Lucille
11-21-2011, 09:20 AM
Decaying into a Police State (http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=25278)
The process is sadly well under way. And I am throwing in the towel on the American people for ushering in the police state. I’m not going to bother cataloging all the recent behavior, authoritative use of violence, lying rhetoric, or even to define what is a police state. The line of events, from the patriot acts, the department of homeland security, the groping of children and senior citizens at airports, the wiretaps, rendition and torture, the expansion of wars and assassinations, up to the suppression of Occupation Wall Street protests, are part of the historic record. As is the blatant serial betrayal and misuse of trust, granted the political leaders and perversely twisted against us, most obviously with wars and bailouts, as prequel to the inevitable misuse of trust in the police state the public had granted, and will have used against them down the future line. No police state in history has ever acted otherwise, and the American one will not be the first.
A police state in the USA can only take hold with the acquiescence of the people. That prerequisite has been met. Most recently reconfirmed with the acceptance of police violence in several cities, inflicted upon OWS protesters. Acceptance being the absence of tens of thousands of citizens in the streets, demanding arrest and prosecution of the police officers who committed violence. But like the bankers, mortgage brokers and other criminals, these have gone un-investigated and uncharged. The number of American people demanding justice is miniscule.
[...]
There is exactly one force and one force alone that can stop or reverse the erosion of freedom by authorities. The people. The masses of people. Because left to their own devices, those in power will always choose control over freedom. And they have been left to their own devices too much for too long.
The suckers who still vote had no trouble re-electing all the clowns who extended the patriot act. Even so-called ‘tea party’ candidates who liked the idea of government security powers, voted ‘yes’ and got returned to congress. The percentage of people who are not troubled by squads of riot-gear clad thugs swinging batons on peaceful protesters. That is what counts. That is the one and only way the police state growing and festering in the United States of America can possibly continue.
If the American people allow it.
[...]
The turning upside down of the rule of law in the USA had been just some people are immune to the law, and can steal billions. While the rest of us suffer irrational punishment for petty theft or possession of a joint. Now, people completely in compliance with the law, and following police commands are arrested and charged. Not just upside down, but completely twisted and distorted. Of course a police captain is not charged with assault when he pepper-sprays two women doing exactly as they are told; but they are charged with resisting, disturbing, hell, they’ll probably have to pay for the pepper spray.
Whether OWS fades away (I doubt it) or grows and thrives (I think likely for several months, but the suppressors will just ramp up their violence and bullshit) is not what I am talking about. Irrelevant.
The quiet acceptance by millions of Americans (and active approval by millions more Americans) of the suppression of political dissent, with violence, has convinced me. The decay into a police state is not gonna stop. A done deal. I’m crying ‘uncle’; throwing in the fucking towel; invoking the mercy rule; no mas, por favor.
It doesn’t matter what your personal definition of a ‘police state’ may be. A reasonable definition can be applied today and has been by some friends and pundits. Doesn’t matter.
Even if the economic catastrophe hits this Monday morning, and causes the slumbering masses of America to wake up and smell the reality, it is too late. The mentality of the American people has already allowed the advancement on the road to a police state to go too far. The trend toward sacrificing freedom for the (bullshit) promise of security can’t be reversed or undone by anything short of millions of people in the street in opposition. And those millions ain’t gonna take to the streets until they are starving; and that battle will be unnecessarily more difficult and more bloody because we let the enemy arm themselves so well (on our dime). And gave them ample time to practice.
Sure, I can still write this, without risking arrest and punishment today. We ain’t there yet by my definition. But that dude who the other day said out loud what a Molotov cocktail can do to a crowded Macy’s store wouldn’t have been arrested and punished for those exact words in the exact same context ten years ago. A 2004 protest of a hundred thousand people in New York City against the Iraq war or the republican convention was met with less violence than an encampment of 200 people in 2011. Shit has changed significantly, rapidly, and irreversibly. Until people wake up.
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
--H. L. Mencken
Too bad we all get the Welfare-Warfare-Police State they deserve.
