of my people, my ethnic group, ahead of the interests of others just as I put my family's interests over others, then yes I am a racist. But if by "racist" you mean someone who believes in genocide or slavery or hatred or oppression of other ethnic groups, then no, I am not a racist."

I sense that many white people have had enough of being bullied with the "racist" label. But there are two ways of handling that accusation. One is to claim that you're not actually a racist. This is the approach most whites take right now, but it hands all of the power over to the non-white person, who can then act as judge and jury on the evidence to decide whether the white person is a racist or not. The other approach is to say, "yeah, I'm a racist; so what?" There is no answer to that. If you prefer your own people and put their interests ahead of others' without engaging in hatred or violence, what's it to them?

Perhaps the non-whites and liberals are flinging the "racist" accusation with such vehemence because they sense that the white majority is losing patience. Their one tool, their one way of controlling white people, is losing its efficacy, so they ramp up the volume and the bitterness to try to keep the upper hand. Their worst nightmare is that white people stop flinching at the word because that will be the day that anti-whites (both non-whites and whites who scorn whiteness) lose their only weapon.

But while we need to assert that we, like every other healthy people on earth, are indeed "racists", what we want to avoid this time is letting the pendulum swing back the other way into hatred. We don't want another Hitler. We don't want burning crosses. We don't want oppression and injustice. We just want to assert our right to survive as a distinct people and to separate ourselves physically and politically from those who threaten our safety, prosperity, and unique identity.

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Small Minded

The following is an email I sent to someone who has a small email list to which he posts his commentary and, apparently, the chopped and mangled responses of those on his list who disagree with him. His subject header was "Extremely Interesting (?) response (Love to get mad?)

Since you chose to chop up my response and edit it for your little list of
friends so you can look all high-and-mighty, I guess my comments have been
answered and I have no reason to talk to you further. But I will. I will
because I also have a forum of readers who will be interested in what I have
to say and in seeing how you've dealt with my comments... Read this on
http://www.MilitantLibertarian.org and know that thousands of people receive my blog posts and that you're being featured there, in all your questionable glory.

I have watched what is going on around the world and what has happened in
the past few years to our nation, our nation's money, and the people of this
nation. All through a combination of many things, ranging from publik
edukashun to the ruined dollar and the takeover of our nation by special
interests and Zion-centric world politics...

I have seen it all and I know who is the enemy. It's not some
Jihad-screaming terrorist. It's those thirteen or so people you mentioned
who really run the show. THEY are the ones who scare me. Terrorists are
defined by what they do and bombing buildings isn't the only act required to
become one. One has only to consider who profited by 9/11 (it sure as hell
wasn't Osama, that's plainly obvious) to know who committed the acts of that
day.

But back to your requirement that we save the world from these evil Islamic
terrorists. Why do these so-called Islamic extremists hate the U.S.? Is it
like GW says, because we have freedom? Is it because we have women who can
vote and participate in our society and government? Is it because we don't
pay them enough for their oil? Is it because we are capitalists?

Or is it maybe because of what we did to them post WWII, during the Cold
War, and what we continue to do to them today - all in the name of oil?

Perhaps they hate us because we have been seriously f-ing with their
governments, culture, and all aspects of their lives since the 1950s...
Perhaps if we left them well enough alone, they would go back to shooting
each other and blowing up each other's lands and leave us alone? Perhaps
they'd realize that without our money for their oil, they are back in the
stone age and can't wage war on one another - which appears to be their
primary goal in life.

Or maybe the extremists will lose power because if there's no "Great Satan"
to hate, there's no reason to follow the jihad-screaming cleric.

As for history, you obviously have only paid attention to what they tell you
in publik skul. Maybe the Nazis did kill 12 million people (history shows
that the original number was much lower, but it's grown since then).

What about the Russians? The Leninists/Stalinists of that same era killed
at least twice that number (24 million plus) of Christians, Poles, and the
helpless women and children of Germany.

Hey, can't forget the Chinese. Mao and his regime killed over 100 million
Chrstians and political undesirables.

Why didn't we save the world from those evil people? Why haven't we
demanded that they make reprisals for their nefarious deeds?

