The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 25: Phony Fainting from Fentanyl finds familiar Fox News fibbers flogging falsehoods

Renee Parsons' body "went completely numb" from 
touching a fentanyl dollar.  As a conservative
Renee's numb from the neck up already.

One of the best old time YouTube videos I've ever seen was this Let the Bodies Hit the Floor mocking of Benny Hinn and his faith healing con.  The ridiculous undulations of people supposed infused with the Holy Spirit coupled with the pilfering of the wallets should have been the tell.  It's absolutely clear the people are either play acting as they writhe upon the ground or go flying backwards as though they've been hit by a Benny Hinn Hadouken or they are in on the con.

Nowadays, Police Officers soooo misunderstood and mistreated by the society they ostensibly Protect & Serve, want to get on the racket; hence the ridiculous play acting and panic attacks Officers are engaging in after they supposedly touch a scintilla of Fentanyl.

Fentanyl has been around for 50 years and lacing heroin with it is not new either, but has been going on for a couple decades at least.  But, in the last couple of years Police Officers have taken to proclaiming they have been overdosing and almost dying from casual contact with suspect fentanyl.  

According to reporting by Peter Andrey Smith of The Washington Post in 2021, 

By my count, more than 200 police officers, first responders, nurses and guards at correctional institutions have claimed to have suffered adverse reactions based on incidental contact with fentanyl. (Other researchers put the total number of such reports even higher.) 

What the fuck is going on?  Well, the most likely explanations are deliberate lying or suffering from a folie à plusiers (a shared mass psychotic disorder).  The deliberate fakery could come from any number of reasons; for instance malingering which wasn't just invented for military members who deliberately shirk their duty, or a desire to convince people of the "real" dangers facing police officers, and a psychological need/desire to be lauded for your sacrifice.

I think a lot of this goes back to the demonization of certain out groups of people.  Fentanyl right now is associated with "bad people" i.e. illicit drug users and sellers and Cops are the "good guys" and you always need to update the reasons for the War on Drugs and et voila now we have another reason to throw those people in jail.  And make no mistake all of this is target to get white people back in line with puritanical hatred of drugs.

Drugs are the greatest invention/discovery for mankind.  Misuse of drugs is a problem but, it's a problem which needs to be treated medically.  Indeed this is the only way to effectively, safely, and humanely deal with drug addiction.  But, not in America!  No in America you go to jail for using drugs.

You see for a while now, during the Opioid epidemic, white people's trained fear and hatred for the "criminal" drug using community (hippies and blacks) has been waning as families across the USA suffer the effects of drug addiction and thus have garnered some empathy for other people.  Conservative and Republican leaders can not allow such tolerance and empathy to take hold.  Imagine if Americans declared no more sending people to prison for drug addiction!

Because there is HUGE Money to be made from jailing people.  Now, I'm not claiming these lying Officers are involved in a massive conspiracy to benefit the Prison Industrial Complex intentionally but, they sure as fuck are helping it and affording lying white rightwingers the opportunity to go onto Faux News to declare white liars to claim fentanyl overdosing from touching a dirty drug users dollar almost killed her and required her husband to have to drive 100mph to get overdose treatment.  Utter bullshit.  Rightwing dangers of drugs agitprop.  And all because Copaganda and the lying Thin Blue Line which buttresses such bullshit.

From Black to White, the changing face of Drug Addiction and Punishment

Now, that white opioid users have surplanted black people as the face of Addiction, America has begun to experience a change of heart when it comes to Draconian Drug Laws and Sentences.

Before moving on to the body of this post let me note, I am all in favor of decriminalization of a minor drug like cannabis and a pivot on harder drugs towards medical treatment as opposed to punishment. But, it's incontravertable that society's pivot towards treating Opiate Use as a medical illiness instead of as a criminal act is because the weight of the Criminal Laws are now wrecking white people's lives and not just those in black or brown communities.

All of sudden, white people have begun to experience the horrors the 50 years of Republican War on Drugs has wreaked upon minorities. Harsh Punishment used to be reserved for those people. Now, whites get to see their children's futures ruined over minor non-violent drug possession charges.

As an aside, this is why I don't believe in heightening the contradictions, i.e. allowing Donald Trump to assume the Presidency in order to bring about the perfect left candidate. White Working Class People, the base of the Republican Party, were abso-fucking-lutely fine with harsh laws as long as the long-haired hippies were getting the truncheons and blacks were being incarcerated/ruined for drugs.

Now, that those same rules are applied to them? Well, it's time to re-evaluate the War on Drugs!!!

For the last 5 decades, the Republicon Party at the behest of their Plutocratic Owners, have been dismantling the Progressive Gains of the 20th century, the so-called American Dream. At first they started with black and brown Americans because they knew Whites were enjoying the benefits of Liberal Democratic Society and wouldn't say much.

Unlike, the contention the Democratic Party abandoned the white working class 50 years ago, the Democratic Party decided to make good (as best they could) to the promises made to African-Americans and other marginalized segments of society.

Whites who had nearly been the sole benefactors of New Deal Government Programs became irritated, especially as the Republican Party made sure that any gains for minorities would be taken directly from the pockets of the working class, that other people were being aided by those programs.

