Today, we have the Department of Homeland Security doling out billions of dollars (a nice interactive map, here) to Everytown, USA, in order to supply them with battlefield-grade arms and armor, to fight hypothetical bogeymen and non-existent threats.

Just your ordinary small town police force, nothing to see here

Authorities in Fargo, ND (which has averaged 2 homicides per year over the last 5 years) spent $8 million buying state-of-the-art military grade weapons like the assault rifles which now come standard in every squad car, and the “$256,643 armored truck, complete with a rotating turret”.

Sadly, rather than being some unfortunate exception, Fargo is just another example in the trend to militarize local police departments (via Daily Beast).

• In Montgomery County, Texas, the sheriff’s department owns a $300,000 pilotless surveillance drone, like those used to hunt down al Qaeda terrorists in the remote tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
• In Augusta, Maine, with fewer than 20,000 people and where an officer hasn’t died from gunfire in the line of duty in more than 125 years, police bought eight $1,500 tactical vests.
• Police in Des Moines, Iowa, bought two $180,000 bomb-disarming robots
• An Arizona sheriff is now the proud owner of a surplus Army tank.

To understand this trend, you have to understand a little bit about government appropriations. Generally the money is on the table and you have to use it or lose it. The logic is almost always that if you don’t spend the money, if you don’t pretend you need it, then you can get by with less, so they cut your budget. And government agencies are always in the business of preserving their power, whether it is just looking out for No. 1, or something more Machiavellian like amassing your own little fiefdom or mercenary force, the incentive structure in government always works the same way. Use it or lose it.

Also, follow the money:

One beneficiary of Homeland’s largesse are military contractors, who have found a new market for their wares

Warfare is big business and government contracts are essentially guaranteed profit. So the companies involved in this business can afford to spend lots of money (given to them in fulfillment of government contracts) lobbying the government to give them even more budget for larger contracts next year. It is a sick cycle that shows no signs of abating any time soon.

The article highlights some moral hazard of the hyper-militarization, which I would liken to “Field of Dreams”. If you build it, they will come. Well, if you give it to them, they will find a way to use it.

“With local law enforcement, their mission is to solve crimes after they’ve happened, and to ensure that people’s constitutional rights are protected in the process,” says Jesselyn McCurdy, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. “The military obviously has a mission where they are fighting an enemy. When you use military tactics in the context of law enforcement, the missions don’t match, and that’s when you see trouble with the overmilitarization of police.”

When the only tool you have is a hammer, sooner or later, everything starts to look like a nail. When you arm officers to the teeth, when you train them for war, when you hire a disproportionate amount of ex-soldiers, and when you bombard their psyche with warrior mentality training it is not really a surprise when they start putting that training in to practice, no matter if its warranted or not.  Over the last decade we’ve seen an increasing number of SWAT teams raiding teenage rave parties or serving routine drug warrants on non-violent offenders, creating volatility and chaos where there would never have been any had the police taken a more conventional approach and we are even seeing incidents of police tasering and pepper-spraying children.

Riot police attacking protestors

What will be the longer-term ramifications of increased militarization, especially in light of NDAA and the PATRIOT Act? I fear that these weapons will one day be turned on the people of this country. I fear that it is a matter of “when”, not “if”. We’re already seeing some of it in the deplorable way that local cops have handled several situations in the Occupy Movement, still in its infancy.

As government institutions always seek to preserve and expand their power even at the expense of their constituents’ liberties and livelihoods, there doesn’t need to be any evil villain, plotting and scheming, no Illuminati/New World Order tin-foil hat bullshit. All of the pieces are already falling in to place, the product of human action, not of human design. In other words, it doesn’t matter if they’re explicitly preparing for a civil war, everything they’re doing is inadvertently preparing for one, anyways.

A century ago, the Federal government’s armories were turned against its citizens, used to put down popular movements and general strikes.

Today, they’re shipping the munitions directly to what will eventually be the front lines.

Not much has changed since then. In fact, there are so few actual terrorist threats (probably because there are so few actual terrorists) that the FBI has to manufacture its own terror plots, and then take credit for saving the day.

