Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 40: More Police Training is not the answer especially not "Street Cop Training"

Reform the Police, a refrain as old as Police themselves.  But, we will never get the proper answer until we understand the question?  "More Training" has been the Panacea to combat Police brutality and misconduct but, can the Police as currently conceived, designed, organized, and utilized be retrained?

More than a decade ago I became aware of the grotesque David Grossman and his On Killing / Warrior Cop police training, a course of instruction designed to turn even well-adjusted LEOs into sacred trigger happy panicked shooters and affording psychotic Police Officers the justification they needed to gun down any black man they saw.

Grossman's "Killology" training wasn't a bizarre outlier from a weirdo who never saw combat but, a highly touted and widespread methodology which had been taught to thousands of cops and merely the most visible of the Let's make police into brutal abusers philosophy. 

Sadly, it seems a vast swath of politicians were never aware of this training until it had already wrecked an entire generation of Police Officers in a similar way the Joe Rogan/Andrew Tate/Jordan Peterson toxic masculinity has warped and deluded the young generation of Zoomer boys these days.  The general approach was to simply allocate the money for "More Training" and let the departments pick and choose.

Therefore, in this Post-Ferguson era, we still see toxic training being sold to Officers and the content provided by these so-called trainers containing vulgar, rude, discriminatory, unconstitutional methods, demeaning misogynoy, and toxic masculinity.  

Street Cop, founded in 2012, is a private law enforcement training vendor that conducts business in the State of New Jersey. The founder and CEO of the Company is Dennis Benigno, a former law enforcement officer who worked with a municipal police department in Middlesex County, New Jersey, until 2015. 

Benigno claims to lead “one of the largest, if not the largest, police training providers in the United States,” impacting approximately 25,000 to 30,000 law enforcement officers nationally on an annual basis. In New Jersey alone, the Company conducts 40 to 45 courses annually, training in “excess of 2000 state and local law enforcement officers.” Included in the New Jersey course offerings is a case law class “tailored specifically to New Jersey,” which Benigno himself instructs.

Among other things, OSC found:

• Instructors at the Conference promoted the use of unconstitutional policing tactics for motor vehicle stops;
• Some instructors glorified violence and an excessively militaristic or “warrior” approach to policing. Other presenters spoke disparagingly of the internal affairs process; promoted an “us vs. them” approach; and espoused views and tactics that would undermine almost a decade of police reform efforts in New Jersey, including those aimed at de-escalating civilian-police encounters, building trust with vulnerable populations, and increasing officers’ ability to understand, appreciate, and interact with New Jersey’s diverse population; and
• The Conference included over 100 discriminatory and harassing remarks by speakers and instructors, with repeated references to speakers’ genitalia, lewd gestures, and demeaning quips about women and minorities.

The New Jersey Office of State Comptroller has a detailed report of the vile bullshit and borderline criminal misconduct taught at a 6 day seminar in Atlantic City in October 2021.  And what did The Founder of Street Cop, Dennis Benigno with his synthol oil muscles, and his instructors teach?  Why the same tired Reactionary Crap of Warrior Cop hyper-vigilance.  The repetition of the US and Them, Kill or Be Killed, Treat Everyone Like a Dirtbag Criminal and you might just go home alive.

I've been to a lot of training over the years and immediately steer clear of the hard-chargers who come in festooned in street tactical 5.11 clothing, wearing their duty/off-duty pistol in their low leg holster... 

What we always find with this type of training or an institution like Street Cop; is the classic reductive stereo-types which have been repeated since Joseph Wambaugh and Clint Eastwood invented them 60 years ago.  Righteous god fearing white christian police beset by the savage hordes of blacks, hispanics, queers, and others while namby-pamby bleeding heart liberals tie the Police hands instead of letting them do the righteous work.  Of course, the foundation stretches back even further to the lies Wyatt Earp and Tom Mix sold Hollywood of the lone lawman fighting for Law&Order over a 100 years ago.

Even today, right now, the Republican Party and rightwing propagandists continue to propagate this bullshit, the stereotype that if only "Our" Police were unshackled, if only the crime-coddling Democrats got out of the way, if only the media didn't broadcast Chauvin's extrajudicial killing of George Floyd crime wouldn't be out of control.

Never forget the people that say this are the ideological descendants of those who gave Nixon and Regan the free reign to use draconian methods in the "War on Drugs".  And were absolutely fine when the fucking terror was rained down upon poor and minority communities.  Back then Police didn't raid and bust ever rich white frat house at Dartmouth now did they?  But, once the War on Drugs began to impact little "Maddie & Connor", well then white society demanded leniency and counseling and treatment instead of incarceration and a life-long sentence which fucked millions by giving them a criminal record.

Do you know why the Republicans in Congress like Major Traitor Greene and that Coward Josh Hawley are still so mad at the Capitol Police?  Because Republicans expected the Police to aid them, and their rightwing paramilitary terrorists on January 6th in overthrowing the Government.

Remember the issue isn't just Reforming the Police or finding/fixing/removing the few bad apples it's also dealing with the bad faith efforts of conservatives to undermine solutions while demonizing the efforts in order to obtain political power.  Recall how Republicans and their compliant corporate media stenographers told the American populace that #DefundthePolice was the official policy of Joe Biden and every Democrat office-holder.  Then couple that with the Republican predilection of axiomatically defending every extrajudicial killing of a minority in America and you have the right ingredients for the Modern Reactionary Police.  A Police Force that will readily stomp on the faces of anyone who hinders the White Power Christian Fascist Nation the Republicans seek to turn the United States into...

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 40: The End of Cash Bail in Illinois

How Faux News depicts Chicago

Many provisions of The Illinois Safe-T Act has already been in effect for two years, but today marks the End of Cash Bail.

The D-Bond (and I-Bond / C-Bond) system is over, although Warrants which predate 09/18/23 will still be subject to the Bond amount issued for them.

The end of cash bail was marked with a huge degree of caterwauling and lies by those who benefit from the current system and never, ever, have to worry about not being able to make bail for a minor offense and being stuck in Cook County lock-up for months facing misdemeanor charges.

What the cash bail system always did, and was designed to do, was help restrain the poor and working class.  Rich people who commit a homicide and get a $1,000,000 bail to bond out?  No problem.  Poor folk who can't make $5000 or even scrape together $500 well tough, you're being bussed to 26th and California. 

In reality, the new system still affords Judges, ASA's (Assistant State's Attorneys), and even the arresting officer the ability to detain a person based on a large variety of factors which are not difficult to obtain.  It still holds those arrested for Domestic Violence related crimes and higher level felonies in custody before being transported to Court for an initial hearing.   

All the rightwing fear mongering that the arrested person will go out and commit more crime is nothing less than a call for everyone arrested to be NEVER released from prison.  Which understand doesn't apply to Rightwing Domestic Terrorists from January 6th or from the 4 arrests of Donald John Traitor Trump, but really only to black and brown persons (and white people who have abrogated their innocence by advocating for the poor, the huddled masses, the downtrodden) who in the parlance of the Cook County court system are "mooks" or "mopes"

As Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve noted in her book, Crook County: Racism and Injustice in America's Largest Criminal Court (2017),

In the vernacular of court culture, defendants are identified by vulgarities: "scum," "piece of shit," "bad guys" - even "banana suits" (which refers to the jail jumper that defendants in custody must wear in court).  One term predominates among these epithets.  That term is "mopes," used mostly to refer to defendants but sometimes used to describe professionals as well.  The meaning inscribed in this term is central to the moral rubric applied to defendants by courtroom professionals.

"Mope" is shorthand for a person who violates these values.  Professionals find it difficult to regard a defendant as anything but a mope.   

What this is about is white society, especially rightwing society, believes a certain segment of America are a priori guilty and have, most likely, gotten away with some crime, so jailing them and holding them until they pay a monetary fee is just and right.   

Most of America doesn't want to believe the legal system writ large is unjust and unfair, so for years they told themselves the Cops are the good guys, the courts are fair, and Justice is blind in America.  The War on Drugs really shattered this belief system, but couldn't break it because Republicans continued to tell Americans drug abusers have a moral failing and anyone accused of a crime is ipso facto guilty.  And since the system was Fair & Balanced before now, that means Trump and the Republicans are absolutely right that Trump being charged with 91 Felonies is Weaponized Department of Justice and now we have a Two-Tiered Legal System, which just so happens to be exactly like Reverse-Racism and targeting totally innocent conservatives! 

The new No Bail system in Illinois is going to be a work in progress for a while and is going to be tweaked going forward.  But, if bad actors in the Prosecutor's Office, Sheriffs, and Municipal Police Departments are going to sabotage the effort it won't be because of the Law but, because of their own biased ideas of Justice in America.

The Revenge of The Thin Blue Line 32: Highways to Hell (i.e. Chicago)

The Illinois State Police released statistics for gun violence on the Expressways in and around Chicago.  Targeted ISP enforcement resulted in a 50% decrease in shootings and a drastic reduction in violence.  According to the report Illinois State Police will continue this targeted focus and enforcement, 

[T]he Illinois State Police (ISP) is reporting the total number of Chicago area expressway shootings dropped 47% in 2022 compared to 2021. The number of non-fatal injury expressway shootings in the Chicago area was cut in half and the number of expressway homicides decreased by 88% compared to last year. 

ISP will continue to take the multifaceted approach that has shown to reduce violent crime on our expressways.

Increased ISP presence

Focused, strategic violent crime reduction missions. Proactive enforcement - Statewide Anti-Violence Enforcement (SAVE) Unit 

Multiple jurisdiction collaboration 

Unified Command - Multiple ISP divisions focused on expressway violence 

Technology - automated license plate readers, air operations

This kind of Police work is what Police at municipal, county and state levels should be doing.  Instead because of slashing taxes, cutting services, and generally dumping everything into the laps of the Police over the past 40 years, the focus of effort has devolved into Police adjacent calls for service and efforts to bolster revenue.  Worse than that the sensationalist media coverage of crime reporting during that timeframe lead to two of the worst initiatives in history; Stop-and-Frisk and Broken Windows, which should properly be understood as Stop-and-Fuck with People and Broken Trust of the Community.   

Besides the rampant racism of Police Officers writ large, U.S. Police Departments have always had an insular Us-against-Them mentality but those two "theories" of Police Work, turned many a department into Occupying Armies.  

What's needed in Policing and what Police Reform has haphazardly tried to address, with programs like CIT, are Officers with a capacity for deductive reasoning, a modicum of humanity and compassion, and the ability to communicate especially under stressful conditions.

Every "Democrat" City according to Faux News

Of course, complicating all of this has been the steady adoption of Law & Order as a cultural wedge issue since the time of Dirty Tricky Dick Nixon.  We saw this used again in 2020 with the dubious and deceitful Republicans bemoaning Defund the Police efforts leading to rampant crime.  One of the unshakeable Republican tropes trotted out daily on rightwing media, is that Democratic Cities are all smoking dystopian ruins, akin to the images of Boston in the HBOMax series The Last of Us.  Whether it was Portland, Oregon being burned to the ground 6 or 7 times in 2020 and 2021 by BLM and Antifa or the Highway to Hell that is Chicago despite the "strictest gun laws in the Universe" or when a simple gay Brazilian immigrant Congressman named George Santos was mugged at 3 in the afternoon in broad daylight in downtown Manhattan and robbed of his shoes just for being a Republican!

Now, the are multiple reasons both gross and fine for Republicans continually claim Democratic cities are hellholes (See Pig Fvcker Darren Bailey's comments on Chicago as he ran for Illinois Governor in 2022); the Republican Party has wedded themselves to the idea that Crime is a Black problem and its' exacerbated by Democrats who love Criminals.  This has been the overarching rightwing strategy since Dick Nixon ; to equate crime with Urban centers (and thus by minorities and elite liberals who live there) as opposed to the Rural America where the Real Americans live and the suburbs to which all good white people flee the smoking ruins of Democrat Cities. 

And facts don't matter in this Narrative.  For example when Democratic candidate Joy Hofmeister corrected pointed out that violent crime in Oklahoma was higher than New York City or California under the Republican Governor's mismanagement.  Governor Kevin Stitt was all, 'Aw shucks can y'all believe she's correctly pointing out the facts when all you good Real Americans know Escape from New York was a documentary?'  Facts, as was long ago pointed out, have a liberal bias...

So, getting back to Chicago.  After every Mass Shooting, Republicans jump onto the Corporate Media to repeat CHICAGO! CHICAGO! CHICAGO! which is of course code for Blacks, to dispute the fact that flooding the Nation with Firearms has not made Americans safer.  And, more importantly, guns are most often used to kill their owners after the gunman has murdered his family.  So here a few recent shootings which didn't rise to wider national coverage;

• In Baldwinsville, New York, "This is how it ends for us," abusive asshole Christopher Wood told his ex-wife before shooting the couple's 14 year old daughter to death before killing himself because his wife correctly left him rather than stay in a violent abusive relationship. 
• Jarid Haddock walked into a Circle K in Yakima, Washington and shot 3 people for no apparent reason.  Fleeing in a car Haddock then shot himself as Police responded.
• Some guy shot another guy and then shot himself in Everett, Washington.
• In Hawley, Texas Justin Coonrod gunned down his parents then shot himself...

Guns used to kill the owner after HE has killed someone else.  And these four incidents are by no means the only recent ones or at all unusual in the United States.  But, none of this matters to the cadre of Gun Nuts, Republicans, and Firearm Manufacturers who profit mightily off the blood of dead and wounded Americans.

But, Gun Nuts simply ignore this fundamental truth and as they are fanatics who fight every gun law, regulation or restriction adopted at every level of Government by a politically powerful Well Financed groups of scumbag attorney's America keeps losing.

But, this is merging into another post I'm working on about the Rightwing effort to undo the Illinois Assault Weapon Ban and the Unending War conservatives are waging on the American People to ensure unrestricted gun violence is unstoppable plague forever and ever. 

Now conservatives see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! Trump is being oppressed!!!

"Prison life is no different from our lives out here in the free world..  The prison system is not... the best.  There is an opportunity, to get the best out of an individual."  2008 Interview with Ron Lyle, the hardest hitting heavyweight boxer of all time.

For years conservatives applauded every extrajudicial killing of a black person; declaring just comply.  

When did Espionage become a crime in America!

For years conservatives defended every instance of Police brutality and misconduct and denied the existence of systemic mistreatment of people charged with crimes.

For years conservatives declared if you aren't doing anything wrong and you have nothing to hide then you don't have any reason to fear police or investigations.

Just a few months ago conservatives salivated over the prospect of arresting women and doctors for medical procedures rightwingers deem objectionable.

But, then... the FBI and Department of Justice executed a search warrant on the diseased premises of Mar-A-Lago and conservatives lost their fucking minds.  The fawning gross adulation and grotesque Back the Blue idolatry went immediately out the window.  Right-wingers concocted absorb legal fictions defending Trump.  Faux News said the FBI was planting evidence.  Republicans vowed to DEFUND THE POLICE!  When faced with the prospect of adhering to the Rule of Law, conservatives won't abandon illegal activities they will abandon the Rule of Law.

Brandon walked into the Capitol then walked
into the Court and then walked away
from his co-conspirators so he could
cry for criminals he walked away from

The collective conservative conniption fit over the FBI raid on the Trump Crime Family comes at Mar-A-Lago  and the Jan 6th criminals facing the consequences for their criminal activities (highlighted by Brandon Straka's cosplay crying in a cage at CPAC for all his incarcerated co-conspirators whom Brandon Straka informed upon) shows how Rightwing Authoritarians view Law Enforcement,

For my friends everything, for my enemies the law - Óscar R. Benavides

Conservatives believe the law and government exist to enforce their dictates and to defend their ideology and safeguard their political power.  If the government or law enforcement doesn't do these things it is ipso facto illegitimate.  The Law and law enforcement exists to help advance the rightwing agenda of hatred, oppression, and subjugation. 

By thine own pantomime shall ye be judged

And now we know that Trump is being investigated for violations of the Espionage Acts the outright rightwing rejection of Law&Order, which they've touted as the cornerstone of America, is escalating...  Breitbart doxxed the FBI Agents who searched Mar-A-Lago a day after a not yet indicted Jan6th Trump Terrorist committed another crime and attacked the FBI Officers in Cincinnati.

Personally, (after his trial and conviction) it might be appropriate for a specific Army squad to present Traitor Trump with his own solution to dealing with those accused of "espionage"...

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 26: Axon! Axoff! Axon-Axoff! The Bribery!

Police brutality and misconduct is fast becoming a big money maker.  No, I'm not referencing the payouts to the families of those victimized and killed by Police but, by Companies moving in to capitalize on the problem.

Axon Body Cameras are the industry standard.  Motorola has a strong hold on second place but, between them the two companies dominate the market across the United States.  Axon was originally named TASER, which I'm sure you know were the makers of the "Less-than-Lethal" electrical weapons.  Later iterations of Taser weapons added a "TaserCam" but, as body cameras gained a larger and larger segment of the company they renamed and rebranded.

Tasers, are of course controversial, and somewhat ineffective as in chaotic situations its' difficult (not impossible) to get a good shot which deploys both prongs properly and disables the suspect.  Taser (Axon) initially stood by their claims of not causing deaths and offered up a $1,000,000 defense for any Police Department sued after a death attributed to the Taser but, dropped this protection after Courts began to award wrongful death suits to victims' families.

Well, as Police misconduct continues to be documented by citizens with cell phone cameras and with the passage of the Illinois Safe-T Act in 2021, Axon wasted no time in doing what big businesses have always done to capture a market; Purchase all your major competitors and bribe government officials.

The Chicago Tribune reported on Monday that state Sen. Elgie Sims, a Chicago Democrat, was approached in the spring by federal authorities looking into whether Axon Enterprise Inc. either directly or through other lobbying entities improperly tried to influence Sims.

So... Governor J. B. Pritzker called on the Federal Law Enforcement to conduct the investigation which is good.  Axon has denied any wrongdoing.  Sims apparently worked as a lobbyist or provided legal aid to Axon.  This of course is part of the Government/Big Business hand-in-hand cooperation which often leads to corrupt dealings known as "Regulatory Capture", that is when those charged with overseeing certain government functions are coopted and act as clients or proponents of the business.  For instance, the Axon employee who briefed my department on use and functions of the body cameras was a former police officer who worked in his department's video evidence storage department and then was hired immediately upon his retirement by Axon.

The Republican nominee for Illinois Governor Darren Bailey, an alleged pig fucker, has garnered the FOP endorsement (on August 8th = "88", which is an obvious head nod to Bailey's rabid fascist base) and pledged to repeal the 2021 criminal justice reform law.  Dirty John Catanzara, disgraced former Chicago Police Officer and Jan6th Insurrection supporter, also supports alleged pig fucker Darren Bailey.  But, Bailey hasn't condemned Axon because he knows in his black pig heart the power and influence they wield even if Darren Bailey wishes to unleash Police Forces across Illinois to continue the old ways of brutality and misconduct.

As jail looms, will Traitor Trump call upon his Magat Horde to destroy America?

"Stand back and stand by.  But I'll tell you what... somebody has got to do something..." Donald John Traitor Trump Sept 29, 2020

The FBI conducted a search via warrant of Trump's roach infested Florida hellhole Mar-a-Lago.  Most likely, to collect stolen classified documents but, additionally documents which pertain to Trump's treasonous months long campaign to overthrow of the US government from 11/03/20 to 01/06/21. And quite possibly documents pertaining to the various other crimes and schemes perpetrated by the Trump Crime Cabal.

We all saw how Trump's nasty, ill-tempered, syphilitic speeches incited the January 6th Insurrectionists.  Since, then he's not scaled back his lies and calls for political violence but fanned the flames.

The question is: When (not if) the DOJ comes to take him away will Traitor Trump call directly for his supporters to rise up and overthrow the US Government and plunge the Nation into an active rightwing revolution?

I don't know.  I do know enough Republicans are taking to social media, cable, news, and radio to proclaim this the worst action in American History and tell the Magat Horde that it is only a matter of time they come for you.  Conservatives for their part are yearning and begging to be given the go ahead to begin murdering millions of Americans.  And really over the last 30 years, anytime a Democratic Administration is in the White House, Republicans demonize law enforcement, threaten to defund the FBI, and stoke rightwing rage against the criminal justice system.  So, they need very little encouragement to begin the overt violence. 

Trump has sometimes tried to be cautious in his statements, often after the fact, to try and avoid consequences as he's done throughout his putrid criminal life and with Republicans tripping over themselves to be outraged on his behalf and attack the Department of Justice, while indicted Jan6th terrorists threaten Civil War, I don't think Trump will need to call for Violence; conservatives are going to do it on their own.

The Assassination of 21 Uvalde residents by the Coward Texas Police Officers (Defund the Police)

"If they are going to start this, they cannot expect us to sit silently while they try to strip our Second Amendment rights," In response to the latest Gun Massacre in America, Florida Republican Representative Randy Fine justifies threatening to assassinate President Biden as Republicans continue to descend into Pure Fascism.

The Copaganda Narrative of Uvalde has fallen apart.  The timeline of events does not correspond at all with the bullshit narrative Police, Authorities, and Texas Republicans first presented.  This whole thing is fucking unbelievable.  The shooter was outside firing rounds for 12 minutes prior to entering the school.  The Officers saw him enter and followed but were repulsed by superior firepower.  At this point once you have eyes in the shooter or once you know his location from the gunfire you are receiving you must maintain contact to keep his location fixed.  Yes, I'm sorry Boys you're going to get shot at with rifle rounds.  But!  Don't fret!  I hear from gun nuts on-line all the time that an AR-15 is just a 22!  A pea-shooter!  

Instead the Officers retreated, lost containment and waited an hour for the more heavily armed QRF to respond.  A fucking hour! 

The entire incident appears to be a mixture of sheer incompetence and pure cowardice.  The stories coming out of dithering, of handcuffing parents, of other Texas Deputies going into the school and retrieving their children, of incompetent attempts to reach students hiding and exposing them to the school shooter.

David Simon said in the film The House I Live In, that the War on Drugs and the Police State associated with it, could claim to be worth it if, we also had safety and security but, we don't.  So, instead we get the dehumanization of America from the War on Drugs in addition to the tyrannical authoritarianism of a fascist internal police.

The same is true with the bloated Police budgets and obsequious fealty Police Departments demand.  It might be worth it, to bow and scrape, and pay police exorbitant overtime pay for safety and security but, instead Police Budgets take away from other more vital services which can better address the issues facing society and because of the Republican policy of flooding the Nation with 400,000,000 easily obtainable firearms we have no safety and no security.

And I'm not even talking about the payouts for egregious violations of law and misconduct just the amount of money dedicated to keep the precious feeling of The Cowardly Thin Blue Line from being hurt when Police are criticized for gross misconnection, law breaking, and violations of rights.

40% of Uvalde's city budget goes to the Police Department.  They have a SWAT equivalent team.  This would be a great time to talk about Defunding the Police, but right now rightwing media would love nothing more than to change the subject to violence in Democrat Run cities and disgusting Republican slobs like Sarah Suckabee Sanders could get on Faux News and say Chicago Chicago Chicago!!!

"I think if you look to Chicago, where you had over 4,000 victims of gun-related crimes last year, they have the strictest gun laws in the country. That certainly hasn’t helped there." Suckebee Sanders after the Las Vegas Mass Shooting in 2017

And I haven't even mentioned the concerted conservative on-line disinformation campaign by Candeath Owens and other rightwing influencers. using random pictures of innocent Transgender women "Sam" from Georgia and others to deflect, distract and, delay in order to run out the clock on gun control efforts and stoke the fires of anti-trans bigotry which conservatives will employ for the next mass shooting.

I know Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton, Ted Cruz, John Cornyn are shameless and have no compunction about giving these petulant interviews oozing bad faith and uncaring sarcasm but how can Texans, tough talking, god-fearing, giant belt buckle wearing, self-reliant frontier folk vote for these slimy fucks?  Has the non-stop GOP rhetoric and propaganda worked that fucking well?  That these doughy, wide-waisted, flabby-assed, cowards are the epitome of Texas?  How can you look at Ted Cruz and go Yep! that's who I want as a Senator!

The Truth is Greg Abbott and the Texas Republicans don't care.  They don't fucking care.  They don't fucking care about this latests mass shooting with Kids and Teachers blown to pieces.  Just like they didn't care about the last mass shooting in Texas.  And just like they won't fucking care about the next mass shooting in Texas.  And why should they?  Playing tough guy, helping to flood Texas with guns, and ignoring gun violence has made them rich and powerful.  They get to talk tough and scream at Beto O'Rourke and then laugh at Liberal Tears because of Guns.

The sad truth is I expect the Faux News spun propaganda and righting on-line discourse to turn to those cowardly Cops failed to do their job!  If those Cops had done the easy brave thing, this never would have happened, and our theory of Guns making people safer would still be 100% correct.  Also anyway the Democrats are to blame! 

Additional:

I understand why Republicans like Randy Fine, threaten the President of the United States in service to their masters the NRA (the need the power, influence, and money of the NRA to win elections) but why does Mitt Romney with his bullshit holier-than-thou sanctity of life not break with the Gun Lobby?  He doesn't need their money.  Why doesn't Susan Concerned Collins break and support Gun Control?  She doesn't need the rightwing propaganda machine to win elections.  No, what the lock-step Republicans deference and obedience to the NRA shows is there are NO Moderate Republicans.  The Republican Party is a wholly Fascist Organization which rapidly advancing on the prospect of subjugation and wholesale murder of millions of Americans.

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 16: Police Misconduct? What a Buncha Joey Baloney!

Hey! Remember Philadelphia Police Lt. Joseph Bologna? Old Joey was emblematic of the Police response to public protests over excessive police violence and brutality... i.e. he subjected people to excessive police violence!

But, despite the non-stop lies propagated by Andy Ngo and the rightwing provocateurs about who perpetrated violence in the 2020 protests (unfortunately it appears overwhelmingly it was the Police themselves and outside rightwing agitators).

But, that's what makes protests so enticing for the nascent ground-up fascist movement which is consuming the Right.  Throughout, American history any protest or agitation which has a socialist or left-wing flavor is met with overwhelming force from the Police and the Government with the tactic approval of the norm public.  Examples range from Haymarket Square in 1886 (which created the false sobriquet "Bomb-Throwing Anarchist") to Kent State in 1970, when Nixon and the National Guard opened fire on Anti-War protesters (4 Dead in Ohio).

But, rightwing violence is coddled and encouraged in the United States; one need look no further than the Attempted Republican overthrow of the Government on Jan 6 2021, when elected Republican officials encouraged violence and cheered the crowd of conservative criminals to take over the Capitol and murder Democratic Representatives. 

But, back to Bologna.  In June 2020, Bologna beat a Temple University Evan Gorski on video 

"Bologna turned to Gorski and raised his baton, Gorski backed away and briefly covered his own face with his hand. Bologna then struck him forcefully with the baton."

Gorski recquired 10 staples for his head wound.  Bologna then fabricated a case against Gorski and arrested him for "Battery to PO" and maintained Gorski's injury, after having attacked Officers, was the result of his fall.  Too bad for Joey the video was widely spread.  And while Lt. Bologna is facing charges simple assault and a weapons charge, what he did was deadly force as any Police Department anywhere will have a Use of Force policy which indicates strikes to the head or aimed at the head are deadly force.

Now, of course, right-wingers, despite maintaining one should never trust the government, 100% backed Joey Bologna, accepted his version of events, castigated Gorski and every other person assaulted by Bologna, and wore t-shirts defending his violence.  Well, as the wheels of justice grind slowly former Lt. Bologna is finally facing charges this month from several of his latest victims.

The Revenge on the Thin Blue 11: The Art of Self-Defund starring Candace Owens

One of the saddest things about the on-going Covid Pandemic is how easily misinformation, rightwing memes, Faux News propaganda, and outright lies have so readily been absorbed by Police Officers across the Nation.  It's simple and insidious.  And it's led to Police Officers defunding themselves by dying of Covid.  

Having been conditioned for years to discount the LIEbral Media and place outsized trust and support in Republican liars and rightwing talking heads, Police Officers have allowed themselves to be duped and misled.  Every rightwing antivaxxer social media is festooned with dank memes by Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan, Faux News, OAN and any of the other low-level rightwing grifters.

This has lead to Police Officers across the Nation dying from Covid.  Looking at the Officer Down Covid page all I can do is shake my head and plead with fellow Officers to get vaccinated instead of posting the Babylon Bee CDC seatbelt gotcha meme and then dying.

One of the amazing feats of research by reddit shows a high correlation of retweeting Candeath Ovens (Candace Owens) and then dying of Covid.  Obviously her most ardent fans retweet Candace because they believe her being black immediately and forever indemnifies them from charges of racism.  But, because of her incessant, non-stop tweeting of anti-vaxx lies, I must conclude Owens is actually a #BLM paid employee or #ACAB sleeper agent getting Cops and whitey to off themselves.  Candace is the grim reaper for fat-faced white dudes with gray goatees.