Hmm...probably because the Cold War and it's current replacement (Endless
War) brings too many profits to the military-industrial complex and makes it
too easy to control the populace at large. Not to mention corporations make
more money by outsourcing their labor to China's slave-labor organizations
(this is how Mitt Romney made his millions...look it up). So the Russians
and the Chinese are our buddies, not our enemies. Let bygones be bygones,
you'd say.

Here's what I say: you can claim that we have to participate in some kind
of word government and force our "democracy" and whatever on others all you
want, but you forget one simple point... You CANNOT legislate morality.
This means you can't FORCE other people to be GOOD PEOPLE. You can only
force them to pretend to be good, but they'll come up with a way to commit
their evil acts regardless of how many laws and requirements you make of
them. Remember prohibition, enacted to keep the evil drinkers from
polluting society with their wanton ways? That worked out pretty well, eh?

Now...let's say we'd stuck with our Constitution and its principles. Let's
say we'd stayed the course given to us by those who founded this nation and
everything that's happened in the past 100 years or so hadn't happened.
Let's say we'd stuck with the original principles of our nation's
founding...

We wouldn't have meddled in the Middle East, we wouldn't have gotten into
WWII until it was required of us (and even then, we'd have just dealt with
Japan, as a defensive measure), and more. Our world would be very, very
different, Michael. So different, it's almost impossible to imagine.

We would be dealing with other nations ECONOMICALLY, not militarily. I
know, I know, hard to consider, since your war-mongering mind seems to think
we need to send men with guns everywhere to control our "interests"
overseas. Wow...

Consider the ramifications of that. No one would have real reason to hate
us, since we wouldn't be meddling in their affairs. Absolute Swiss
neutrality unless we are attacked directly. What a concept. Hard to
imagine a world where no one hates big, bad America. Isn't it? Who hates
the Swiss? What about Iceland? OK, maybe people hate New Zealand... Nope?
Guess why that is... These countries, despite being bonafied first-world
nations, don't harass other nations, send troops there, or rattle sabres.

So what can we do today to fix the wrongs of our recent past?

How about removing our troops from foreign soils, creating a purely
defensive military? Then lifting all military embargoes on other nations
and truly exercising fair trade? Then apologizing for the actions of our
forefathers and telling the world we aren't going to be doing that any more?
Then we show our words are true by our actions and deal with the world
purely on an economic basis. We can win that kind of war if we then
concentrate on removing all of the roadblocks and bullshit requirements the
bureaucrats and socialists have created which make it virtually impossible
for common people to create wealth in this country.

In short, if we start acting fucking civilized ourselves, others will have
no reason to act uncivilized towards us and we can truly be justified in
striking back if they insist on doing so.

But that's hard to do, Michael. Very hard. We'd have to actually practice
what we preach: we'd have to actually love freedom, liberty, and hardest of
all...we'd have to follow the Golden Rule. We'd have to do unto others as
we would have them do unto us.

Can we actually do that, Michael? Can the people of America really be
freedom-loving patriots who don't jump to the war path at the bidding of the
12 controllers you mentioned? Can we truly follow the Golden Rule and
really be free? Or are we destined to become another Rome and eventually
crumble - the path we are currently taking, we both agree?

My belief is that most Americans, at their core, really do want to be free
of war, hatred, and government intrusion and control. Most just don't know
how to make it happen. Most people have no idea how powerful they really
are. I hope they wake up soon and realize what kind of difference each of
us can make if we just try to do it.

Though I know you denigrate him, that is the true message of Ron Paul's
campaign, Michael. That's why I support him like I have supported no other
candidate in my life. I've never joined the Republican Party until now, and
that is only in support of Ron Paul. I have never been inclined to vote for
a candidate outside of the Libertarian or Constitutional Parties as a first
choice until now. Even when I, myself, ran for office, I didn't put a
bumper sticker with my own name on my pickup. I have a Ron Paul sticker on
there, though. Until Ron Paul came along, I'd never made a website for a
candidate...now I have http://www.Truckers4RonPaul.org

Get my drift?

