20score
20score's JournalRe: Attacks on Snowden, Greenwald. How the fuck do people like that sleep at night?
The authoritarian, 'war on reality' mind has always eluded and disgusted me. There are mountains of evidence proving the NSA is over-stepping its authority, the Constitution and in the process, making this a much less free country. But just like the climate change deniers and creationists before you, you attack the messenger because you have no real case. It's all been laid out thousands of times before. You and your ilk were wrong then, and you're wrong now. I'm not going to restate the obvious. The documents are everywhere. Their own documents! (But here's a link, anyway. A few thousand pages refuting your bullshit positions.)
https://www.aclu.org/nsa-documents-search
Does this make those who attack Snowden and Greenwald while ignoring the real story bad people? Fuck yes it does, and it makes me ill.
I used to like to write long and thoughtful arguments on this and other subjects, (and still do, most of the time) but today I just don't have the patience. I admit to this failing. Although I usually consider myself calm, every once in awhile injustice, stupidity or the powerful and their minions trying to destroy good people so they can continue their crimes - that almost universally hurt those they are sworn to protect - just brings out in me a need to rant.
Police brutality/institutionalized aggression. A partial solution.
I'll propose one answer –and there are many, many things to be done - about police brutality, the drug war and its excesses, and institutionalized aggression.
Wearing cameras is great, but it won't solve everything. Many people in the country, unfortunately, can only be motivated by fear and or money. Empathy and doing the right thing eludes them. They're too dumb, too selfish or too callous to care. (Maybe too busy.) So, to get people involved will take informing the citizens about the costs to the taxpayer,s of employing the worst officers.
There are over two hundred SWAT raids a day in the USA. That number is staggering. Tens of thousands of raids per year, executed for trivial reasons. Property destroyed, innocent people wounded or killed, a mockery made of freedom and the country's values, etc. There are also four hundred people a year killed by cops. Germany fired 85 shots in 2011, British officers fired 3 in 2012. Nobody knows how many thousands of rounds were fired by our police last year, but over 400 people were killed. Yes, our country is larger and more violent. But not to that degree. Not even close. Those numbers in-and-of themselves are a criminal indictment of our system. It's sickening, embarrassing and shows a pathology that should not be allowed to continue.
My proposition is to educate the people on the billions of dollars spent defending the criminals in our employ. Demand the local politicians, whether in New York and Los Angeles, or in Bill Wyoming - if these officers do the wrong thing and cost the town, county, state or city money, they will lose their jobs. Immediately.
Listen to what the experts have to say on the subject. (This alone should be its own post.) Watch and learn:
http://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/wipi/2014/Schedule2014/2/
Added on edit:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-04/nyc-police-abuse-joins-pothole-settlements-costing-735-million.html
Profile Information
Gender: MaleMember since: Fri Jul 4, 2008, 02:39 PM
Number of posts: 4,769