The process is sadly well under way. And I am throwing in the towel on the American people for ushering in the police state. I’m not going to bother cataloging all the recent behavior, authoritative use of violence, lying rhetoric, or even to define what is a police state. The line of events, from the patriot acts, the department of homeland security, the groping of children and senior citizens at airports, the wiretaps, rendition and torture, the expansion of wars and assassinations, up to the suppression of Occupation Wall Street protests, are part of the historic record. As is the blatant serial betrayal and misuse of trust, granted the political leaders and perversely twisted against us, most obviously with wars and bailouts, as prequel to the inevitable misuse of trust in the police state the public had granted, and will have used against them down the future line. No police state in history has ever acted otherwise, and the American one will not be the first.
A police state in the USA can only take hold with the acquiescence of the people. That prerequisite has been met. Most recently reconfirmed with the acceptance of police violence in several cities, inflicted upon OWS protesters. Acceptance being the absence of tens of thousands of citizens in the streets, demanding arrest and prosecution of the police officers who committed violence. But like the bankers, mortgage brokers and other criminals, these have gone un-investigated and uncharged. The number of American people demanding justice is miniscule.
[...]
There is exactly one force and one force alone that can stop or reverse the erosion of freedom by authorities. The people. The masses of people. Because left to their own devices, those in power will always choose control over freedom. And they have been left to their own devices too much for too long.
The suckers who still vote had no trouble re-electing all the clowns who extended the patriot act. Even so-called ‘tea party’ candidates who liked the idea of government security powers, voted ‘yes’ and got returned to congress. The percentage of people who are not troubled by squads of riot-gear clad thugs swinging batons on peaceful protesters. That is what counts. That is the one and only way the police state growing and festering in the United States of America can possibly continue.
If the American people allow it.
[...]
The turning upside down of the rule of law in the USA had been just some people are immune to the law, and can steal billions. While the rest of us suffer irrational punishment for petty theft or possession of a joint. Now, people completely in compliance with the law, and following police commands are arrested and charged. Not just upside down, but completely twisted and distorted. Of course a police captain is not charged with assault when he pepper-sprays two women doing exactly as they are told; but they are charged with resisting, disturbing, hell, they’ll probably have to pay for the pepper spray.
Whether OWS fades away (I doubt it) or grows and thrives (I think likely for several months, but the suppressors will just ramp up their violence and bullshit) is not what I am talking about. Irrelevant.
The quiet acceptance by millions of Americans (and active approval by millions more Americans) of the suppression of political dissent, with violence, has convinced me. The decay into a police state is not gonna stop. A done deal. I’m crying ‘uncle’; throwing in the fucking towel; invoking the mercy rule; no mas, por favor.
It doesn’t matter what your personal definition of a ‘police state’ may be. A reasonable definition can be applied today and has been by some friends and pundits. Doesn’t matter.
Even if the economic catastrophe hits this Monday morning, and causes the slumbering masses of America to wake up and smell the reality, it is too late. The mentality of the American people has already allowed the advancement on the road to a police state to go too far. The trend toward sacrificing freedom for the (bullshit) promise of security can’t be reversed or undone by anything short of millions of people in the street in opposition. And those millions ain’t gonna take to the streets until they are starving; and that battle will be unnecessarily more difficult and more bloody because we let the enemy arm themselves so well (on our dime). And gave them ample time to practice.
Sure, I can still write this, without risking arrest and punishment today. We ain’t there yet by my definition. But that dude who the other day said out loud what a Molotov cocktail can do to a crowded Macy’s store wouldn’t have been arrested and punished for those exact words in the exact same context ten years ago. A 2004 protest of a hundred thousand people in New York City against the Iraq war or the republican convention was met with less violence than an encampment of 200 people in 2011. Shit has changed significantly, rapidly, and irreversibly. Until people wake up.
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
--H. L. Mencken
Too bad we all get the Welfare-Warfare-Police State they deserve.