Read the rest at Al Jazeera
If the infrastructure of a police state is created, it's only a matter of time before those aggressive powers are used.
Militarising the police from Oakland to NYC
Op-ed by Heather "Digby" Parton of Hullabaloo
I have been harping on this for years, along with the similar problem created by privatizing prisons. This results in incentives that are perverse to democracy and which are bound to manifest due to the economic benefits. Weapons and the security apparatus are made to be used, and their use leads to increased profits for companies in these growing industries. This leads to lobbies to protect and extend their interests.
This burgeoning trend is simply an extension of the military-industrial-governmental complex about which President Eisenhower famously warned.
This burgeoning trend is simply an extension of the military-industrial-governmental complex about which President Eisenhower famously warned.
6 comments:
Scary and all happening very rapidly now and quite in the open. No turning it back, either.
Mike, I am not sure there is no turning this back. I think (hope) that after the revolution predicted by Batra and Strauss & Howe, people will look back a few decades from now and ask how this ever happened. Otherwise, welcome to 1984 and a global police state. But I don't think that is sustainable, even if it should come about for a while. Corruption inevitably leads to softness, and repression to hardness.
Tom,
I hope you are right, however, I am not very sanguine.
Obama showed that even the most progressive mind can be corrupted once inside the apparatus of power.
Moreover, any external threat to the that power is squelched pretty rapidly nowadays. Witness OWS and the polic/state response. Or how about the legal response to institutional mortgage fraud?
Most frightening, however, is the depth and organization strength of the police state. The statutory usurpation of our rights and freedoms. It's hard to see how you can whittle it all back.
The protestesters need to get some of the round up fence, pepper spray, and riot gear to wear. If these are defensive measures, as the police claim, the police should have no problem with the protesters using the same tools to defend themselves....
I agree that it will be a slog, Mike, but things looked bleak at the outset of WWII, when the Wehrmacht was rolling over Europe and the Luftwaffe bombing the UK.
"It always seems darkest before the dawn."
But I agree that things look pretty daunting right now. Kind of like the outset of the battle at Helm's Deep. But we have Gandalf on our side.
Tomato Basil, the power of non-violent resistance lies in endurance and staying power. This is the strength of the Occupy movement. The strategy is brilliantly conceived and the tactics well executed so far. It has taken over the news cycle, for instance, which is a tremendous PR victory. Moreover, the police and authorities are coming across as the bad guys, in spite of the spin. Even the politicians are now walking gingerly around this one. Not bad for just a few weeks.
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