Friday, January 6, 2012

The Thinner Blue Line

173 officers were killed in line of duty in 2011. It's a sad time for those families of the Officers killed. It's also a sad time for the Image and Reputation for Police Officers and Departments.

The viscous, unconstitutional criminal oppression of OWS and the #Occupy Movement in New York, Oakland, Richmond, Albany, Boston and numerous other cities has once again put police officers into conflict with the 99%. Of course, this is precisely what the 1% want and expect. The 1% have always sought to use Police Departments and Individual Officers to fragment and divide. The Plutocracy also sees the quelling Domestic Dissent as the only legitimate Role of Police Officers.

Police Officers have once again found themselves placed in the role of Oppressor of the Poor in Service of the Rich. The Plutocracy has created an Economic and Political Model out-of-touch and unresponsive to the 99%. The Government is in service (and has been for a long time) to the Very Rich and their Multi-National Corporate Monsters.

Do you think any Police Departments are investigating BP over it's criminal negligence from the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Disaster? Do you think Detectives are investigating BP for the continual dumping of Mercury and various other toxic chemicals into Lake Michigan from their Whiting Indiana Plant? No Police Officers are tasked with keeping poor people in line.

There are other problems with Policing in America, as detailed in the Department of Justice Investigation of the Seattle Police Department, which found
"that SPD engages in a pattern or practice of using unnecessary or excessive force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Section 14141.” The DOJ Executive Summary states, "Deficiencies in SPD's training policies and oversight with regard to Use of Force contribute to the constitutional violations."
The DOJ report highlights the "few bad apple" theory,
"In any given year, a minority of Officers account for a disproportionate number of Use of Force incidents."
There are always going to be a percentage of individuals who abuse their authority. But, the System itself is at issue. Police Officers have to decide which side they are on. Is the Officer willing to be a Guardian of the Plutocracy? A truncheon wielding, pepper-spraying Bully for the 1%? Because every Police Officer should realize once the 99% are crushed, once the Middle Class is forever obliterated, once we are reduced to Wage Slaves chained irrevocably to be cogs in the machines of industry and war, Police Officers will be disposable too.

3 comments:

toma said...

Has that cop been cut loose or disciplined for shooting that cameraman in Oakland? Getting shot with a rubber bullet hurts plenty. I bet they haven't even investigated the event. Psshh.

Grung_e_Gene said...

toma,
I don't think he was ever identified nor do I think he will be, they'll probably investigate it but with all the shit that happened with the Oakland PD savagely attacking the #Occupy protesters that one incident has been lost.

It's part of the Right-Wing Authoritarian Model of Control, commit so many abuses and violations of law that one incident of such will be lost in the flood.

toma said...

. . so it's legal to shoot a protestor if he's armed with a camera? Excellent precedent. I wouldn't go anywhere near these cops. That's probably the point.