Those people are the Police.
It is easy to dismiss the cries from the public about police brutality as ignorant or moronic, and go about living in a way where you pretend power abuse like that of the police isn't real. The people deserve it. They're lying for the attention of the media. Whatever excuse it is you can bring into the ring that isn't already there.
It is unavoidable fact, however, that we have given law-enforcement too much power. Don't believe me?
We all heard about the infamous Mike Brown incident in Ferguson, Missouri. It was the headline of every news station for a solid two weeks.
You can dispute whether or not the police or Mike Brown were actually in the wrong about the incident, and we may never know the real answer. But, do you remember the police response to the protests that took place?
Maybe this will help.
Also, just to top it all off, here's a video of journalists of Al Jazeera being gassed by the police for setting up film equipment.
You think that's bad? Have you ever heard of a little act called Civil Forfeiture?
Police, by Civil Forfeiture laws, have the right to seize people's property without having to convict them for any crime, what-so-ever. There is a rather prominent issue with the hand-out of these kinds of privileges to the police
Consider this situation. You're driving down the road on your way to buy a new car. You have your money with you, all, let's say, $10,000.00. You get stopped by a cop for speeding and upon approaching you he asks if you have any large sums of money in the car. You say yes, you're headed to buy a new car and have cash in your glove department.
The cop then tells you he is seizing the money because he suspects you of going to buy drugs.
No, this is not Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. This is your local police department, and they are allowed to do this. The sad part of it is, most people can't afford a lawyer to argue out their case and even if they have the money are left with bureaucratic complications beyond reason.
This is literal legal robbery.
Since September 11, 2001 under one program alone over $2,500,000,000.00 worth of cash alone has been seized over the course of almost 62,000 seizures by people who were not even convicted of a crime. Not only that, there is no limits at all as to what they do with the money the collect and are allowed to keep as much as 100% of it in some cases.
Get it? It's sort of like a dictatorship, but you still feel free.
These are the people we give guns to and trust our lives with. People who commit highway robbery, abuse their power, and hurt innocent civilians and journalists are then expected to go out and fight injustice. Seems like a paradox. These people are given all this power by the people upstairs who have even more power over us.
Perfect.
We can no longer sit back and sacrifice freedom and privacy for the sake of safety and comfort, like we've done for so long. If we want this system to work, then that is not an option, and, in truth, never has been.
We have to fight injustice ourselves, because the people who were suppose to fight the monsters have found themselves becoming them.
Unless we want to be another shadow-of-a-nation swallowed up by it's own authoritarian corruption, then it is time we make a change because what we have got going on now is not working anymore.
Not when innocent people are getting hurt.
That's all for today! I'll be back tomorrow with another post!
"Imagine a king who fights his own battles. Wouldn't that be a sight?" -Achilles
No comments:
Post a Comment