mick silver
31st July 2011, 10:22 AM
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110625/us_ac/8696821_the_american_police_state_is_the_new_norma l ...The American Police State
Dear reader Bill T. forwarded a disturbing but worthwhile article, The American Police State is the ‘New Normal’, in which author Jared Spurbeck lists just a few of the sort of acts that Americans are now willing to turn a blind eye to.
Here’s an excerpt…
A 72-year-old woman named Kathryn Winkfein got tasered not too long ago after she lost her temper at the cop who pulled her over. Her offense? Shouting at him.
Luckily, she "learned her lesson" about talking back to America's authority figures. She was also awarded $40,000 in damages, which her County Constable, Richard McCain, complained was a reward for "bad behavior." Apparently putting 50,000 volts through the heart of someone's great-grandma is not bad behavior, as long as you wear a police uniform.
Winkfein was lucky. In what Digby calls the "Taser Atrocity Of The Day," a man who took groceries without having paid for them was tasered continuously for 37 seconds, after he became "aggressive and was communicating loudly." He died in the hospital.
The police officer who killed him was suspended for five days.
You can read the entire article here (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110625/us_ac/8696821_the_american_police_state_is_the_new_norma l).
And be sure to read some of the links in the article, each of which points to yet more outrages.
Then, if you can stomach more, read this story (http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/lawsuit-over-tasing-on-handicapped-17-year-old-pits-differing-stories-1198231.html).
DAYTON — A mother and her mentally challenged son are suing the city and two police officers, claiming they assaulted the boy after mistaking his speech impediment for disrespect.
For whatever it’s worth, pass these articles along. Who knows, if enough people become outraged at this sort of behavior, maybe enough of an outcry will begin to give the “authorities” pause.
But if you are waiting for the mainstream media to help spread the indignation, you might not want to hold your breath.
I mention that as a result of something Doug Casey said in a conversation yesterday. As context, he had just returned from a trip throughout the Middle East. The conversation went something like this:
“You heard about that guy who set himself on fire (http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/164827/20110617/thomas-ball-self-immolate-child-support.htm) on the steps of a New Hampshire court in protest at the way he felt he was treated by the justice system?”
“Sure, someone forwarded me a link to the story. Why?”
“Did you read anything about the incident in any of the mainstream press?”
“Now that you mention it, no.”
“Me neither. As far as I can tell, none of the big media outlets covered it in America. But interestingly, I asked a couple of people in the Middle East if it had been in the news there, and if they had heard about it. And they answered, ‘Of course.’”
Doug’s comments got me wondering, so I Googled man self-immolation in New Hampshire and, other than a few local papers and a small handful of non-mainstream sites, there’s nothing there. In fact, there are only two pages of related Google search results – in other words, next to nothing. Which is surprising, given that it was the self-immolation of a man in Tunisia that is credited with lighting the fuse on the Arab Spring and that got a ton of coverage at the time.
I can’t say why this is the case, or if perhaps there has been a fundamental shift in who decides what should be reported on, but it sure is curious.
I need a laugh…
Dear reader Bill T. forwarded a disturbing but worthwhile article, The American Police State is the ‘New Normal’, in which author Jared Spurbeck lists just a few of the sort of acts that Americans are now willing to turn a blind eye to.
Here’s an excerpt…
A 72-year-old woman named Kathryn Winkfein got tasered not too long ago after she lost her temper at the cop who pulled her over. Her offense? Shouting at him.
Luckily, she "learned her lesson" about talking back to America's authority figures. She was also awarded $40,000 in damages, which her County Constable, Richard McCain, complained was a reward for "bad behavior." Apparently putting 50,000 volts through the heart of someone's great-grandma is not bad behavior, as long as you wear a police uniform.
Winkfein was lucky. In what Digby calls the "Taser Atrocity Of The Day," a man who took groceries without having paid for them was tasered continuously for 37 seconds, after he became "aggressive and was communicating loudly." He died in the hospital.
The police officer who killed him was suspended for five days.
You can read the entire article here (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110625/us_ac/8696821_the_american_police_state_is_the_new_norma l).
And be sure to read some of the links in the article, each of which points to yet more outrages.
Then, if you can stomach more, read this story (http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/lawsuit-over-tasing-on-handicapped-17-year-old-pits-differing-stories-1198231.html).
DAYTON — A mother and her mentally challenged son are suing the city and two police officers, claiming they assaulted the boy after mistaking his speech impediment for disrespect.
For whatever it’s worth, pass these articles along. Who knows, if enough people become outraged at this sort of behavior, maybe enough of an outcry will begin to give the “authorities” pause.
But if you are waiting for the mainstream media to help spread the indignation, you might not want to hold your breath.
I mention that as a result of something Doug Casey said in a conversation yesterday. As context, he had just returned from a trip throughout the Middle East. The conversation went something like this:
“You heard about that guy who set himself on fire (http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/164827/20110617/thomas-ball-self-immolate-child-support.htm) on the steps of a New Hampshire court in protest at the way he felt he was treated by the justice system?”
“Sure, someone forwarded me a link to the story. Why?”
“Did you read anything about the incident in any of the mainstream press?”
“Now that you mention it, no.”
“Me neither. As far as I can tell, none of the big media outlets covered it in America. But interestingly, I asked a couple of people in the Middle East if it had been in the news there, and if they had heard about it. And they answered, ‘Of course.’”
Doug’s comments got me wondering, so I Googled man self-immolation in New Hampshire and, other than a few local papers and a small handful of non-mainstream sites, there’s nothing there. In fact, there are only two pages of related Google search results – in other words, next to nothing. Which is surprising, given that it was the self-immolation of a man in Tunisia that is credited with lighting the fuse on the Arab Spring and that got a ton of coverage at the time.
I can’t say why this is the case, or if perhaps there has been a fundamental shift in who decides what should be reported on, but it sure is curious.
I need a laugh…