Can It Happen Here?

No, I don’t mean that kind of open mutiny, as is occurring in Greece, but the State running out of tear gas. Road salt, or anything else, yes, but never weapons, lethal or otherwise. Occasionally, they will cry like spoiled debutantes and pretend their gear is falling apart, but funding is first priority, survival for bureaucracies, even the ones entrusted with dispensing legal violence. The physical militarization of US police forces, (as opposed to the granting of law enforcement powers and duties to other government agencies, businesses and citizens)  the kind that’s easy to see, with carbines in every radio car, mechanized infantry patrols, and this little drug war machine, helped keep defense contractors in the red, between the end of the Cold War and the 9/11 attacks.

The US Congress passed the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Officials Act, in 1981 which allowed for the sharing of information, facilities and equipment and training by active-duty military personnel in 1981. The policies of the “liberal”  Clinton administration facilitated a massive increase in paramilitary raids and the issue of absurd amounts of military hardware to civilian police departments:

Between 1995 and 1997 the Department of Defense gave police departments 1.2 million pieces of military hardware, including 73 grenade launchers and 112 armored personnel carriers. TheLos Angeles Police Department has acquired 600 Army surplus M-16s. Even small-town police departments are getting into the act. The seven-officer department in Jasper, Florida, is now equipped with fully automatic M-16s

Greece

The Greek police look almost naked and empty-handed compared to the toys that police in the US are issued. I literally own more riot gear than the average, individual, paid terrorist in Greece, from what I’ve seen. Contrast that with the kinds of equipment deployed for even the smallest demo in the US. A stark contrast to the Ninja turtle suits, APCs, grenade launchers and tons of other shit that this jealous little boy wishes he had. Even a minor traffic stop quickly turns into an unpermitted FOP convention with traffic jams for the rest of us.

USA

It’s also been the better part of 40 years since shit has actually gotten out of hand, in any kind of big way, so it’s not easy to predict how contemporary, widespread civil unrest would be dealt with.  Would you see the National Guard machine-gunning apartment buildings ala Newark, ’67 or state bombings not unlike they did to MOVE?  We know that the less lethals are reserved for white folks, as it stands, but there’s no way of knowing if they’d go to live ordinance for anyone who can’t pass for white, as they have clearly done in the past. The violence directed towards Katrina victims by State and mercenary forces in New Orleans, not to mention the media , may be a preview of the kinds of treatment that will accompany the acceleration of the crumbling empire.

Race is obviously a factor in the US equation and the Alexis’ assassin was a member of an organized neo-fascist group called the Golden Dawn. There is obviously no kind of reasonable evidence to begin to quantify how many US police are members of neo-fascist groups, but given the level of institutional racism in the US, from the 3/5 compromise to racial profiling, there is really no reason to bother with such wannabees or their little clubs, except to protect them from the rest of us. The heavy reliance on informants and illegal combatants plainclothes infiltrators further blurs the line between official and unoffical hate groups. The situation with the Love Park 4 is a good example of this kind of symbiotic relationship. This is to say nothing of the role of liberals who confuse “free speech” with hate speech.

There have been some grumblings regarding the deployment of regular US troops for domestic purposes, but this is nothing new. Despite the alleged protections of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, the rarest of birds, a one sentence law enacted by southern democrats after the US civil war, Federal troops have been used to break dozens of strikes, before Big Labor was successfully recuperated. The State must not trust the local cops at the end of the day, and maybe their loyalties will lie with the people in the end. In more recent years, super-secret Delta Force commandos were on the ground at the 1984 summer olympics in California, the 1993 State murders of religious kooks and their children at Waco and  the 1999 WTO demonstrations in Seattle.

Whoever, except in cases and under such circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or by Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined no more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Aside from the cop-toy shortage in Greece it also seems bizarre that the terrorist who murdered Alexis would be charged with any miscounduct, a rare occurrence in the US. Of my two cop relatives who have murdered civilians, neither of them did any time for killing, but one of them was briefly detained and released without charges for allegedly stealing from the victim. The police didn’t make this system and they are a relatively new development. If the US ran out tear gas, I imagine law enforcement types might begin to protect and serve the people. The local medical examiner, who by all accounts is something of a megalomaniac, has spent a good deal of time in federal court over machine politics as usual, and the only thing that makes him any different than the rest of the region’s bottom-feeders, was his suggestion that State violence was unjustified in several incidents.

It was also strange to read that this was the first teenager murdered by the state in Greece since 1985, but apparently there are consequences for such behaviors. Here, it happens so often that no one seems to notice and the media loves to blame a victim,  and brandishing a firearm (or old-timey cell phone) at members of a specialized warrior class with a license to kill is a high risk behaviors, and the outcome of these incidents is not very surprising.

