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It is nearly impossible to differentiate our military from
our police.
It wasn’t always that way.
Police used to walk a beat and meet the citizens. They knew all the schoolchildren and their parents. They used to stop and shoot a few hoops or kick a soccer ball with neighborhood kids. They used to come into our schools and give us talks on how to stay safe…what to do if a stranger tries to talk to us, how to cross a street, how to get help if we are in trouble. They wanted us to know their names … Officer Roach, Officer Jolly, Officer Little. I still remember the cops from my childhood.
That’s how it used to be.
Now the police don’t want to mingle with people. Don’t want to get too close to citizens. Don’t want to let their guard down. You know. Officer Safety and all.
All police think all citizens are dangerous. And all citizens think all police are dangerous.
Now what?
Police vehicle windows are tinted so you can’t even see the police anymore. The police stations are locked up or off-limits to citizens. Some have mirrored glass protecting them from us. Some make you press a button and talk to an anonymous voice through a wall. Some won’t even let you in the building.
And police officers have every weapon and device of torture imaginable strapped on military-style vests that likely weigh more than most toddlers.
Keep in mind, they are using taxpayer dollars (and civil forfeiture money) to buy all
this over-the-top paraphernalia. There seems to be no end in sight as to how much equipment police officers need.
And police need backup for every citizen encounter and every call they receive. None of
them can handle any citizen complaints, any upset individual, any neighbor dispute, a person who
refuses to answer questions, or anyone they deem a possible problem. Something as
simple as being aggravated and telling an officer to hurry up writing your ticket
so you can get to work on time will prompt an officer’s call for backup and
unwarranted and excessive questioning, searching, accusations, and anger from police. They extend
traffic stops because they can.
While Judge Dredd used to be a fiction movie based on a comic book, it has come true. Police have become unstoppable, and we all now know it. Police do not just arrest offenders anymore. They want to hurt them and harm them and hate them and sometimes kill them.
We all watch the videos. We all read the news. We all know it is happening.
It’s Them against Us.
The recent headlines of the NYPD opening fire in a crowded
subway station has prompted protests from citizens.
I wasn’t there. I don’t know all the details, but here is what I gather from news reports.
A man in New York jumped a turnstile to avoid the subway fee. The police were not having that, because they decided that $2.90 was worth risking citizen safety by pursuing him, tasing him, cornering him, and eventually opening fire on him in a crowded subway.
Innocent people were shot. (Peace and Healing to all of them).
Police said the man who jumped the turnstile had a knife.
Okay.
Why was the knife in his hand? It wasn't in his hand when he entered the subway. Was it because he knows police kill black men all the time? And when he saw officers aggressively approaching, he felt the need to protect himself? Is that why he had a knife in his hand?
It appeared the man was trying to get away from the police, rather than attack them. The police were the aggressors in approaching him ... he was not approaching them.
Remember, this is for a $2.90 crime. But, police decided to go balls-to-the-wall to apprehend this man.
Police claimed they tried to de-escalate the situation. I’m not a police officer, but I am a person with common sense. And common sense tells me that pointing weapons at a person while loudly screaming commands at them and cornering them is not de-escalation.
It is aggression. It is confrontation. It is ineffective. It is the result of hyped-up, adrenaline junkies, whose chests are strapped to the hilt with military-style weapons who continuously use officer safety as an excuse to harm and kill and break the law and distance themselves from the public.
I don’t know all the details, but the police will spin a tale (they already have) to make it sound like they were protecting innocent people from a madman.
The only time we hear police talk about citizen safety is when their PR experts tell them to use the phrase in defense of themselves after they fucked up and hurt or killed people.
Police have experts telling them what to do and what to say and how to protect themselves. And they have politicians (like Mayor Adams) praising them for their "restraint" in opening fire in a crowded subway.
So, sit back, let the stories continue to fly, and rest assured that police will be commended for their actions and headlines will label the man they were pursuing as a dangerous, out-of-control lunatic.
Sources:
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/gregory-delpeche-police-subway-shooting/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Dredd
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/21/us/nypd-brooklyn-subway-shooting/index.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/newly-released-body-camera-footage-shows-an-officer-involved-shooting-in-the-nyc-subway-219901509897
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/footage-shows-nypd-officers-firing-man-knife-subway-113888838
https://www.npr.org/2024/09/16/nx-s1-5114043/4-were-shot-in-nyc-subway-station-when-police-say-they-tried-to-subdue-man-with-knife