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Title: Ferguson: The Safety of Citizens is Lost with The Unaccountability of Police
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URL Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/11/ ... s/when-cops-are-unaccountable/
Published: Nov 27, 2014
Author: Paul Craig Roberts
Post Date: 2014-11-27 09:11:35 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 198
Comments: 10
Events in Ferguson unfolded as most aware Americans thought they would. A white prosecutor guided a grand jury to the decision that the white policeman who shot and killed a young black male had just cause and committed no crime. The black majority but politically powerless community in Ferguson consists of Americans who are constantly harassed and abused by police. The black community responded predictably to the exoneration of the white policeman. The results were riots, looting, and the destruction of property. This response hardened the whites in their view that black people are criminally inclined and a threat to the safety of the lives and properties of whites. The issue has been cast as white-black racism. Actually, the situation is far more serious than racism. I can remember times when police in America were reliable. They had themselves under control and saw their role as helpful to citizens and investigators of crimes. They took care not to bring charges against innocent people and to kill citizens without cause. Police would put their lives on line in order to avoid making a mistake in the use of their power. Those times are gone forever. The police have been militarized, especially after 9/11, but even before. Police are taught to regard the public, especially any suspect or traffic offender as a potential threat to the police. The new rule taught to police is to apply violence to the suspect or offender in order to protect the police officer, and to question suspects only after they are safely secured, it they are still alive after being beaten, tasered, or shot. This police training, together with police incompetence, which is difficult to understand in these days of GPS addresses, results in massive assaults in the homes of totally innocent American civilians who have done no wrong, but, despite their innocence, lose family members and pets to gratuitous police violence. Taxpayers pay the police to investigate crimes, not to attack members of the public. But the police have been taught to see their role as protecting themselves from a criminally-inclined public, black and white. Police reside in the executive branch, and since 9/11 the executive branch has succeeded in removing itself from accountability to law and to the Constitution. This unaccountability has filtered down to the militarized police who can now murder with impunity as their numerous murders of citizens are given a pass.
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#1. To: Ada (#0)
Back in your rabid cage.
Especially in the 1970's and earlier and before we had to dial 911.
Ha! And I remember a time when customer service actually helped people, when the military wasn't used to fight Ebola, when people like Sharpton were dressed in orange jump suits, rather than three piece suits.....and then came affirmative action and a hiring policy based on color rather than skill set.
Some folks need to recall how police were armed in the early 20th century: Thompson sub-machineguns, various .30 caliber semi-auto rifles, full auto BAR's, sawed-off shotguns, billy clubs of heavy/dense wood that packed a wallop (and saw frequent use on recalcitrants), etc.
#2. To: Ada (#0)
I can remember times when police in America were reliable. They had themselves under control and saw their role as helpful to citizens and investigators of crimes.
#3. To: Ada (#0)
(Edited)
I can remember times when police in America were reliable. They had themselves under control and saw their role as helpful to citizens and investigators of crimes.
#4. To: Ada (#0)
The police have been militarized, especially after 9/11, but even before.
-Alex Kurtagic
#5. To: Ada (#0) (Edited)
Clearly this is a case of premeditated murder. Wilson said on TV, that he asked himself, “could he kill Brown legally?” The answer was yes. So he did it. He made NO effort to avoid it. While the boy had his head down (wounded with five bullets in him) – Wilson capped him – he shot Brown in the top of the head – he willfully did the kill. End of story.
#6. To: johnj (#5)
The moral to this story is don't bring fists to a gunfight, keep your hands to yourself, etc.
#7. To: johnj, *Post Of The Day* (#5)
@ #5 Well said.
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"They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
#8. To: johnj (#5)
The answer was yes. So he did it. He made NO effort to avoid it. from that point of view, any attempt at self defense is premeditated murder. The motive counts as the differential. He did not set out to kill him because he is black which is the view of most black people. Clearly this is a case of premeditated murder. Wilson said on TV, that he asked himself, “could he kill Brown legally?”
When government gains the power to control the use of private property, it becomes possible for the politically dominant to profit by high commodity prices using government regulation to constrain supply. One merely drives competitors out of business by manipulating the perception of risk to a land use preferred by a democratic majority. - Mark Edward Vande Pol
#9. To: farmfriend (#8) (Edited)
I'm not sure that 15 seconds is all that premeditated... Let's go with self-preservation as the motive.
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
#10. To: farmfriend, all (#8)
Good post. Wouldn't any reasonable person believe they were justified in killing someone who was charging at them with the obvious intention to hurt or kill them? Even some of the black witnesses said that Brown was charging Wilson which is also what Brown claimed. And there is no video of the incident so I guess I will accept that as a fact until and unless proven otherwise. from that point of view, any attempt at self defense is premeditated murder. The motive counts as the differential. He did not set out to kill him because he is black which is the view of most black people.
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends. Paul Craig Roberts
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." Frederic Bastiat
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