Week of 08/18/2014

The Juntas Next Door
– by David Matthews 2

In the movie “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”, the command crew of the Starship Enterprise are coerced into travelling to a strange planet by a self-professed religious leader who claimed to have been led there “by God”.  Not long after they arrive, they are met with the supposed divine being who demands that the Enterprise take him off the planet and past the “Great Barrier” so he can “share his wisdom” across the cosmos.

Although everyone there is eager to help, it’s Captain Kirk - the lone skeptic of the crowd - that asks a simple question that deflates the whole idea.

“What does God need with a starship?”

A simple question that exposes the being for what it really is.

I have been forced to ask a similar question when it comes to recent events here in the supposedly “Land of the Free”.

“What does a suburban police department need with a tank?”

I have been disturbed and disgusted by the sight of police in Ferguson, Missouri, responding to protests with full-on jackbooted military equipment, complete with armored personnel vehicles. 

This comes just weeks after an infant was critically burned by police here in the Atlanta area when a flash-bang grenade was thrown into his crib.  The police were executing a no-knock warrant in the middle of the night and claimed that they had no idea that a baby was in the room when they tossed in the explosive device.  The police here seem to have a perverse fetish for this kind of action, though, given the number of tragedies that have come out of them using and abusing the “no-knock warrants”. 

The police in Doraville, Georgia, were recently hard-pressed to explain a video of their training exercises featuring them in full military equipment and riding around in an armored transport vehicle straight from the Department of Defense.

In western Keene, New Hampshire, where the greatest threat to the peace of the local community is a rampaging moose, the mayor proudly boasted the purchase of Bearcat armored personnel vehicle by saying “We’re going to have our own tank!” This is the state that still has “Live Free or Die” on its license plates!

Bear in mind that this is not something that just manifested itself overnight.  This is something that has been building up and brewing for years now.  Local police officers, drunk on power and offers of free weapons from the Pentagon, have been getting millions in surplus military equipment; the same kind of equipment used by our military to overthrow third-world dictators like Saddam Hussein and Manuel Noriega.

We can’t even blame this jackboot fetish on 9/11!  This federal program of militarizing our local police actually began in the 1990’s, fresh from the “glories” of the Gulf War.  But it is the fear-mongering drive to fascism after 9/11 that transformed the Pentagon into a reckless war supplier that would make a Batman supervillain caw in delight.

Now, folks, my father was both a police officer and a state trooper.  I worked with police departments both as part of the Police Explorer program and later in private security.  I have a Bachelor’s degree in criminal justice by one of the best colleges in the country.  And yet I cannot help but to be disgusted by the actions of the various police departments over the years.  While it is the GOP and their conservative and neo-conservative brethren that have been nudging this country down the path of Mussolini-style fascism, it’s the gang-style mindset of the police departments that have been giving that drive a full military-style escort, complete with equipment paid for by very taxpayers they are pointing their weapons at.

Let’s get brutally honest here… this is America we’re talking about!  This is not Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, the Gaza Strip, Libya, Somalia, or the Ukraine.  We’re supposed to be the country to goes after third-world junta leaders, not arming the wannabe-junta leaders in our own neighborhoods!  We’re supposed to be better than this!  We’re supposed to be cracking down on gangs and organized crime bosses, not becoming them with badges.  We’re supposed to represent individual freedom, not serve as the how-to book for repression.

I know that there is an effort in Congress to walk us back from this rabid militarization.  But given the political party of the people backing that effort, I know that this will be for naught.  Like I said, the GOP and their conservative and neo-conservative supporters have been nudging us down the path to fascism for years now, and they certainly will not allow the Democrats or even the libertarians to spoil their plans for one-party domination.

I want to believe that the bulk of police officers in America are decent, honorable people.  For a significant part of my growing years, my late father was one of those people.  Yes, he made enemies doing his job, and in a few instances I had to pay the price of that.  But none of it would ever justify betraying the very things that he was supposed to protect.  I want to believe that many men and women who put on a badge every day are like that.

But to see images in Ferguson of police acting more like the Egyptian Army, and essentially violating the Posse Comitatus Act; of hearing reports of police throwing explosive devices into baby cribs in the middle of the night and shooting elderly ladies; of hearing about people being arrested in their own back yards for video-taping the police doing their jobs, and even I have to wonder just what sort of a country we have become to have this go on while we waste billions in taxpayer monies overthrowing the junta leaders around the world.

