A Pandemic of Police Brutality

[Rajiv]

By Paul Craig Roberts

America’s Police Brutality Pandemic

Bush’s "war on terror" quickly became Bush’s war on Iraqi civilians. So far over one million Iraqi civilians have lost their lives because of Bush’s invasion, and four million have been displaced. Iraq’s infrastructure is in ruins. Disease is rampant. Normal life has disappeared.

Self-righteous Americans justify these monstrous crimes as necessary to ensure their own safety from terrorist attack. Yet, Americans are in far greater danger from their own police forces than they are from foreign terrorists. Ironically, Bush’s "war on terror" has made Americans less safe at home by diminishing US civil liberty and turning an epidemic of US police brutality into a pandemic.

The only terrorist most Americans will ever encounter is a policeman with a badge, nightstick, mace and Taser. A Google search for "police brutality videos" turns up 2,210,000 entries. Some entries are foreign and some are probably duplications, but the number is so large that a person could do nothing but watch police brutality videos for the rest of his life. A search on "You Tube" alone turned up 2,280 police brutality videos. PrisonPlanet has a selection of the most outrageous recent cases.

[FRED]

Re: A Pandemic of Police Brutality

By Paul Craig Roberts

America’s Police Brutality Pandemic

A pandemic of police brutality reporting, that's for sure.

Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater. USA police are some of the best trained in the world. YouTube does not cover routine professionalism. That's boring.

In iTulip tradition, let's keep it in perspective.

[Rajiv]

Re: A Pandemic of Police Brutality

Definitely appears to be a pandemic of police brutality reporting.

[Sapiens]

Re: A Pandemic of Police Brutality

Check out this superb book, although he hypes the LEO’s side too much, it is only logical since he is an ex-Cop. The title does not do justice to the content.

http://www.amazon.com/Arrest-Proof-Y.../dp/1556526377
Arrest-Proof Yourself: An Ex-Cop Reveals How Easy It Is for Anyone to Get Arrested, How Even a Single Arrest Could Ruin Your Life, and What to Do If the Police Get in Your Face (Paperback)
by Dale C. Carson (Author), Wes Denham (Author)

ISBN-10: 1556526377

[FRED]

Re: A Pandemic of Police Brutality

Check out this superb book, although he hypes the LEO’s side too much, it is only logical since he is an ex-Cop. The title does not do justice to the content.

My comment doesn't mean that there's no problem, only that the problem may not be any worse than it's ever been.

YouTube has revolutionized the dissemination of information without a mainstream media filter. However, video of cops not arresting people is not interesting. All we're going to see are the abuses or apparent abuses. Hard to say, then, if police abuse of citizens' rights is getting worse or whether we're now seeing the true level of abuse that's always been present.

[Rajiv]

Re: A Pandemic of Police Brutality

Look at the excerpts of the book Sapiens recommended "Arrest-Proof Yourself" here particularly the part on the Criminal Justice Plantation -- It will give you a clue as to why it is happening to an increasing degree today -- same reasons as for the FIRE economy! This dovetails in very well with Catherine Austin Fitts' research - “Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits”

[WDCRob]

Re: A Pandemic of Police Brutality

I know the cops in my home town used to take homeless men down behind the floodwall and beat them up. That was the 1970s - it was an open secret.

I think it's actually less likely to happen today. Every police car has a camera and the cops are expected to interact with the suspect in frame. Every bystander has a cell that shoots images. Random security and other cameras are pervasive. And there's a HUGE 'market' for footage like this.

So, I think EJ's got it right here. Hard to see how there's an increase - but they probably get caught a lot more often.

[Rajiv]

Re: A Pandemic of Police Brutality

Yes you are right. However, now it is not just homeless men that are being beat up and harrassed as depicted in the "Arrest Proof Yourself" book. I think both you and "Fred" are missing the point here -- there is also Fitts work that I refer to above -- "Arrest records" are similar to a dope dealer's "samples." Both the dope dealer and the legal system "need" "customers" - otherwise they have to put up an "OUT OF BUSINESS" sign.