Sunday, May 1, 2011

May Day, Haymarket and the FOP

On May 4, 1886 an agent provocateur, most likely a member of the Pinkerton's (The Blackwater of the 19th century), lobbed a bomb at a labor rally, at Haymarket Square, which killed a Police Officer and started a riot in which 11 more people lost their lives.

125 years ago Police Officers could be counted on by the Plutocracy to beat, shoot, arrest and disrupt pro-Union demonstrations. They were the buffer, as Howard Zinn put it, The Guards of the System.

Today the Plutocracy has continued it's string of victories over the American People. However, the Kleptocrats can no longer count on their traditional Guards to defend their Rich Privilege and they have thus turned to the Republican and Democratic Parties.

With very few exceptions elected politicians can be counted on to enact legislation which aids, succors and provides comfort to the Rich Kleptocrats. Again as the late great Howard Zinn, artfully identified the enemy of the American People;
the Establishment-that uneasy club of business executives, generals, and politicos.
In the past the Establishment, the Kleptocrats, have been content to take a significant portion of America's Wealth but now, thanks mainly to Republicans, they find themselves in a position to hold a Majority of the Wealth of this Nation.

So, the Police who were once counted on to defend the Plutocrats have turned. FOP members and I stood shoulder to shoulder with our Wisconsin brother officers and with fellow Unions members up north.

The Fraternal Order of Police recognizes an attack when they see one. Once expected to bust up Unions, keep minorities and immigrants in their place and ensure the transfer of Wealth to the Rich Klepocrats, Police Officers are now counted amongst the class of people the Establishment wishes to marginalize and oppress.
Your law-enforcement training and experience have taught you how to protect yourself, your fellow officers, and citizens from criminals. Some of those criminals want nothing more than to do harm to an officer. You know to be on your guard, ready to act, and to do what is necessary to protect yourself and others.

Nothing in your formal training has prepared you for the new attack that we are facing as law enforcement officers. Now the criminals are not the only ones that want fewer officers on the streets. Now the criminals are joined by politicians in State capitols across the country. These politicians are doing what criminals everywhere have long hoped for; they are shrinking police forces, putting fewer officers on the streets, and undermining the safety of the officers left on the front lines.

Your job is on the line. Your pension is on the line. Your salary is on the line. Your safety is on the line. You must be on the front line defending your rights against these attacks.

Are you ready to act? Are you ready to protect yourself and your fellow officers? Are you ready to defend your family?

You have been targeted. You have been blamed for the financial crisis. You will be a victim of government mismanagement and scapegoating if you don't fight back.
But, while the filth-ridden Republican scum Governor's Scott Walker, Rick Snyder, Rick Scott, Jon Kasich, Chris Christie are clearly enemies of America they are merely hired foot soliders, akin to Iraqi Republican Guards, while the Koch Brothers are the Uday and Qusay Husseins of America.

And the Uday and Qusay Koch Brothers want more. Thus the attack on Public Employees. It is but one of their sorties against the American People. One of the tactics the Establishment is using to reduce the American People to frightened Wage Slaves.

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