What does a suburban community in the supposed “Land of the Free” need with a tank, indeed!

Week of 11/02/2015

They’re Still Our Dogs
– by David Matthews 2

When I was a young child, someone broke into our home.

My father worked as both a police officer and also at the local shipyard building subs.  He made plenty of enemies during his time, and one of them decided to pay us a visit.  My sister and I were not harmed, and we didn’t even know about what happened until after the fact.

But the incident convinced my father that we needed a guard dog.  Our current dog, which my parents got when I was born, was a loyal protector, and did her best to help fend off the intruder, but she wasn’t strong enough.  We were loaned a German Shepherd for a while, but that was only until the eminent threat was gone.

We got a Doberman puppy which we named Knight.  It was believed that Knight would be the kind of guardian dog that would deter anyone from bringing trouble our way.

Keep in mind that this was the 1970’s, and Dobermans were the pit bulls of the day, especially after the release of “The Omen” movies.  They were sleek, black, and seemingly bred for violence.

That’s great for being guard dogs.

But it’s also bad for a family with young children.

Knight proved himself to be a real nightmare... for us.  He snapped at people.  He charged at myself and my sister.  He destroyed anything he could get his jaws around, especially shoes, clothes, pillows, and our cherished stuffed animals.

And remember that my sister and I were young children at the time!

The final blow came when Knight lay in hiding and then charged at my little sister.  At that point we realized that we couldn’t keep him anymore.  He wasn’t a guard dog anymore.  He was a menace.  He was a threat.  And we had to give him up before he caused any more problems.

That wasn’t the last time we had a dog in the family, but it was the only time that we had a pet that we had to give up.  It also pretty much cemented my preference for cats.  And I know from experience that cats can be just as protective as dogs, even if they don’t look it.

And it wasn’t an easy decision to make then.  We didn’t want to give the dog up.  He was cute and he was young, and when he wasn’t being a menace, he was playful.  But my little sister lived in fear of Knight after that incident, and that was no way to live.

Every time I see some news report about abusive police officers, I think back to those days with Knight.

Look, I get it.  We don’t want to hear about cops behaving worse than the criminals.  We’d rather hear about the cops that do good things for the people in need.  We want to hear about the cop that stops a shoplifting mother and then buys groceries for her and her family because they need it, not about the cop that pulls a girl to the classroom floor and drags her like an animal carcass before handcuffing her because she supposedly “deserved” it.

Like I said before, my father was a police officer.  I worked with police officers.  I have a degree in criminal justice from one of the best colleges in the country.  If not for some physical complications, I probably would have been a cop.  So I really don’t want to be hearing about cops acting like a bunch of junta thugs.

I’m also not a big fan of the “Black Lives Matter” crowd right now because of their recent actions.  Look, I understand that you want to be heard.  You want to get your point across, and it sometimes feels like nobody cares.  You’re not the first person with this problem.  Talk to the “Occupy” crowd if you don’t believe me.  But storming the stage and taking over speeches of the people that would otherwise be on your side is definitely not the way to do it!

But do you know what I’m also really sick and tired of hearing?  All of the pompous, self-righteous, self-serving police sycophants that beat their chests and scream “Cops lives matter too!”  All you people are doing is feeding the extremist bunker mentality that has been slowly growing within the ranks of law enforcement.  You’ve turned the “thin blue line” into a six-mile war trench, and reinforced the siege mentality that says that there are no rules for cops, that anything is fair game, and that the ends always justify the means.  No, quite often the victims of these very public instances of police abuse are not “saints”.  But does that still justify what is done to them?

Ask yourself this question: if you ended up on the business end of that nightstick, how would you want to be treated?  Don’t think it won’t happen to you?  There are two reporters that were arrested and subject to police abuse in Ferguson whose only crimes were sitting in a restaurant and reporting on the protests as a part of their jobs.  There have been people arrested for the “crime” of sitting on their own porch at their own homes and recording police officers doing their jobs across the street.  Still don’t think that it can be you on the business end of that nightstick?

Let’s get brutally honest here... we need to accept the reality that these police officers are our “dogs”.  We pay for them.  We train them.  We arm them.  And much like that little Doberman my family used to have, we expect them to be our protectors and our friends.  We expect them to go after the “bad guys” but to also “serve and protect”.

And much like that little dog my family used to have, when our taxpayer-funded “dogs” get out of control, it is our responsibility to deal with them.  If they can’t be controlled, then they need to be removed.  It is that simple.

This is what we expect when it comes to dog owners.  We hold them responsible when they can’t keep their dogs under control.  Not all dogs are bad or out-of-control.  A lot of them are caring and loving and loyal.  But every instance of them attacking and mauling and killing people, especially children, poisons the faith and trust we have with them.  That’s what happened to German Shepherds and Dobermans in the past, and, now, of course, pit bulls are under public scrutiny.

Likewise, as I’ve said in a previous article on the subject, I’d like to think that most cops are good and decent.  They want to make a difference.  They want to help out their fellow man.  Unfortunately, every publicized instance of their good deeds are negated by the abuses.  And with the overabundance of digital cameras on cellphones and tablets, and the access to online social media to host those videos almost instantaneously, there really is no alternative.  I want to hear more about the good things they do and less of the abuses.  But that’s entirely up to the police and their sycophants.

Granted, cops aren’t dogs.  And that actually makes it worse, because at least when the dog crosses the line, we don’t really blame it.  We blame the dog’s owner.  Cops, on the other hand, are human beings, which means they are supposed to know better.  We’re paying for them to be trained to not only know better but to actually do better.  We should expect to see that in how they do their jobs, not see that our tax money is being spent in vain.

Week of 12/08/2014

Kangaroo Court Injustice
– by David Matthews 2

There is nothing more infuriating to this commentator than to see injustice prevail.

Remember the end of the original “Robocop” movie? (Spoiler alert if you never saw it.)  Our cybernetic hero won.  He defeated all of the bad guys that originally killed him.  He destroyed the “prototype” police unit that was sent to stop him.  And then he burst into the boardroom of the big corporation, confronted the corporate executive that ordered it all, and not only convinced the CEO to fire him, but then was able to kill the “Big Bad Boss” to save the day.  Justice prevailed.

Then they did “Robocop 2”.  And how did that end?  Well, the cybernetic hero was able to somehow end a police strike, shut down a drug cartel, and eventually take down both the “successor” police unit that was supposed to replace him and the psychopath leader that tried to kill him.  But now the “Big Bad Boss” responsible for it all doesn’t get their just desert.  Because now the “Big Bad Boss” isn’t just a power-mad executive… now it’s a whole board of executives.  And they all get to ride off into the sunset in their stretch limousine.  Justice did not prevail in that instance.  But we were told to simply accept that.

This is why the sequel left this viewer with a bitter feeling; because justice was not served by the end of the movie.  The real perpetrators of the misery were free to keep committing crimes against civilization.

Fast-forward to today.

America is still reeling from two decisions made just a few weeks apart that prove there is no justice in this country.

The first was in Fergusson, when a grand jury refused to indict a white police officer for killing an unarmed black man in the middle of the street.  The initial news of the killing caused riots and nationwide protests and exposed the scary reality that the idea of the “Jackbooted Thug” is no longer just a metaphor, but a real one driving military vehicles courtesy of the Pentagon. 

The grand jury’s “no true bill” decision sparked even more riots and protests across the nation, and what surprised me was that the power in power gave a half-assed thought about this kind of reaction.  Seriously, people-in-power, did you actually expect the African-American community to simply accept the decision like the good little peons you treat us all as?

And, really, we all should have known this specific decision was coming, because the longer the grand jury process dragged on, the more likely they were trying to make the whole thing go away.  Justice delayed is justice denied.  Then came the “rumors” prior to that decision being made that the officer in question was going to be retired.  That’s another sign.  And then the coup-de-gras that he had just gotten married just within days of the decision should have been a screaming red flag that he was going to get away with his actions.

Then came the script.  The newspaper editorials regurgitated the script that declared the officer being “vindicated” and “cleared” when that was not the case at all.  That’s not even how the grand jury system works!  But the truth is irrelevant.  Facts are immaterial.  It’s the god-dammed almighty Orwellian script that matters, doesn’t it?  All hail the almighty government and the status quo it protects.  Bow down and give praise.