Nixon, a master politician, understood this back in 1968 and took advantage to win the Presidency,

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Ronald Reagan identified the Government, the one now helping poor blacks, as the problem. Of course, while he demonized welfare queens and steak-eatin' young bucks he was busily dismantling the manufacturing base of America. For blacks in the 1980's the loss of economic opportunity in large cities, was thus replaced with Gangs and Drug-based Capitalism.

The continued Republicon assault on the American Worker and Industry and the transition to a finance-based Capitalism as opposed to manufacturing of the 20th century has reached working class whites.

George W(orst POTUS Ever) Bush attempted to delay the full impact of Republicon Capitalism on American Society by trying to swindle Social Security and dumping a massive influx of capital into the hands of the Vultures on Wall Street, but was defeated. If he had been successful perhaps the Republican Recession of 2007 would have been averted for another decade or perhaps just a few years.

In either case, Bush/Cheney would have been a safe enough distance to proclaim it wasn't demonstrably their fault.

Thus, whites who had already seen their good-paying Union jobs and benefits disappear thanks to right-wing Vulture Capitalism saw their home equity and meager retirement savings vanish into Mitt Romney's Cayman Island Bank Accounts and into 50,000 millionaires secret UBS Swiss Bank Accounts.

So, while we've also witnessed the greatest decline in standard of living and life expectancy for working class white people we've seen those same white people turn to the only thriving industry left in America, Drug Dealing.

The NYPD, Broken Windows, Collars for Dollars and Control of the Poor

Continuing the topic of Police Departments the discussion now focuses on what is the role of Police Departments have in society.

Contrary to popular belief and the motto's stenciled on squad cars, Police Departments were not created to 'Serve & Protect' and keep the peace but, to exert control over the poor and working class. The creation of the Modern Police Force in the United States coincided with increases in immigration, the Industrial Revolution, and the end of Slavery. As such Police Departments were tasked by the Ruling elite to keep the American Working Class, immigrants and minorities in check.

The 1% actually sees only two legitimate "Constitutional" Roles for the US Government, a military for expanding and opening up Foreign Shores for exploitation and the quelling of Domestic Dissent and control of the Poor by the Police

As the work slow down by the New York Brats in Blue has shown not much changed on the home front.

Apparently, the NYPD thinks their slow down is helping them win in their Political Struggle against Mayor Bill de Blasio. As a Police Officer I'm disappointed by their acknowledgement their arrests, notices to appear and citations were not to 'Serve & Protect' but, for the purpose of revenue collection and social control.

It's more than a tacit admission, it's a bold statement the Broken Windows Policing doesn't reduce serious crime but, transforms Police Officers into revenue streams.

The Broken Windows theory, a hypothesis first appearing in 1982 that clamping down small crimes will help keep down more serious crime, while compelling is not supported by the evidence of the last 30 years.

Broken Windows, though it still has its' adherents (namely Rudy Giuliani), has been undercut by an actual analysis of the data. Jens Ludwig and Bernard Harcourt in their 2006 thesis Broken Windows: New Evidence for New York City and a Five City Social Experiment posited the "Broken Yankees Hypothesis" wherein the number of NYC homicides decreases with the increase in Yankees Championships.

Additionally, the elimination if Lead in gasoline has been credibly linked to an overall decrease in crime.

But, that's the point, whether or not the rank and file of New York's Whiniest know it, they weren't created to 'Serve & Protect' and modern police practices are designed as a powerful social control to keep the established Plutocratic Hierarchy in place.

And the Working Classes in their place.

Review the iconic image from Occupy UC Davis, where non-violent "criminals" were treated savagely but, Wall Street criminals guilty of far worse offenses not only avoided this treatment but arrest and prosecution almost entirely,

Now, recall the overall crackdown on Occupy Wall Street and other sister demonstrators by Police Departments Nationwide was cheered and supported by 100% of conservatives. While later, 100% of conservatives supported recalcitrant lawbreaker Cliven Bundy and his army of insurrectionists with their plans to murder Law Enforcement Officers and use women and children as human shields, while Bundy and his other Cattle Barons annex US land for their profit.

In Joseph Wambaugh's first novel, The New Centurions, we follow 3 titular centurions conducting police work in the Civil Rights era in Los Angeles. As demonstrated by several chapters in Wambaugh's novel, the cops spend most of their time gleefully busting homosexuals and prostitutes as part of Vice Squads.

Wambaugh's later works especially The Blue Knight better captured the ennui of Police Officers but, Centurions while honestly reflecting the day-to-day grind of police work, is rife with Reactionary themes, including the "liberal" Officer getting shot mid-way through the book and being killed in the Watts Riots because he's too soft and Wambaugh's most racist 'I don't see black or white just assholes' speech presented by a "black" Officer.

