Thursday, January 17, 2008

What's The Point Of having A 'Police State' If the Cops Can't ACT Like It's A Police State?


Recently, apparently acting on a tip, police invaded a home in Lima, Ohio, whereupon the killed a woman in the house, and seriously wounded the infant she was holding when they shot her. The blogger "Stephen Crane" on MLW put it this way:
(A) Lima , Ohio SWAT team invad(ed) the home of 26 year old Tarika Wilson, an innocent woman whom they shot and killed. The trigger happy cops also shot the index finger off of Sincere Wilson, her 13 month old son, whom Tarika was holding in her arms when they murdered her. Tarika Wilson also had her other 5 children ages 1 to 8 home during the deadly raid. Police arrested her boyfriend on a charge of suspicion of possession of crack cocaine & marijuana. The cops also used a stun hand grenade during the raid even though they were fully aware her children were in the home.
Thom Hartmann frequently quotes the statistic that there are at least ONE MILLION police home-invasions in the USofA every year, the vast majority of which are putatively conducted in pursuit of 'drugs.' I was being (obviously, I hope) snarky when I replied:
I don't see the problem here. (0.00 / 0)
(Rightard 'sincerity):
Somebody in that house was apparently breaking the law.
This is a nation of laws, nest paw?
For the law to function, it must be respected.
If it takes occasional violent demonstrations--particularly against 'brown' people, who are notoriously disrespectful of the "law"--to instill respect for the law, then how is that problematic for democracy?

/Rightard 'sincerity'
Drug prohibition has worked astonishingly well at what it was designed to do: marginalizing and criminalizing drug "abusers." And everybody who uses an 'illegal' drug is an 'abuser.' By definition. Plus they're breaking the law. It's the 'perfect storm' solution to keeping the uppity folks in their places, and preventing them from participating... With a drug bust on the record, almost every option for a non-criminal existence is closed to you. Which perpetuates the culture of 'crime,' which keeps the jails full, the guards employed, the testers churning out their improbably expensive tests, and the cops confiscating 'drug-related' property.

See, it's win-win!
The War On Drugs is a war against the kinds of resistance that are emblazoned in the drug culture. Any drug "abuser" is always already suspect for other 'crimes.'

BTW: The gif at the top of the page came off the homepage of the Lima, OH, SWAT Team. Make of that what you will.

No comments: