I do not like cops.
I have not liked cops since I was twelve years old.
I know this is an unpopular, and possibly dangerous, stance to take.
I know that cops are the thin blue line, and that, theoretically, they are there to protect and serve.
I know there are a lot of bad people out there motivated by ignorance, stupidity, greed, hate, insanity, the lust for power, the thrill of violence, general nastiness, and pure evil.
I must conclude that a police force is a necessary evil. But a police state is NOT.
I have heard it said (by cops as well as others) that the police are society's garbage men, cleaning up the refuse of human interaction.
This is not a case of sour grapes. Neither I, nor to my knowledge, anyone I know, have ever been the victim of police brutality.
When I first started my blog, I dealt almost exclusively with hot button political issues because in the face of NSA spying, the NDAA and AUMF, perpetual global warfare, rampant corporatism, and other Orwellian abuses by all levels of government, I felt that I had to speak out.
But for the past year, I have stayed away from such topics, focusing instead on memories (in the form of written memoirs), friendship, and love.
That being said, certain trending news items have forced me to once again take a stand.
The most egregious of these, perhaps, relates to the following headlines:
Grandma Maced By Police For Bringing Cupcakes To Granddaughter’s Classroom
Hero Maces 110 Pound, 78 Year Old Grandma Delivering Cupcakes
Grandma Takes Cupcakes to Grandkids, Gets Maced and Brutalized by Cop
Feral Cop Maces 78 Year Old Woman For Cupcakes
My sister, a former defense attorney, stopped practicing because the injustice in our justice system literally made her sick. She now devotes herself to family, friends, and community. But whenever I talk to her about these types of cases, she quickly points out that there's always more to the story than we know.
But other recent stories have compounded my decision.
Revelations of a Chicago Police Department black ops site, and the confrontation of a reporter investigating these claims by a CPD officer in green military flak jacket and balaclava.
The retaliation against a process server in Lousiana by multiple law enforcement personnel who were proved to be lying.
And the endless list goes on.
It has gone beyond the point where the argument can be made that the situation involves "a few bad apples," and most officers of the law are dedicated, conscientious, hard working defenders of people's rights and safety. It's now an orchard of rotten fruit. The problem is endemic, a worldwide blight infects law enforcement.
Further, the misdeeds of the law enforcement community are exacerbated by the culture of unaccountability in which we now live.
An officer, backed up by three fellow policemen, shoots a 95 year old man five times in the chest with a "non-lethal" beanbag shotgun, in the cafeteria of a nursing home, resulting in the World War II veteran's death. Acquitted.
An officer fatally shoots to death an unarmed teenager, sparking riots in which dozens more are killed and injured. No charges brought.
No less than six policemen and women blast a mentally ill black man FORTY-SIX times. Ruled justifiable.
A rookie cop shoots dead a twelve-year-old boy playing with a toy gun in a playground, three seconds after arriving on the scene. Officer is placed on (paid) administrative leave.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of such incidents are only a Google search away.
When I was younger, non-lethal force involved trained officers taking down suspects physically, and the most controversial aspect of excess force was the choke-hold. A police officer had to justify the drawing of his service weapon from its holster, let alone the discharge of it.
For whatever reason, officers must pay for their own uniforms. It seems as if their decisions are based on their reluctance to get them dirty.
When I was growing up we had Officer Friendly. Now we have Officer Deadly.
Grand juries serve as rubber stamps for prosecutors; judges sign illegal search warrants in secret courts; elected officials incite fear as an excuse for the militarization of local police departments.
As Commander Adama says in Battlestar Galactica:
"There's a reason you separate the military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people."
The new look of the CPD accosting a reporter outside the Homan Square "black ops" facility.
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