Let’s put things in perspective.

Family Gets Robbed, Calls Cops For Help – Cops “Help” By Beating Them Up and Killing Their Dog

As he was being assaulted by his armed and dangerous protectors, he begged the officers not to shoot his four-year-old dog, Mercedes.

“While this was going on I said ‘please, don’t point a gun at my dog.’ I begged her. She didn’t need to be involved in this. She was in the yard.”

Police then dutifully proceeded to murder his dog, who as his Neighbor Barbara Wells said, “…did not attack anyone. He never approached anyone. Even as the officers grabbed Sterling the dog didn’t do anything.”

This of course seems to be par for the course in Prince George County. If you think I’m blowing this out of proportion, take a look at Radley’s archives detailing the very colorful history of this department.

• They killed their own mayor’s dog during a botched “drug raid”. How they didn’t know it was they mayor’s house is beyond me. Those officers involved in the raid were eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.
• This is the department which continues to harass and threaten to imprison people for “recording” cops in public.
• This is the department which keeps on its active rosters an officer who shot two furniture movers, killing one of them.
• This is the department which routinely “loses” dash cam footage or other surveillance footage when it differs from the official (i.e., officer-reported) version of events.
• The very same department which has on its roster an officer who has been arrested for drunk driving four-time within 12 months — at least once while in his patrol car. Still on duty.
• And if that’s not enough, yet another officer of PG was drunk-driving his squad car when he hit and killed a 20-year old college student.

These monsters don’t suddenly appear, they grow and are nurtured in an environment and culture which protects its own at almost all costs, almost always. They learn to abuse because they learn they can get away with abuse. For every bad, abusive, dangerous, sociopath cop in the world, there’s at least one “good” cop that doesn’t do a goddamn thing about it. It’s this refusal to bring justice that enables the worst, and they are every bit as guilty as accomplices to these crimes.

I’m not militant. I’m not violent. I would consider myself a borderline pacifist.  I don’t advocate violence as a means to any ends.

That said, the world would be a noticeably better place if that department burned to the ground with everyone inside it.

And after reviewing a 3,000 page report produced internally, prosecutors have declined to press any criminal charges against anyone in connection with Powell’s execution.

Despite the fact that the county medical examiner cited heat exposure as the cause of Marcia Powell’s death, and despite the gruesome evidence (Powell had burns and blisters all over her body) and despite the fact that she had been kept in a cage in an Arizona desert for (allegedly not more than) 2 hours (but possibly 4 hours or more) on a day when the temperature peaked at over 107 degrees Fahrenheit, possibly without access to any water, and despite the fact that ADC Director Charles Ryan unilaterally (and lacking legal authority) decided to terminate Powell’s life support — despite all of this, those charged with protecting and upholding “the law” can find no evidence of any crime.

Her core body temperature upon examination was 108 degrees Fahrenheit.

Let that sink in for a minute. A human being, in a fucking cage, in the desert heat.  Any part of that sound even remotely cruel or perhaps unusual?

Surely no man with even an iota of conscience could fit that torture within the boundaries of acceptable human behavior, nor for punishment save for the most heinous offenses.  What sort of animal does this? What monster sits by and watches, tolerates, enables, or allows such atrocities to continue unimpeded?

There aren’t any monsters, at least not in the conventional sense.

Remember that those individuals primarily and unforgivably responsible for carrying out the day-to-day operations that sustain, strengthen and perpetuate the grossest human tragedies, have always considered themselves to be normal people, and largely their neighbors and contemporaries have considered them “normal”, too.

Everyone involved in composing the report who either couldn’t (or wouldn’t) find enough evidence of an obvious crime,  every lawyer and prosecutor who refused to see or look for criminal wrongdoing in those pages, every guard who could’ve spoken up, or could’ve offered aid, but didn’t, because nobody’s gonna miss some junkie schizo prostitute.

“Normal” people who can no longer judge the difference between right and wrong. And so they go on about their ways, “just following orders” day-in and day-out.

