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Marc - I see a connection between what police go through, and what teachers go through as well. Everyone wants good services, but not everyone is willing to help or is on the side of the people giving those services. So many good teachers refuse to work in certain neighborhoods - the neighborhoods that need good teachers the most - because they don't want to deal with the parents.
I don't really blame all of the parents though. If you've been on the "low rung" of society your whole life, you would naturally start to strike out at people on higher rungs. Teachers are well-paid professionals, and make easy scapegoats for the problems in education.
That's how I feel about Obama too. Even if I don't agree with him much, I still feel bad for the hyper-polarized climate he is stuck in. And really, there is no end in sight for whichever person and party gets the presidency next. After so much bad blood between the two halves of this country, what can possibly bring us together?
I've said this before, but if this were a marriage, even the counselors would be calling for divorce by now.
Yes, the police seem to have adopted an us-versus-them attitude regarding the communities they were hired to protect. Like the cop in New Mexico (I think it was there) who shot a man who was wandering around the hills -- granted he had a knife in his hand, but the story indicated he was in a confused state. I was married to an epileptic for 40 years & often found him in a confused state, once carrying a knife & walking the road in his long johns. Fortunately, it was a very rural back road with no one else in sight, so nobody was around to call the cops. I was able to take the knife away & get him back home with no problem, as he was just confused, not homicidal.
If many states follow Georgia's example & pass legislation allowing open carry everywhere, police will have even more twitchy trigger fingers than they do now. We seem to be developing an "every man for himself" attitude in this country that I've never seen before in my 74 years on earth. Are we regressing to a Wild West mentality? I expect to see the "Gunfight at the PK Corral" 21st Century-style any day.
UNC Tarheels ~ That is really quite a stretch. If you could provide some credible source to back up that claim I for one would be most interested in seeing it. I had no idea our military was producing so many drug dealers.
Please, don't use Hollywood movies as a source of information, or justify using a grenade on an infant by blaming the behavior of parents. I don't really care if they sold crack. Crack doesn't hurt people like grenades do. Besides, in this country everyone is innocent until proven guilty. In my opinion any officer who throws a grenade into a house without without issuing a fair warning is a sick coward. Police have blow horns, helicopters, radios, and tasers. There is simply no excuse for that kind of reckless and irresponsible behavior.
These raids are unconstitutional and illegal. The only reason we are sacrificing our Constitution is because of this stupid War on Drugs. It is these stupid drug laws that have to go, not our Bill of Rights. Everyone has the right to be safe and secure in their own home--even if suspected of a committing a crime. There is a procedure to follow for such instances to protect not only innocent victims; but, the police and the suspect as well. You surround the building. You use a helicopter for aerial surveillance. You use a blow horn to issue a warning and ask for surrender. Only when that fails do you use force. You don't surprise people by using force first; and, you never use military weapons in an urban setting. That has always been strictly forbidden by the Constitution; and, only by outfitting our police with these weapons has this basic principle of the Constitution been circumnavigated. That is a travesty.
Let me start by saying that when SWAT teams meet up with detectives prior to serving no knock warrants and learn layout of the house and how many people occupy the house or building and they also ask if there are children present. If there are children then flash bangs are not used. Most drug dealers have served in the military so it would follow that when they have to be arrested you have to send people who have special training. Some SWAT teams train 40 hours a month they recieve no extra pay for those duties and most work in patrol until they are needed to serve high risk arrest warrants. They are called into resolve domestic violence situations where the husband has barricaded himself in his house and is threatening to kill his wife and children. They raid crack houses arrest violent suspects. To understand what they do watch SWAT with Sam Jackson or the Mario Van Peebles directed movie 44 minutes About the shootout with LAPD by the Serbian bank robbers Valley Trust bank at Boyle and Kitteridge.
Thom why shouldn't the parents get some of the blame for bringing a child into a crack house in the first place.
ChicagoMatt ~ A clip from the hilarious--and ominously scary--opening scene of "Idiocracy." Scary because it's so true!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icmRCixQrx8
Long ago, I went to college to become a police officer and after a short time on the streets, it became apparent it was an active war zone. I drew down on a man crouched down pretending to hold a handgun. Associates were shot and killed for no reason. I found out there were guns everywhere. I also found out I was not meant to be a domestic soldier of war.