This another example of the multi-tiered US justice system, where the privileged classes (the wealthy, the famous, politicians, informants, security forces) are exempt from the both the spirit and letter of the law. A clear, simple example of this is the removal of civilians and media to make room for off-duty police to intimidate witnesses and jurors in cases where civilians defend themselves from State violence.

Another tier is for those who appear repentant (and/or attractive) enough to be willing to retain an attorney, with punishments well below the level stated by the law. At the bottom is everyone else, (the poor, the mentally ill, the illiterate) who are subject to the brunt of the law. The “impeach Bush” wingnuts refuse to acknowledge this as sure as the right-wing constitution worshippers who too act surprised, when ‘the rule of law’ is ignored by privileged groups and indviduals.

I must admit to being ignorant to the nature of the Greek legal system, as well as other objective realities (I have personal comrades on the ground there, as of 12/14) but the notion of a constitutionally mandated “no-go” zone such as is the case with Greek universities seems like a parallel universe to someone as ignorant and provincial as me, who has never left North America. The only “no-go” zones that have existed in the US, that I can recall firsthand in my lifetime were created with firearms, during the upsurge in entry-level capitalism in the early 90’s.

Maybe the sheer numbers of personal firearms in the US, as opposed to Olde Europe, provides the justification for the supression of dissenters? Obviously media complicity is a factor, as is institutional racism, and the US epidemic of Stockholm syndrome, which results in a lack of sympathy for freedom lovers and fighter, but I’m sure I must be missing something. I guess that’s why the urban guerilla-type groups in Europe fared so much better than their US counterparts. Who knows, maybe the police will get tired and quit? Part of the job is creating the appearance of being superhuman and that’s not easy to keep up. We don’t often get to see these types of things out, normally the unions sell it out pretty quick, and I’ve read something to that effect. This appears to be more youth than labor oriented so maybe ther is no central command to accept concessions.

Hill District Man Slain By Narco-Terrorists

Aucy Andrews, 59, of the Hill District is the seventh person to be reported shot by uniformed-terrorists Pittsburgh Police, this year. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that one, of the at least five shots, reported by witnesses to the murder, was fatal.

Mr. Andrews’ murderer is enjoying a paid vacation an administrative leave, as well as the protection of his anonymity, as if his license to kill was not enough. Uniform fetishist and DA, Stevie Zappala Jr., will no doubt rule that the ‘man in uniform’ was justified in shooting a hearing-impaired, man with a knife, who was not following orders , while being attacked by a police dog, three times, until he fell to his knees, and shot twice more when he was on the ground. Apparently, the use of force continuum dictates that Tasers are only to be used on unarmed suspects.

Mr. Andrews allegedly used the knife while involved in an uncharacterized altercation with a much younger man, when the narco-terrorist and his “partner” arrived to defend the State’s monopoly on violence and to preserve the storied tradition of attacking Black men with German Shepard dogs. In case you were wondering, all of the corporate media accounts state that the dog was uninjured.

Odds are, the overseer officer was given a dog as a partner, because he couldn’t work well with a human one, according to a relative of mine who was a former K-9 handler, who was himself, assigned the dog as way of “keeping him out of trouble”, because the dogs require so much attention. The department where he worked had another dog, which was so out of control that it attacked other overseers officers, and they all lived in fear of it. These terror organizations are reluctant to get rid of the dogs because of the expense and training time, the money they make by violating privacy to find drugs, not to mention the “anything goes”, “us and them” spirit of law enforcement culture. The training of these animals would make Michael Vick wince. The dogs are deputized (making their lives more valuable than anyone who is not a cop) and usually assigned the rank of Sergeant. The dogs get a paycheck, and even a pension when they retire. That’s probably more than Mr. Andrews, who lived in a boarding house could ever imagine.

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When the “Angry Inch” Takes a Mile

I don’t hate your SUV, I just don’t understand your obsession with these big plastic boxes. I understand why Crusaders, farmers, park rangers, professional flea marketeers, and even soccer moms need such a vehicle. The “U” is for utility, and it’s not hard to wrap your brain around that. It’s the “S” that loses me. What “sport” are you using that thing for? Not that I don’t doubt that the IOC would make gas burning or freestyle parallel parking into Olympic events. Personally, I’d rather see them used for polo or buzkashi.

Or does “sport” refer to the officially sanctioned outlet for homoeroticism, where there is nothing “abnormal” about spending hours watching and adulating sweaty musclebound millionaires grapple for cash and prizes? I guess we’ll never know.

Something else we may never know, is whether these big plastic boxes are a way for males who are insecure about the dimensions of their generative organs to be able to look at themselves in the rear-view mirror. Sure, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but the SUV as strap-on which uses seatbelts, is an easy explanation for fanaticism which surrounds these vehicles. Some guys seem ready to kill or die for their canary yellow “Hummer”. Others will jeopardize their public reputations and careers for these five-figure vibrators.

