I've done several posts on police brutality. And the sad, sick truth is that there will always be more. So many more that I'll never be able to keep up. Just as with the TSA and the NSA and the so-called War on Terror™ -- and yes, these things are all related -- the increasingly abusive tactics of the authoritarians in our midst aren't about keeping us "safe."
It's not about security. None of it is about security. It's about compliance. It's about control. It's about compelling obedience.
That compelling is relatively easy when you have a credulous populace that believes A Terrorist Is Hiding Around Every Corner. It becomes less so when the populace turns testy, or skeptical, or sick and tired of feeling the boot on its neck. Then our overlords resort to more and more repressive measures to keep people in line.
I'm not saying anything new. This has been a pattern for all kinds of governments all over the world throughout history. Yet people in the U.S. don't want to believe it. They insist on clinging to the notion that we wear "the white hats." They even go so far as to use childish, embarrassing terms such as "bad guys." "We have to go after the bad guys."
Really, it's like talking to 4th graders. Yet our own politicians and millions of citizens talk like this.
Another thing to keep in mind -- and which has also been copiously documented -- is that tactics used on the battlefield abroad always, always come back to be used on home turf. Raiding people's homes, beating them up, jailing them, shooting them, confiscating or destroying their property, subjecting them to random searches. If you want to put it in Biblical terms, that which we visit upon others we end up visiting upon ourselves. I find it amazing that so many people still don't get this.
So let's run down a few recent accounts of police brutality, miscarriages of justice, abuse of schoolchildren, and "security" lunacy in this country. And keep in mind that this is just a tiny sample. This shit goes on in this country every day. Hundreds of times a day every day. But most of the victims, obviously, don't have the benefit of a reporter standing by to tell their stories:
Texas Police Repeatedly Shot and Tasered a 67-Year-Old Alzheimer's Patient - In Her Own Home
Portland: A Citizen Can Be Handcuffed, Locked Into Car, And Driven To A Different Location But Still Not Be “Under Arrest”
As I said, too many to keep up with. And we have the nerve to lecture other countries on "freedom," "democracy," and "human rights."
This is your country. This is the Land of the Free. We're not free. We're serfs. And in case you forget it, Uncle Sam is standing by to remind you. If necessary, with force.
