Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Nation Doesn’t Know If It Can Take Another Bullshit Speech About Healing [View all]woo me with science
(32,139 posts)9. Amen. Insulting platitudes from purchased politicians
whose own policies escalate the problem:
We need an end to the militarization of our police, which is federally driven. We need real accountability, including a national database of police violence and relentless DOJ attention to police abuses.
But what do we get, instead? We get what we have come to expect from our corporate government when it comes to outrages like this.
We get cynical, pretty speeches and cheering propaganda voices, and nothing more.
Nothing ever gets better anymore. No one is ever serious about actual change for the better.
In fact, the corporate politicians making pretty speeches are relentlessly making things worse:
____________________________________________________________________________
The entire Democratic leadership opposed Grayson amendment to stop arming cops with DOD weapons
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025390424
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025390424
Police Militarization (including the Obama administration's role)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/aclu-police-militarization-swat_n_2813334.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/aclu-police-militarization-swat_n_2813334.html
It's almost certain that if the police agencies cooperate, the ACLU will find that the militarization trend has accelerated since Kraska's studies more than a decade ago. All of the policies, incentives and funding mechanisms that were driving the trend then are still in effect now. And most of them have grown in size and scope.
The George W. Bush administration actually began scaling down the Byrne and COPS programs in the early 2000s, part of a general strategy of leaving law enforcement to states and localities. But the Obama administration has since resurrected both programs. The Byrne program got a $2 billion surge in funding as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, by far the largest budget in the program's 25-year history. Obama also gave the COPS program $1.55 billion that same year, a 250 percent increase over its 2008 budget, and again the largest budget in the program's history. Vice President Joe Biden had championed both programs during his time in the Senate.
The Pentagon's 1033 program has also exploded under Obama. In the program's monthly newsletter (Motto: "From Warfighter to Crimefighter" , its director announced in October 2011 that his office had given away a record $500 million in military gear in fiscal year 2011, which he noted, "passes the previous mark by several hundred million dollars." He added, "I believe we can exceed that in FY 12.
Then there are the Department of Homeland Security's anti-terrorism grants. The Center for Investigative Reporting found in a 2011 investigation that since 2001, DHS has given out more than $34 billion in grants to police departments across the country, many of which have been used to purchase military-grade guns, tanks, armor, and armored personnel carriers. The grants have gone to such unlikely terrorism targets as Fargo, N.D.; Canyon County, Idaho; and Tuscaloosa, Ala.
It's united oligarchy, not divided democracy. And it's united oligarchy with a relentless, insulting propaganda machine to try to obscure the truth.
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
16 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
Nation Doesn’t Know If It Can Take Another Bullshit Speech About Healing [View all]
kpete
Nov 2014
OP
Sorry, but that's too clever for me to figure out. Are you railing against the Onion's message? nm
rhett o rick
Nov 2014
#3
Howz about, "Cleverness is not wisdom." except we'd have to give Euripides the royalties. nm
rhett o rick
Nov 2014
#13
Debridement: the removal of unhealthy tissue from a wound to promote healing.
LiberalAndProud
Nov 2014
#12