Freedom isn't forced, you have to want it.

--Aaron

Aaron's note: I've removed his lengthy commentary and have jumped directly to an exact cut-and-paste of how he treated my response to an earlier email, which was included in this one from him and to which he was referring. His cut-ins were marked with asterisks (*****).

My Direct Responses to your message below:

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Aaron Turpen"

Is it our responsibility to save the world?
*****No! It is our responsibility to participate in the affairs of global problems that may affect others to include our own country.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Are we supposed to be the world's guardians and saviors?
*****NO! But we have a responsibility as members of the community of nations in this world whether other accept their responsibility or not!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is that in the Constitution somewhere and I missed it?
*****Many circumstances are not categorized in our Constitution. World problems are not part of our internal affairs. They are a part of our World Community Responsibilities!
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The copy of the Constitution hanging on the wall here in my office doesn't say that anywhere that I can see.
*****Great! Read it again and then consider the times when it was written and the times we live in now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maybe I'm, uhh... "misinterpreting" this "living document" or whatever the current lingo for twisting the words to make them what you wish happens to be.
*****A Living Document is only as good as those who believe in it, support it, defend it, and believe it is a way for all men, women and children to live in peace while struggling to make some kind of dream come true for themselves, while never forgetting others who have rights to live in Freedom from Terrorists and other criminals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you want to save the world, get your own, private group together and go do it,
*****I don't need a standing army of my own, but, I support our Standing Military today! 100%
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but don't force me and other unwilling Americans, especially the men, women, and weapons of our military, along with you.
*****Don't worry Aaron, there is no draft. You are safe in your little world because others will gladly give their life so you can live in your little world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``hose
men and women pledged to uphold and defend the CONSTITUTION of the United States of
America, not your globe-trotting, "save the world from the evil ones" agenda.
*****Don't forget Aaron, we did not initiate WWII, Korea, Vietnam, or the problems in the Middle East. But those forces placed themselves on our agenda. When a back pack Nuclear weapon blows up Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, or New York City, then you will understand the why of global responsibilities of Nations. Then it will be too late! 90% of all US Citizens will dye because the world did not put a stop to insanity before it could happen!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If that's truly your goal, to erase evil from the world, then do it with your own resources and with participants who sign up for that goal.
*****I have no such goals, but I have enough common sense built in that tells me I have a responsibility to the world around me, if I want to live in peace, and allow my children and grandchildren a place to live their lives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm sure you can get financial backing for your **private** army from Halliburton and friends, just as those in Washington have been paid to bamboozle our DEFENSIVE military into this mess.
*****Don't you mean all of those who trashed our military and our Veterans as well as our economy over the past fifty years by closing down industry in this country and shipping US jobs to foreign countries with little or no regard to our needs, limiting defensive and care for military and veterans? Do you love the trucking industry with all the rip off rates and unfair practices of robbing drivers in every state across this country of ours? I am sure those who are engaged in protecting special interests and Lobbyists for global industry at the expense of the quality of life in this country would be most happy to support me if I can produce a business plan to destroy evil and place profits in their pockets. But, that is not why I promote
information to show what is wrong in this world and the reasons things are happening as they are.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I would suggest that you listen to or read the speeches of Adolph Hitler, Mussoulini, and Stalin and see what kinds of similarities you find in the words, phrases, and themes they used as opposed to what is being used now by the warmongers in our own country right now. It's enlightening.
******I don't think you have been enlightened one bit because I doubt you have read the Communist Manifesto or "Mein Comp" or any other related documents.

Editor's comment: So there you have it. This is how the war mongers justify themselves and their globe-trotting. It's like a doctor who treats a patient with the flue by chopping off their nose because it's running and cutting out a lung because it's caughing. Treat the symptoms, not the disease is the philosophy here. Better get that National ID card ready quickly, along with RFID for all citizens, a continued stranglehold on our finances, and an even higher national debt to pay for our increasingly over-taxed military and the expanded excursions into foreign lands... All in the name of "liberty" and "freedom," which are now phrases they use to describe "safety" and "security," warping their true meanings.

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