Two such obsessives are Pittsburgh Mayor, Luke Ravenstahl, and Miami Police Chief, John Timoney both who have recently come under scrutiny for their irrational behaviors about playing with trucks.

Ravenstahl, used a vehicle that was bought with Homeland Security funds, to tailgate with friends, at what appears to be a mandatory field trip for City employees. I don’t know if Lukey actually lives at his North Side address, but since he grew up in the suburbs(unless Reserve Twp. is in the City), his Toby Keith fandom is a little more plausible. A City cop was almost disciplined for blowing the whistle on him. It’s serious when the spectre of police accountability is raised. Local religious judge Mullah Marybeth Buchanan has even promised to put her best agents on the case. Luke’s even invoking GW-style executive privilege in the name of “Homeland Security” (fatherland was already taken) on this one. Is this a variant of the RV from Stripes?

Size (and likely age) seem to matter to repression celebrity, police chief, and father of bumbling drug addicts and dealers, John Timoney, whose latest victims are in Miami. Timoney accepted the use of a free Lexus SUV with dealer tags, for more than a year, before buying it for $54,000. Maybe it’s just healthy hatred for the boss, but even his own officers held a symbolic (but aren’t they all?) vote of no confidence in T-$, as they apparently refer to him in Miami.

I don’t know why these two are willing to jeopardize their reputations and careers to play trucks. Only their wives and mistresses know for sure

Domestic Terror Groups Running Low on Ammunition

One of the good things about the 21st Century crusades, is that occasionally, glassy-eyed, flag-sucking morons engage in combat with their lunatic Muslim counterparts, and both sides take casualties. I do fell genuine sympathy for ordinary Iraqis and Afghanis caught in the crossfire, and to a lesser degree, the Crusader mercenaries noble volunteers who are only seeking to elevate their own economic conditions and get a formal education, but it is ridiculous, after a certain point in time, to pretend that they did not know what they were getting into when they enlisted. At the risk of being branded “insensitive” the fewer “care so much about the flag or holy book that I’ll kill you” or whatever types that I have to share a planet with, the better. An imperial army, composed of slaves and/or mercenaries, is a formula that dates back to the days of Roman conquest, and like Rome and other imperial powers, the US empire is in decline, due in large part to it’s attempt to control large territories far from the Belly of its Beast.

I wince when liberals bleat about “supporting the troops”. What in the hell does that mean? I used to “support the troops” when I was paying federal taxes, but other than that, and magnetic ribbons (which support the troops in Red China), they’ve lost me. Are they guarding rear supply lines? Mending torn uniforms? Reloading ammunition? Knitting desert camouflaged I-pod covers?

Same with the “bring the troops home now”; I say leave them there. We have enough deranged cops running around as it is. The last thing us lower class folks in the US need is a bunch of shell-shocked 20 something cops, who can’t tell the difference between Sadr City and Kansas City. At least after Vietnam, they used their civil service points to work for the post office, and most of their combat took place in jungles, not urban environs. I’d take the random individual “going postal” over thousands of PTSD cases resuming their domestic role as the occupying army of Capital, as members of an increasingly militarized police force.

We have more than enough uniformed, licensed, specialists in suppression of the poor, that we should be in no hurry to subject ourselves to new ones. On a positive note, the Crusades are limiting the capacity for State terrorists to train and wage violence against US civilians.

Infighting Erupts Amongst Regional Terror Groups

Two (temporarily demoted) City detectives reacted violently, to counter the assertion that they were not “above the law” when confronted by country cops at a Toby Keith concert, of all places. They even tried to grab the uniformed terrorist’s weapon. If you or I tried that, it’s no mystery how that would have ended.

Amazingly, the City is pretending to discipline them, even stripping them of their titles, but no reduction in wages. Compare the reaction with that to the handful of murders of black civilians, committed annually.

S.W.A.T.=Social Workers Applying Terror?

This story was all over the local news last night, but alas, this was all that turned up in the morning.

Corporate media reported that the elite members of Pittsburgh’s SWAT team took a few hours from their busy schedule, terrorizing Homewood residents with their APC, to engineering a standoff with a man with an “undisclosed mental illness”.

TV news reported that the unnamed Hill District man was upset by fireworks in the parking lot of the apartment building where he lived, and began yelling and brandishing a knife. What seems like a relatively minor altercation became one of the over 1000 SWAT deployments that occur in the US every day.

The Commonwealth of PA is serious about not letting me practice medicine, but in my unprofessional opinion, there has to be a way to get people to take psych meds that doesn’t involve MP5s?