“Craigslist Proved My Innocence Against A Felony Charge”

A West Point graduate and former Army officer sees a woman being abused by cops.   He hollers to tell them stop. He video-records the cops.  The cops rough him up, arrest him and charge him with a felony.

He advertises on Craigslist for anyone who witnessed the event and, amazingly, someone replies who also video’d the same event.  That second video causes the grand jury to refuse to indict him for a felony.  He becomes involved in the “Peaceful Streets” project that, in part, encourages people to carry cameras for the principle purpose of video-recording cops while they stop, arrest and sometimes abuse, private people.  Peaceful Streets has now spread to several other cities.

This remarkable video doesn’t merely show how a man avoided being charged with a felony.  It shows how all of us can help curb the police state by simply using cellphone cameras to routinely record police activities.  We live in a surveillance society.  There’s no reason why cops should be exempt from that surveillance. When the cops know that they may be being video-recorded at virtually every moment they’re on duty, their inclination to abuse people will be inhibited and their conduct should improve dramatically.

Applause, applause!

video     00:06:39

 

Cops: America’s Baddest Street Gang?

Warning sign for police brutality. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This video below is infuriating.  It’s a collection of video-shorts on police violence.

But, these video-shorts have been “cherry-picked” to support the contention that the America’s police have become increasingly prone to committing violence against innocent Americans.  And there seems to be no doubt that the cops are dangerous to the people.  But how dangerous?  Is the growing volume of video evidence of police abuse simply the unfortunate result of a plethora of video cameras on the streets that record and post only the very rare instances of police abuse, or are the “pigs” really running wild?

•  Most Americans believe it’s tough being a cop.  Cops are portrayed as working in a dangerous world where they might be shot and killed at any moment by “bad guys”.   And they’re all heroes, of course.  So we need to give ‘em a little latitude whenever they go off the rails. After all, the stress of their highly dangerous profession could drive any of us off the edge from time to time, right?

 

The Police State is Here

Smash Fascism Vector Sticker (Photo credit: Vectorportal)

Actually, as this A.D. 2012 video illustrates, the American Police State has been here for some time–probably three or more decades.

What’s really new now, is undeniable evidence that the Police State is real.

What’s really new now, is growing public awareness that we really do live in the world’s biggest Police State–and that Police State is growing.

It’s the public awareness that’ll make a difference.  If the awareness grows dramatically, we may be able to stop the fascists running our Police State.  If the awareness fails to grow quickly and sufficiently, The United States of America may be doomed.  We are on a collision course with the fascists in our national and global government.

 

“When Should You Shoot A Cop?”

Larken Rose

Larken Rose has struggled against the government for a decade or more.  His resistance initially focused on the IRS and caused him to be imprisoned for several years.

Since his release, his determination to resist government oppression is not only undeterred, it’s enhanced.

Here’s a video by Larken that may make you squirm.  The video’s title (“When Should You Shoot A Cop”) is beyond any concept of political correctness.  The title is shocking and poses a question that most Americans are afraid to ask let alone consider.

I suspect that Laken’s question may inspire fear in most Americans.  I also suspect that if our reluctance to confront the question is inspired by our fear of the police and “official oppression,” then our reluctance is evidence of how important it is that the question be openly asked, considered and answered.

 

Fear Feeds the Police State

james spader from boston legal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The following video is an excerpt from the TV series “Boston Legal”.  It was produced in A.D. 2006.

There’s a profound lesson in this video:  The police state is not growing based on government’s aggression against its nation’s people; it’s growing based on the peoples’ apathy, indifference and cowardice.

The government doesn’t push around simply because it is powerful and assertive.  It pushes us around because most Americans are too apathetic, indifferent and cowardly to resist.

Our cowardice invites oppression.  Thus, we are the primary cause for the police state.  In the same sense that nature abhors a vacuum, society abhors an absence of courage.  A people who’ve lost the will to fight naturally attract a police state just as surely as sheep attract wolves.

video

00:05:15

 

Ten Rules for Dealing with the “Po-Lice”

Police Encounter (Photo credit: Huzefa Mogri Photography)

I dislike some elements of this video because it seems to be conditioning all of us to be cooperative “house niggers” when we confront the police/massas.  It teaches people to be somewhat docile and overly polite, even when the police are unreasonable.  It’s tough to keep your cool when you feel your rights have been ignored or violated.  But the video says we must do so as the first requirement for dealing with a police encounter.

