Dear cops: This is a condiment:
This, on the other hand, is an instrument of torture used by third-world dictators everywhere to punish those who dare protest their rule, an instrument of torture which causes enormous pain and suffering on the part of the victim along with respiratory distress and the possibility of permanent eye damage:
Are there any questions?
-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
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That's how it goes in a police state. Step out of line in any small way, do anything that brings you to the attention of a pig, and you will feel pain. The police are the criminals. They are not your friends. They are not there to enforce "law", at least not "law" in terms of any concept of universal "justice." They are there to enforce ORDER.
ReplyDeleteYou haven't heard about anyone getting punished for brutality in connection with any of these incidents, have you, except the UC Davis "pepper spray cop" getting a couple weeks of paid vacation, have you? The original NYC cop who went viral for pepper spraying the Occupy protestors got a small sanction with his leave hours, and the sanctions have lessened with each publicized incident. Now there will be no publicity, because it's not novel any more. No infamy, no penalty for the pigs. Welcome to the new normal. Wake up and smell the police state.
And what's annoying is that most Americans *want* a police state. They *want* the sort of orderly nation where stepping out of line in any way gets you tased, pepper sprayed, or shot. I'm old enough to remember when it wasn't like that, when most Americans were more concerned about freedom than about disorder, but the decline of empire leads people to be fearful, and fearful people aren't interested in freedom, they're interested in being kept safe by a kindly Big Brother... or even a not-so-kindly one, in the case of Saddam Hussein who we overthrew despite the fact that events after that overthrow show that the people of Iraq had plenty of guns to rise up and string him up anytime they wanted too -- but they preferred the safety and order of Saddam's regime to freedom.
ReplyDeleteThe only difference I can tell between Saddam's Iraq and modern America is that *our* dictators stay behind the scenes, jerking the puppet strings of the people we "elect" to lead us...
- Badtux the Annoyed Penguin