My heart goes out to the baby and mother. There are too many guns and too few jobs.
The war on drugs has turned our streets and this baby's home in an urban war zone. The upper middle class scurry away from the cities to their security-gated communities, a type of self made prison, ignorant of the reality of massive incarceration of the highly profitable illicit, black market (no pun intended).
Rich in Folsom
I thought Cliven Bundy had all these local Rambo wannabes disarming the Federal government.....Ha Ha...nobody kicking in the doors and flash grenading the nuts pointing their weapons at Federal Rangers.....this country has turned into one big sad and pathetic joke.
I'm pretty sure you mean "occupying army", not "occupied army". The army does the occupying, it doesn't get occupied by someone else.
ChicagoMatt ~ I've experienced that too. In poorer inner city areas you have a definite split amongst the people. You have those who actively engage in crime and naturally hate the police. You have those who are honest and are also split between two lines. The youth get no respect from the police and are constantly harassed into hating them. The older folk feel that the police don't do enough to protect them. The victims are afraid of cooperating because they might have to pay for it.
I recently attended a meeting with our Mayor, our brand new Police Chief, and several members of the community. I was somewhat surprised at how many of the people responded to the Chief. Just about everything he said pissed off somebody. The students felt harassed for nothing. The adults felt endangered and neglected. I can only imagine how the new Police Chief came out of that meeting feeling. My heart went out to him.
There is little the police can do. This problem is a result of poverty; and, until poverty is addressed it will continue to go on. Nevertheless, militarizing the police instead of focussing on reducing poverty has the same result of trying to put out a fire with a bucket of gasoline. It's just going to make a bad situation much worse for everyone.
Our military industrial complex has become a curse not only on this nation but on humanity itself. The time has come to completely dismantle it.
AIW ~ You too!
That makes sense. I remember Thom talking to someone - maybe it was Reich that I heard - and they said that the worst thing that could happen would be for a too-small stimulus to pass, and it not do any good, and righties would use it as proof of government ineptitude.
I wonder how many people, if they were given a check for $6,000 today, would buy something with it, versus how many would pay off debt with it. Granted, paying off debt would help too. So I can see your point.
Marc - Prepare to feel old. The first movie I saw in a theater was Forrest Gump. I've only seen a handful of movies from the 70s, like Jaws and Star Wars. I also have on my "summer movie list" to watch at least one more Clint Eastwood movie. The only one of his I've ever seen is "Unforgiven", but I understand he wasn't always an old man like he was in that one. Some of the old women I work with claim he was "hunky" and "dreamy" and recommended some titles for me.
I've heard of "The Jerk". Steve Martin, right? I met him once. He was with his Banjo-band that he does now. We were told before we met him to not mention his movies, just his music. He's best known to people my age for his Father of the Bride role.
Never heard of the movie Idiocracy. I'll have to google it.
Chuck - That sounds about right. I vaguely remember the righties being up in arms about federal money for solar energy going to Chinese companies, because no American companies could handle the orders. I feel like Solendra was involved somehow, but I can't remember now.
I've said this before, but I've already got estimates for getting my house off of the grid with solar panels. I should be able to afford it within a few years, but I'm not so sure about giving up a big chunk of my basement to handle the hardware and batteries.
I cannot believe this but I can. I live in your 52nd state. It's the largest island in the world and it is the continent of Australia. Our police here are imitating yours I was among those who protested against GW's visit and saw police and army dressed in black in full gear loaded with weapons. The world is getting scarier by the day. so far no baby has been targeted but we do have young first Australians tazered and beaten up dying in custody. Militarised police brutality is infectious and seems to be spreading worldwide. Like the Ninja's we will have to band together and find a solution before they let the robots on the loose, which they are planning to do.
I hope and pray the little baby survives it's burns and is not to scarred. I feel so sorry for her.
I wish I could stay as optimistic as Thom to think that this is reversible, but with the huge amount of profit for companies to gain, the ever growing connections of police to military and intelligence resources, and the lack of punishment given to officers and departments who go too far, it seems like not only will it get worse, but that's exactly what they want!