The video is right.  My instinct is wrong.  As much as I might like to give the officer a “piece of my mind,” it’s probably better to stay calm, make no aggressive “rants”–and take the time to sue the S.O.B. at some later date.

 

The Pigs are out of their Effing Minds

Riot part 2 (Photo credit: interrobang)

Last week, on one of my radio shows, I commented on summertime riots being as American as baseball, apple pie and motherhood–and wondered why we hadn’t seen any riots yet his summer.  The weather’s hot, tempers are short, and lots of people are unemployed.  Circumstances seemed conducive to rioting.  And yet, I couldn’t see or “feel” any predisposition in the society to have a riot.  Despite the nation’s economic stress, everyone seems to be staying pretty cool.

Of course, I was expecting blacks or Hispanics to riot.  I hadn’t even imagined that some members of another another minority–the police–might riot.  Silly me.

 

Police Handcuff Children

Cartoon of students receiving the cane, 1888 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I just read an article entitled “10 Disgusting Examples of Very Young School Children being Arrested, Handcuffed and Brutalized by Police“.  The instances presented are gross and infuriating.

For example,

“At an elementary school in Baltimore recently, three nine-year-old girls and an eight-year-old boy were arrested for fighting and marched out of their elementary school in handcuffs. The police department is defending handcuffing these kids….  ”It’s our policy, regardless of age, when a suspect is arrested by police, they’re handcuffed.  And the reason is just not for the suspect’s safety but also for the officers’ safety.”

I’ve been handcuffed a time or two, and I’ve never felt that my “safety” was somehow enhanced.  The idea that anyone is handcuffed for their own safety is absurd.  We are handcuffed to protect the police or others, not ourselves.

But the idea that a child should be handcuffed for the officer’s safety strikes me as ridiculous.  There are instances reported that claim a 40-pound child was handcuffed, that a 5-year old was handcuffed.  Why?  For the officer’s safety?!  Are we to believe that our “storm troopers” are intimidated by 5-year olds?   If the cops are legitimately afraid of 5 and 10 year old kids, this country is truly screwed.

 

Warrants?! We Don’ Nee’ No Stinkin’ Warrants! (Unless We’re on Video)

Image via Wikipedia

Here’s an interesting little video of a police officer stopping someone for speeding, asking for permission to search his vehicle for drugs, and being refused that permission unless he produces a warrant to search.  The cop goes ballistic.  I mean bal-lis-TIC!  

The cop’s rage is kinda comical.

Nevertheless, the cop does let the guy go without a speeding ticket or a search of his vehicle.

Why?

Two possible answers:

1) The cop may not like the law in the least, but he still respects it.  I.e., no matter how much the cop wanted to search the car, he knew the driver was right and a search could not lawfully proceed without the driver’s permission or, failing that, a warrant signed by a judge.  The driver refused permission.  No judge was available.  The cop could not lawfully search.

2)  The cop knew that the entire stop was being recorded on his dash-cam.  Therefore, as much as the cop might like to beat the crap out of the driver who dared to ask for a warrant, he couldn’t proceed violently and/or illegally so long as “big brother” (the gov-co) was watching “little brother” (the cop) on video.

I’ll bet the answer is #2.  As pissed as that cop was, the driver of the vehicle escaped an ass-whoopin’ thanks to the dash-cam on the cop’s cruiser.

 

More on Psychopaths

Image by Adam Crowe via Flickr

In his article “How All Government Systematically Destroys Peace & Prosperity,” David A. McElroy observed that “positions of power attract psychopaths”.  In other words, psychopaths are irresistibly drawn to those high positions in government and corporations.  McElroy’s observation is certainly true.

But what I’ve suggested in my article “Identifying Psychopaths” is that “positions of power” don’t merely attract psychopaths, but inevitably create psychopaths.  Put a decent man in a position of power, and see how long it takes him to become psychopathic.  It’s been observed for centuries that if you want to test a man’s character, give him power and see if he can resist the impulse to degenerate into something bestial.

And what is a position of power?  It’s evidence that a lot of people–subordinates and dependents–have consented to be led and controlled by some superior.  A position of power exists when hundreds, thousands or millions of people not only surrender their power to some single “leader,” but also surrender their responsibilities to individually decide and choose what is best.  A position of power exists in one man by virtue of many other people surrendering both their individual power and their individual responsibility to choose–and if necessary, fight.