• Philip Shenon at The Daily Beast indicates that “The Justice Department and the F.B.I. have been unable to point to a single significant piece of classified information that the so-called spies obtained during their many years in the United States; none of the suspects is accused of espionage.”
• Daniel Drezner, at Foreign Policy calls it the “lamest espionage conspiracy….ever.”

What is notable, is that these “spies” had allegedly been passing information to the Motherland in a manner that was previously only theoretically possible:

The accused spies posted the seemingly mundane photos on publicly accessible websites, but then extracted coded messages from the computer data of the pictures, according to the criminal complaint filed by the FBI. Although computer scientists have theorized about the existence of this communication technique for over a decade, this is the first publicly acknowledged use of the technique.

Off-the-cuff, you kinda have to wonder if this is some sort of pretext for the Orwellian “internet kill switch”, which would really concentrate the dissemination of information and “opinion” among the state-sanctioned media outlets, who would of course remain fair and impartial as they repeat the ruling party’s propaganda, and it would be the coup de grace for whatever vestiges remain of our freedoms of speech and information.

A police officer used a Taser gun to apprehend a fan who ran onto the field during a Phillies game Monday night, and the team and the police are investigating whether it was an appropriate use of force. (photo credits: Matt Slocum, AP)

What the hell is there to “investigate”? Lazy cop uses a ‘substitute for lethal force’ to apprehend a prankster. He ought to lose his job, his pension, and be tarred and feathered in some public square.

Tasers used to be marketed as a non-lethal alternative to using lethal force in order to subdue a criminal suspect. Besides the obvious evidence (a trail of dead bodies, actually) which suggests tasers can be quite lethal under certain circumstances,

This story, Peter says, “Shows that when police are given the choice, a taser seems to be the first option because they don’t want to run. ‘Subdue’ implies the suspect is being violent, etc. One can hardly expect a 17-year old to not run, especially since he was ‘running’ on to the baseball field between innings…”

Precisely! That’s why I have a problem with tasers. They encourage sloppiness, viz., no cop anywhere would’ve drawn a firearm on the kid — much less fired a fucking bullet at him from behind. So, if lethal force was not an acceptable reaction to this scenario, then the prescribed ‘alternative’ to lethal force ought to be out of the question.

With the evidence of its lethality, and the fact that the taser seems to be the go-to weapon of choice for law enforcement officers (this incident and others like it are pretty clear and convincing evidence that tasers aren’t being used as substitute for lethal force), taser introduces a level of moral hazard that otherwise wouldn’t exist.

Fortunately, this kid lived. Others haven’t been so lucky.

The officer wrote him up for “unsafe start” or something like that, which is the equivalent of “impeding traffic”. I believe it is a moving violation so the officer can apply it towards his monthly ticket quota, but a bunk ticket worth no points against his license and minimal fine (although I think “minimal” is still $110 in MI). However, this is not what he was doing. In fact, he was attempting to complete a left-turn through a downtown intersection, and at this precise intersection (not all intersections) it seems left turns are prohibited. Oh well, it was posted, so technically he should’ve know better or whatever.

So yeah, this got me thinking. I mean, aside from the fact that every single officer in every single jurisdiction in the country has perjured himself in such a manner, that this practice is pervasively routine and accepted. Many people are content with this because of the presumption of that the officer is somehow helping you out or doing you a favor by reducing the infraction. (You know what would be even more favorful? Yep: not writing a ticket in the first place!)

This is the “good cop” fnord: the officer could’ve made your life far more miserable, but shows a degree of restraint and only subjects you to a slightly lesser degree of punishment, therefore he’s “good” and you should be grateful for his benevolence.

But consider: the officer wrote him a ticket for something they both know he didn’t do. Isn’t this “falsifying a police report”?