But, another theme running throughout Centurions, is the belief in an early form of "Broken Windows",

"But today the 'dont's' are dying or being murdered in the name of freedom and we policemen can't save them. Once the people become accustomed to the death of a 'don't', well then, the other 'dont's' die much easier. Usually all the vice laws die first because people are generally vice-ridden anyway. Then the ordinary misdemeanors and some felonies become unenforceable until freedom prevails." - The New Centurions, pg. 86

The problem is once theories like, Broken Windows, Stop & Frisk, and the War on Drugs become conventional wisdom, accepted and entrenched in organizations as Reactionary as Police Departments they are difficult to dislodge.

The post Mike Brown death response by the Ferguson Police was the at least as egregious as Brown's killing. Faced with discontent over the situation the response was the force. It was a typical Police response, when faced with push back and perceived challenges to authority.

But, once you have gone with the full forceful response there are no other options than to further ratchet up force until the situation spirals out of your control.

But, well before the August 2014 killing of Mike Brown, the people of Ferguson have complained that like many poor neighborhoods they are faced with constant harassment and mistreatment by the Police as small infractions and petty violations are punished by fines, fees and costs.

And, once again, therein lies the real reason Police Departments were created for in the first place; Control.

Under the guise of Law & Order, poor and working class people are exposed to constant harassment, "Collars for Dollars", and criminalization for infractions which really aren't crimes. Because it controls them.

How Capitalism drives Crime but only dark skinned criminals concern Conservatives

I've left a bigoted rambling comment up on my post about John Wrana's death and the trial of Officer Craig Taylor because it is illustrative of a terrible blight on this nation, How Conservative Bigotry blinds them and thus they focus on only dark-skinned criminals.

Here is the comment from Rational Nauseous,

Marty King was a communist who cheated on his wife frequently. He was a tremendous advocate for Negro self-sufficiency and a color blind society. So we honor his memory by not working, not going to school etc. But to be honest, I think if Marty was still alive he would commit suicide, if he saw what direction the black community has taken. Lets see all the accomplishment that the blacks have made since Marty King’s days, Black folks has denigrated so very badly, with their stupid music, stupid cloths, pants sagging down and their ass cracks showing, their willing to stand out in the cold at shoe stores for days and nights for a pair of stupid sneakers from a basketball player, Michael Jordan endorsed and made a fortune from, their teenage pregnancies and parent homes, multiple fathers to litters of children drawing welfare checks and food stamps, drinking Booze in the streets and drunk driving, pointless killings, looting and burning down homes and store and calling it “protesting”

When it comes to MLKJr, Right-Wingers are flummoxed. They fervently tried to destroy his image, beliefs and works before and after murdering his body, but have been absolutely unsuccessful so conservatives have tried to co-opt Doctor King as one of them while still believing the John Bircher propaganda.

But, let's focus on the henious lies and ignorant bigotry throughout conservative thinking illustrated by Rational Nauseous; who ascribes crime, food stamps, absentee fathers and teenage pregnancies as something inherent in the black community.

These issues are endemic in all races and cultures. In fact, the overwhelming majority who use food stamps, SSDI and other government assistance programs are "white" people. Currently, white conservatives have convinced themselves they "earned" their medicare, social security benefits and blithely ignore crime and the fraying of society amongst "whites".

As Martin Luther King Jr, observed Rich White Men have always been able to convince poor whites that while they and their children may be sickly, uneducated and broken by poverty at least they're not black.

But, what every Police Officer knows is that poverty and lack of economic opportunities drives much* criminal activity.

We are a full generation into the Ronald Reagan destruction of the American Dream and elimination of the Middle Class. Crimes and abberant behavior once ascribed solely to black and brown communities is becoming common-place amongst whites. Once Republicans destroyed the manufacturing base, transformed the Nation into a service-based economy and eliminated laws and regulations on the Financial Industry they made the bottom quarter of Americans into extraneous persons about whom they care not one jot or tittle.

The Housing Crash and Republican Recession of 2007 showed, Capitalism cares nothing for your belief system and once Glorious Capitalism deems you expendable then you are expendable. This is something African-American, Asian, and Hispanic communities have known for generations.

In some ways the Creation of the Tea Party was a response to Capitalism's evil treatment of the white American Working Class until the Koch Brothers and their Republican Operatives quickly usurped authority and transformed Tea Baggers into a lobbying arm for Plutocratic interests, while ensuring the anger of the white community was transfered from the Destructive nature of Capitalism and Corporate Criminality towards Government and the Social Safety Net.

David Simon, creator of The Wire, Treme and former reporter the Baltimore Sun correctly observed once economic opportunities were taken away so-called drug crime became the only option in minority communities,

"We do not need 10-12% of our population; they've been abandoned. They don't have barbed wire around them, but they might as well." As a result, "drugs are the only industry left in places such as Baltimore and east St Louis" – an industry that employs "children, old people, people who've been shooting drugs for 20 years, it doesn't matter. It's the only factory that's still open. The doors are open. Capitalism has tried to jail its way out of the problem, the prison industry has been given over to capitalism. If we need to get rid of these people, we might as well make some money out of getting rid of them."

           

It is not an inherent criminal nature in black and brown communities it's a systematic denial of the American Dream which fueled much of the crime in those communities.

Now we see Capitalism has throw aside the poor white communities and undermined the Middle Class Dream of White America.