I've experienced this hyper-civilian militarism myself. I've seen the consequences. I also saw a flash grenade thrown into a baby's crib. Fortunately, that baby and his mother were shopping when it happened. Then these mercenaries threw military grade tear gas grenades into all the apartments in one building where a fugitive was supposedly held up. The only apartment they missed was the one he was in. He ended up surrendering peaceably after they let up their assault.
I learned that these new military grade tear gas grenades send out chemicals that go everywhere in a building. They penetrate and permanently ruin everything they touch from clothes and carpet to walls and ceilings. Everything has to be thrown away and destroyed because any contact with it makes you instantly very sick.The flash grenade they threw through the windows of the apartments shattered all the other windows sending glass fragments flying through the air. It seems so unjust that to catch one fugitive the police had to destroy the apartments and all the belongings of 5 innocent families and put countless innocent people in deadly danger.
This is a very serious travesty of justice people; and, it's coming to a neighborhood near you.
More and more we see the militarization of law enforcement that sees people as enemies, rather that fellow citizens to be protected and served. I have worked with the Department of Justice and state agencies developing trainings with law enforcement in the past, and bad behavior, like the incident below, was seen as bad or inadequate training. I am retired now, but still pay attention and notice the changes. Many of my former collegues are upset and embarrassed by the present state of affairs and the growing police violence.
Over the last few years it is apparent that the military industrial complex is looking at civilian law enforcement as a source of revenue. The economic situation growing out of the corporate greed that has no involvement with the welfare of the country has taken our youth and trained them to war rather than peace.
whatever this Pres does will be wrong according to the right wing nuts !
This is not a negotiation with terrorists, this is about bringing home an American POW, pure and simple! Also, we are talking about the Taliban not Al Queda, they are 2 different things. Whether we like it or not, the Taliban are in Afghanistan and will continue to be long after we leave, we have no control over that. I despise the Republican Party who would be celebrating this deal with a white, Republican President, but cannot stomach it with a black Democratic President!
Within the last couple of weeks our local newspaper indicated that the local State University now receives only thirteen percent of its operating costs from our State. Yesterday we learned that the State plans to close almost half of the facilities now serving our mentally disabled. Services will, no doubt, be contracted out. How are these and similar government services not considered privatization? (Profitization?) Next will be our water systems.
Peace, brother... and have a great week! - AIW
Chi Matt -- Interestingly, I was watching the Cycle on MSNBC today and they were talking about the BRIC countries. They were mostly talking about China.
.They were saying that China is doing more than the US about the environment.
I think it is interesting that the $2 trillion number was front and center (actually off to the left) in the stimulus package discussions in 2009. Robert Reich, Thom and others were saying the stimulus package should be $2.1 trillion to bring full recovery to the economy. They also stated that none of it should be tax breaks for the rich. With republican obstructionism and blue dog help the number was reduced to $0.8 trillion (AKA 800 billion). In addition, 200 billion was tax cuts (mostly for the rich). I think this whole debate happened while Obama had a filibuster proof senate. Robert Reich and others were correct. It did not bring about full recovery; however, it did change a 700,000 per month job loss into a 200,000 per month job gain. Just imagine what a great stimulus $2 trillion would have been.
Chi Matt that was only $0.8 trillion, and it happened only once. It has kept that 200,000 per month job gain going. It has been 5 years. Chi Matt, you need to realize the power of that ripple effect. You have mentioned the ripple effect, but you seem to have underestimated its power.
I know a few cops, and they all talk about a "code of silence" in gang-infested areas of the city. They tell me that most cops begin by trying to help the communities they are in, and get to know the regulars on their beat. But that optimism is short-lived, once they realize those communities don't want them there. When a crime is committed, everyone complains about the high crime, but no one will talk to the cops, so nothing ever gets done. They're a lot like Republicans in that regard - they want the good stuff, but they don't want to cooperate at all to get it.
Here's an interesting article about that:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/radley-balko-chicago-code-of-si...
ChicagoMatt ~ By the way, if you do get a chance to check out "Idiocracy" you might appreciate it better if you read this website first:
11 Hidden Secrets in The Movie "Idiocracy"