Edward R. Murrow on sheeple…
Tag: police state
You can’t fight fascism by expanding the police state
In the coming days and weeks we are likely to see pundits and lawmakers call for things like passing a new domestic terrorism law, expanding mass surveillance programs, increasing funding for the FBI and law enforcement, installing backdoors in encrypted messaging apps, and arming police with more technology like facial recognition and social media monitoring software. We’re also likely to see renewed attempts by the government to curtail freedom of expression, including misguided attacks on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
This is the exact opposite of what we need to be doing. Expanding the U.S. government’s already bloated surveillance state will only bring more terror and harm to the same communities that Trump targeted with his racist policies and rhetoric. More money, weapons, and technology in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security—an agency complicit in human rights abuses long before Trump took office—won’t stop the rising threat of right-wing violence. Instead it will be used to suppress legitimate dissent, and disproportionately target Black and brown activists, Muslims, immigrant communities, and social movements that effectively challenge systemic injustice and corporate power.
Police chief calls for power of entry into homes of suspected lockdown breakers
The government should toughen the lockdown by giving officers the right to force entry into homes of suspected law breakers, a policing leader has said.
David Jamieson, the police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands police, England’s second biggest force, said: “For the small minority of people who refuse entry to police officers and obstruct their work, the power of entry would seem to be a useful tool.
“I have raised this issue with the policing minister previously and clarity on the power of entry would help police officers enforce the new Covid regulations more easily.”
As the third lockdown comes into force in England at midnight on Wednesday, the rising infection rate is also causing increasing absences from the ranks of officers needed to help enforce the lockdown.
New York Bill Would Let the State Put People in Detention if Deemed a ‘Significant Threat to Public Health’
New York lawmakers are mulling a bill that would allow the state to detain anyone carrying or suspected of carrying a contagious disease that makes them a “significant threat to public health.”
Democratic Assemblyman N. Nick Perry of New York’s 58th District spearheaded Bill A416, which holds that the government may “order the removal and/or detention of such a person or of a group of such persons” in a “medical facility or other appropriate facility or premises designated by the governor or his or her delegee.” A confirmed carrier would be released only after he or she is no longer contagious, and a suspected carrier could be set free only when the government proves that he or she “is not infected with or has not been exposed to such a disease.”
Those who may have been in contact with the alleged carriers may also be detained and released when they test negative for the malady in question, or if the suspected carrier with whom they interacted is deemed to be negative.
What could go wrong?
A war on cops?
Nearly 4 Times as Many Cops Killed Themselves Than Were Shot and Killed in 2020
In 2020, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, 45 police officers were shot and killed in the line of duty — a decrease from the previous year. Absent from the database of fallen officers, however, are the 173 cops who ended their own watch. After rising for four consecutive years in a row, suicide among police dropped a little but is significantly higher than 2016.
As the number of officers killed in the line of duty decreased, the number of cops taking their own lives has increased. The website Blue H.E.L.P. (Honor. Educate. Lead. Prevent.) has been tracking these numbers for years in an attempt to prevent police officer suicides.
The mainstream media often portrays the unfortunate random killing of police officers as analogous to a larger “war on cops.” The reality is that there is a concerted public relations effort underway, on the part of law enforcement, with the intention of stemming the growing public calls for more oversight and accountability.
If law enforcement were genuine about wanting to save the lives of cops, they would begin by attempting to put focus on the growing number of police suicides, which dwarfs the number of cops fatally shot the line of duty. Cops are killing themselves at a rate nearly equal to 4 times the rate they are dying in the line of duty and this subject seems entirely taboo. Last year, it was nearly five times higher.
Tastes like dystopia…
Proposed Bill Bans Body Armor, Makes Possession a Crime, Forces Citizens to Turn it In or Face Arrest
Lawmakers in New York have proposed one of the most tyrannical and utterly worrisome pieces of legislation we’ve seen. They want to ban citizens from having body armor to protect themselves from bullets. As no one has ever beaten anyone to death with a bullet proof vest, the intentions behind this bill are clear and have no other purpose other than making it easier for government to kill citizens and harder for citizens to protect themselves from bullets.
New York, who has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, now wants to make it a misdemeanor and potential felony for people to purchase or possess a passive means of resistance to bullets.
Unlike other attempts to ban body armor like we’ve seen in the past, this bill does not grandfather people in who already own it. In fact, the bill says that it must be turned over to the state for disposal, or you are guilty. After the passage of the bill, citizens will have 15 days to turn it in before they are declared criminals.
State Supreme Court Bars Victims of Police Crimes from Seeking Punitive Damages in Lawsuits
Over the years, the Free Thought Project has run many headlines with the phrase “taxpayers held liable” included in it after cops were caught maiming, raping, kidnapping and killing people. Many of these excessive force, murder, and wrongful arrest lawsuits were brought against police departments because the departments and prosecutors refused to hold the offending officers accountable and lawsuits were the only form of justice the victims could seek.
While no amount of money can ever undo the damage caused by some of these officers, it was at least some form of seeking justice. In Iowa, however, all that is changing after the Iowa Supreme Court just severely limited the amount of financial damages a victim of police crimes can be awarded.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat and the longest-serving attorney general in U.S. history, with four decades in the role, is a friend of bad cops. According to a recent investigation by the Associated Press, Millers office has failed — quite possibly deliberately — to convict and cop in the state since 2004. And, in the last 16 years, he’s brought charges against just two cops.
Clearly, Miller has a bias toward police and for decades, abusive cops have enjoyed a sort of immunity under his tenure. Citizens who were abused by police or family members of those killed by police have been forced to seek justice through civil lawsuits, seeking punitive damages. Now, however, thanks to an initiative brought forward by Miller, the Iowa Supreme Court just severely limited the financial damages that can be awarded for injuries and deaths caused by state police officers who are found to have used excessive force.
In a 6-1 decision, the court ruled that punitive damages, which are intended to punish and deter future criminal behavior by police, are not available in cases in which officers use excessive force in violation of constitutional rights.
Are you crazy?
Hellbound and Down 
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