I have my doubts about some of the events as the officer in question described them.  The idea of a big guy somehow making his way through the window of a patrol vehicle to wrestle for an officer’s gun located on the far side of the officer’s body – assuming it was holstered at the time – is logistically questionable.  And I know this because I’m a big guy and I’ve owned and driven a police vehicle (albeit a “retired” one).

But then comes the second decision, this time challenging even common sense.

A New York City grand jury refused to bring charges against a white police officer for killing an unarmed black male.  But this time it wasn’t by a gun.  This time he was strangled by the officer, who came up behind him and put him in an apparent chokehold.  This is a move that the NYPD supposedly outlawed their officers using back in 1993!

What made this particular decision even more disgusting was that this killing was done on video!  There was actual video footage from start to finish of the officer putting the chokehold on the unarmed large male, forcing him to the ground, and keeping the chokehold on him even when he was trying to get out that he could not breathe.

This is evidence that you’re not supposed to be able to beat!  No amount of fiction is supposed to trump video.

And yet somehow the grand jury was able to ignore what they saw and allowed the officer to get away with murder.  Not only that, but they turned around and indicted the man who videotaped the whole thing!  Talk about shooting the messenger!  This is the kind of retaliation you would expect from third world warlord, not from one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world!

Now it would be painfully easy to say that this was simply a matter of race.  Both instances involved white officers and black victims.  But I suspect there’s more than just race behind these gross abuses of power and a systemic refusal to bring justice.

Remember the case I mentioned during the whole Ferguson fiasco of the Habersham County Deputies that lobbed a flash-bang grenade into a baby crib and severely scarred and burned the 19-month-old boy inside?  This past October, that county’s grand jury also refused to bring one single criminal charge against the officers involved.  They recklessly lobbed an explosive device into a baby crib, permanently scarred an infant, and saddled the parents with millions of dollars of medical costs, and not one single person will be held to account for it!

Let’s get brutally honest here… what we are facing is not a matter of race.  It is a matter of local governments operating like third world juntas – complete with taxpayer-funded military vehicles and military weapons – and using the grand jury system like a reverse Kangaroo Court to whitewash the criminal activities committed by their own.

The grand jury is not some alternative court system.  It is a tool of the prosecutor.  In other words, it is a tool of the government.  It is supposed to be used to gauge how strong the prosecutor’s case would be, and to give the pretense that whatever case the prosecutor makes is not “personal”.  But it is the prosecutor’s show from start to finish.  They decide what evidence the grand jury gets to consider.  They set the parameters for the grand jury.  And in over 99% of the time, the prosecutor gets the indictment that they want.  It is the reason why there is the old saying that a grand jury could indict a ham sandwich.

So to have three separate grand juries from three different parts of the country issue “no true bills” involving gross abuses of government power that left people dead or maimed should be a statistical impossibility… unless they were designed to further aid and abet the criminal actions.

Failure to indict is not the same as an acquittal in an actual court of law.  It is not a vindication.  It is a sign of incompetence by the prosecutor.  If they can’t get what they want in a rigged procedure designed to rubber-stamp their intentions, then it is because they did not want it in the first place.

Damned be the editors and talking heads that further try to aid and abet these criminal agents of the government that pretend to “educate” the masses that are already angry by these decisions.  Damned be the overpaid personalities that scream bloody murder when professional athletes show silent and peaceful support for those protesting the aiding and abetting of these criminal acts.  Not only do they all fail American civics, they fail American history!  America itself would not have existed if not for people standing up against the gross abuses of government.

Even worse is that people expect the federal government to somehow step up and do what the local governments refused to do.  This is the same federal government and the same prosecutors that aided and abetted the biggest criminals in this country, the “Too Big to Fail” banks!  Do you honestly expect Attorney General Eric Holder, who brokered sweetheart deals for banking criminals, to suddenly channel the ghost of Robert Kennedy?  Keep dreaming.

No, justice was not served in Fergusson or in New York City or in Habersham County.  Injustice rules the day.  And injustice will continue to rule the day as long as those in power refuse to do the right thing and are not held to account for their actions.  Be mad about that!  Be angry!  But more importantly, use that rage to hold those accountable, because it is clear that the system will refuse to on its own.