A common argument used by law enforcement apologists is that the officers don’t get to decide which laws they want to enforce, they don’t get to decide which laws are just or which laws to enforce, rather they are just enforcing the law to the letter (IMO this is a variant of the “following orders” fallacy). But the fact of the matter is that law enforcement officers routinely decide which laws they want to enforce. Perhaps they don’t pull anyone over for speeding unless they’re really speeding. Maybe they ignore the fact that you didn’t use your turn signal. In other cases (e.g., racial profiling) they selectively enforce laws, perhaps only pulling over speeders who are black or Hispanic, etc.

You might say, “Well, these are minor civil infractions and not crimes per se…” but you’re falling in to that exact same trap of deciding which laws are appropriate to enforce, to what degree they will be enforced and under what circumstances and you’re using only the letter of the law as your guide.

You can not use “the letter of the law” as your guide to evaluating the propriety of the law.

No matter, Justin’s exercise of certain rights guaranteed by the first, fourth, and fifth amendments to the U.S. constitution (and probably most State and Local legislation, too) are construed as “disrespectful”, so you see where this is probably going.  Fortunately, Justin stood his ground and shot this awesome footage to Vimeo.

(It’s a long video, Don’t show ID in New York State! so I’ve summarized some important exchanges below.)

The female officer (second on-scene) pulls out all the stops, with the “You could be a pedophile” line.

Female LEO: The reason why we ask you… thing is, why we ask that, is part of our job is to fight criminals. And we don’t know if you are, just by looking at you… When we encounter people, we gotta make sure they’re not wanted… So we run their name, it’s that simple…This particular situation is just to make sure that you’re not someone wanted, some pedophile that’s wanted, OK, that you’re not a fugitive of justice. [Justin has refused to present identification] We have to take your word for it?

Justin: Take my word for it, that’s right. In a free society, that’s right.

Eventually, I guess, they decide that there are no dangerous rollerblading pedophiles named Justin Holmes in the New York area, but he’s not going to get off that easy.  At one point, the male officer tells Justin to take off his skates and walk home without his shoes on. He asks whether he can skate on the sidewalk, and is told that he cannot. The male officer repeats, that “there is an ordinance.” Remember this lie.

Justin: I do need to know the number of the ordinance.

Male LEO: I’m not going to bother with that because I’m not going to charge you with it.

This is also very interesting, telling, actually, because SOP dictate that “disrespectful” folks like Justin are subject to additional charges like “resisting arrest” or “obstruction”.

The encounter culminates in an attempt to “run him out of town.” At this point, the officer has already informed Justin that rollerblading is illegal in the Village. He’s even said that it’s illegal to do it on the sidewalk (highly suspect). Justin says that he’s prepared to walk, to which the officer says he wants him out of town, the quickest, safest way possible—the clear implication being that Justin should skate his way out of town.

Male LEO: I don’t want you in this village. So I’m gonna be the nice guy and make it so you can get out of this village in the easiest safest and quick way, you tell me what that is…

Justin: I would like to simply skate on the sidewalk but it’s not clear to me if that’s legal.

Male LEO: Then do it and get out of here.

Justin: Is that legal?

Male LEO: I didn’t say it. Do it and get out of here. ‘Cause I really don’t want you in this village.

Justin is understandably confused, and again inquires about the legality of such behavior. The officer refuses to positively respond to Justin’s reasonably inquiries.

At 26:12 the female LEO says that it is indeed legal, very legal.

If rollerblading in the street really is illegal in Port Dick, then these officers collectively wasted about an hour and twenty minutes arguing with  someone who in their opinion was “ignorant” and “disrespectful” during a justifiable detention, and they’re simply going to let him skate his way out of town?

I’m sorry, but this doesn’t pass the smell test: If you’re going to let the guy walk under these circumstances, then why detain him in the first place?  You wouldn’t, unless you were just flexing your badge; being an asshole just because you can be an asshole and nobody will do anything about it.

The only logical conclusion is that Justin didn’t do anything against the law, and the officers knew it.

Some people say, “Well Justin should’ve just shown his ID to the cops, this could’ve all been over in a few seconds if he had just complied.” But it could’ve all been over, in fact the entire encounter need never have occurred, had the officer simply stopped him briefly and said, “Hey kid, it’s not safe and/or illegal to skate in the street, stay on the sidewalk and have a safe trip home.”

Whatever objective brings together the most powerful people from the most powerful nations in the world, is not wholesome. They do not have the people’s interests in mind because the their interests are not the people’s. So it is no wonder that a relatively diverse crowd showed up to protest the gathering darkness in Pittsburgh last week, where the Group of 20 met to discuss, among other things, reforming the IMF (Providing liquidity.

The powers that be do not like dissent. In particular, they do not like vocal, public displays of dissent which threaten to reveal their fraud. So thousands of hired guns, bought paid for with the people’s money were brought in to Pittsburgh last week to secure “order” and to silence the people’s voice of opposition.

The protesters, and many of the students at University of Pittsburgh saw firsthand what a police state looks like:

The photo (taken from the video on YouTube) shows a group of heavily armed police officers posing for a group photo with one of their trophies captives.  The purpose of staging such a photograph with someone who is “innocent until proven guilty” is psychological warfare. It is meant to intimidate, debase, and to humiliate the opposition. It is the exercise of physical strength and brute force. The motivation is pure malice, the sort of cream which rises to the top of the State’s violence gangs.

Right out loud, the students and protesters learned (if they hadn’t learned already) that the police were not there to protect them. The police arrived in Pittsburgh in their professional capacities as soldiers of fortune, hired guns and goons…  After all, four thousand heavily armed and armored men do not storm in to your city and tear gas you for your own safety. They were not there to protect Pittsburgh from the G20, they were there to protect the G20 from Pittsburgh.

h/t: iwitness video

]]> http://www.nothirdsolution.com/2009/09/28/this-is-what-a-police-state-looks-like/feed/ 12 http://www.nothirdsolution.com/2009/09/23/in-protest-jericho-fire-department-resigns-en-masse/ http://www.nothirdsolution.com/2009/09/23/in-protest-jericho-fire-department-resigns-en-masse/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:03:02 +0000 David Z http://www.nothirdsolution.com/?p=2599 The village of Jericho, Arkansas (pop. 174) is home to exactly zero operating businesses, and until recently*, seven police officers and 18 volunteer firefighters. All 18 volunteer firefighters in the village of Jericho, Akransas have resigned in outrage over the shooting of the assistant fire chief on August 27.

Don Payne, the assistant fire chief, had been in court earlier contesting a speeding ticket, and had returned to contest a ticket issued to his son. Payne was upset (and it seems rightly so) about the traffic tickets; the Jericho PD was well-known for their ticket-writing propensity, even going so far as to write tickets where they had no jurisdiction to do so:

[Judge Tonya Alexander (who has since resigned)] has voided all the tickets written by the department both inside the city and others written outside of its jurisdiction — citations that the department apparently had no power to write.

That day, all seven Jericho police officers were in court. Some accounts indicate that the officers were upset because the judge was dismissing many of the tickets and everyone seems to agree that Payne was visibly upset, but what happened — well, that’s when shit got weird.

One of the police officers shot Payne in the back.

Take a minute and let that sink in.

There is no reason, whatsoever, for any of the thugs in uniform to have drawn on Payne that day. He was outnumbered seven-to-one and presumably outgunned seven-to-none. Aside from treating all firearms as if they are always loaded and ready to fire, the most important rule of firearm safety is DO NOT POINT A WEAPON AT ANYTHING YOU’RE NOT PREPARED TO DESTROY. That a weapon was trained on Payne, and subsequently discharged, speaks volumes about the Jericho PD.

The Police Department has since been disbanded (good riddance to bad rubbish) and the County Sheriff has assumed jurisdiction.

*Update: (9/24/2009) This report suggests that the Police Department in Jericho is back on duty, or at least “back on duty” enough to act as security detail for the Mayor, keeping those pesky news reporters away.  The report also indicates that an arrest warrant has been issued for former assistant fire chief, Don Payne, for “felony battery” of a police officer.

There is special place in hell for bastards like this