Let Me Scare You Just A Little

[ThomWV]

The activities of our Government as regards detainees and their treatment during interrogation is precedence setting. Consequently we have no reason to think that the practice will not spread. President Bush has by virtue of condoning torture at the Federal level announced to American law enforcement activities at every level that it is a viable tool to add to their toolbox.

Consequently a defense has been set for local police departments who decide to torture detainees in order to illicit further information about their activities. For instance, a teenager stopped for possession of a joint might be water boarded at the local precinct to find out who his supplier(s) are. You think not? The precedent has been set at the highest level, of course its going to slide down to the everyday working level of law enforcement.

[BeHereNow]

1. No see, the democratic candidates are going to save us...

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:
BHN

[leftchick]

9. thank you

for that reality blast. Sick isn't it? :(

[bryant69]

2. It could happen, I think there's a good chance it won't

I mean what is happening in Guantenemo is seen as essentially outside the framework of our current justice system. It's horrible and should not be allowed; but it's seen as something outside the current framework. So it would be difficult to use it as a precedent.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Winterblues]

3. Why I think you are right, I know as soon as I heard about Clinton's BJ

I wanted one too...:silly:

[uppityperson]

4. I'm more concerned about precedent in other countries.

Now that mrbush said it is ok, can USA citizens be waterboarded in other countries too?

[tekisui]

5. The possibility of widespread use is the very reason any of it is ever "leaked."

[Der Blaue Engel]

6. By Bush's own words, he is a terrorist and should therefore be waterboarded

and have other means of "enhanced interrogation" used on him and all of his cohorts until he fucking tells the truth about everything he's done in his (so far) 7-year rape of this country.

:grr:

[JohnyCanuck]

7. You are right to be concerned.

Unfortunately most citizens still have their heads in the sand (or stuck in that place where the sun don't shine) and won't wake up until they find themselves someday in perhaps the not too distant future, getting the shit kicked out of them or a taser applied to their gonads by some goon in a blue uniform.

Tasers, Torture and Terror Tactics: America Becomes a Police State

Torture and atrocities are not confined to Abu Ghraib. In and out of the nation's 'out-sourced' penal institutions, perverts with badges terrorize the nation, threatening innocent children, women and the handicapped. Everyone is a target.

Being an innocent bystander, a model citizen, a Rotarian is not enough to keep you safe from rogue cops, tin-horn sheriffs, or other so-called law enforcement personnel. Who let these dogs out? Who uncorked this evil genie? What Nazi mentality makes a lethal enemy of those who had been sworn to "protect and serve" us? I am pissed!

My fellow Americans, we are being made war upon! And it is no coincidence that the culture of fear, hate, prejudice, perversion and violence unleashed by the evil administration of one George W. Bush is largely to blame. The endemically corrupt GOP has 'stunk up the place' and no one is safe --not in your home, your car, your property! This is what it means to live in a police state.

http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2008/02/tasers-torture-and-terror-tactics.html

Police Atrocities Define the Bush Police State

Jack booted thugs can now arrest you without a warrant, without “probable cause” or evidence that you might have committed a crime. Law abiding Americans are victimized by cops gone wild, sadistic hot dogs, mental midgets and Nazi wannabes. They are inspired by the atmosphere of fear and hate. Police atrocities are to be expected.

The real criminals are in the White House and, so far, they have escaped charges and justice. There is probable cause to try Bush himself for capital crimes --but he is free while millions are brutalized without charges, trial or representation. Now under Bush, jackbooted thugs don't even bother accusing you of a crime. You can be throw in jail upon whim. You don't get to make a phone call. You don't get to call your lawyer. You don't get to call your wife or husband. And you don't get visitors.

These days –who cares if you are innocent. Bush has assumed the power to 'define' you as a terrorist. Conceivably, you could be locked up in one of Bush's hell-holes for the rest of your life. You may never get your day in court. But if you dare to protest that you are an American citizen, you risk getting kicked in the balls, tasered, strip searched and beaten. In Houston, in the seventies, a young Hispanic male was accused of being rowdy in a bar. He was never charged. Rather, Houston cops took him to a secluded part of Buffalo Bayou, beat the crap out of him, and thew him into Buffalo Bayou where he drowned.

Big Brother Bush spies on you. As early as 2002, Bush secretly ordered the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor, intercept, and keep records on international phone calls and emails. They have simply declared they don't need court orders, they don't need probable cause, they don't need authorization, they don't even need 'reasonable suspicion', Gen. Michael Hayden's fictitious, delusional and non-existent standard. The Constitution requires 'probable cause' but you can forget about that in Bush's dictatorship. As Bush himself put it: “Stop throwing up the Constitution to me. It's just a Goddamned piece of paper” (See: A Goddamned Piece of Paper!)

http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2008/02/police-atrocities-define-bush-police.html

"Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons"

Savaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods, Burned By Toxic Chemicals, Does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that were committed in Iraq?

By Deborah Davies

They are just some of the victims of wholesale torture taking place inside the U.S. prison system that we uncovered during a four-month investigation for BBC Channel 4 . It’s terrible to watch some of the videos and realise that you’re not only seeing torture in action but, in the most extreme cases, you are witnessing young men dying.

The prison guards stand over their captives with electric cattle prods, stun guns, and dogs. Many of the prisoners have been ordered to strip naked. The guards are yelling abuse at them, ordering them to lie on the ground and crawl. ‘Crawl, motherf*****s, crawl.’

If a prisoner doesn’t drop to the ground fast enough, a guard kicks him or stamps on his back. There’s a high-pitched scream from one man as a dog clamps its teeth onto his lower leg.

Another prisoner has a broken ankle. He can’t crawl fast enough so a guard jabs a stun gun onto his buttocks. The jolt of electricity zaps through his naked flesh and genitals. For hours afterwards his whole body shakes.

Lines of men are now slithering across the floor of the cellblock while the guards stand over them shouting, prodding and kicking.

Second by second, their humiliation is captured on a video camera by one of the guards.

The images of abuse and brutality he records are horrifyingly familiar. These were exactly the kind of pictures from inside Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad that shocked the world this time last year.

Watch an excerpt from this BBC program on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCaKROXGjbQ if you can't get the video at the link below to load:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=93

A new bill proposed at the legislature (Utah /JC) would allow for police to withhold misconduct reports from the public. Supporters of the bill believe that police misconduct should be kept secret from the public so to not discredit police testimony. Others say that a forthright police unit is essential to the community.

In September, Jared Massey was zapped with a taser by Trooper John Gardner. A video of the incident was recorded from Gardner’s patrol car. Gardner can be seen shocking Massey until he hits the ground while Massey’s wife screams from the side of their SUV.

More than a million people watched the video on “YouTube.” Massey was shocked to see his new found fame. The footage may have never been seen had Massey not made a records request to obtain the tape.


http://www.kutv.com/content/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=49094c36-ec83-4306-954a-eca063c62693

[Wizard777]

8. The police are already using tasers as torture devices. n/t

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

10. We need a Supreme Court that will uphold the 8th Amendment

Hopefully, we'll get that as of 2009 and in the years thereafter.

[Pooka Fey]

11. Kick.

[JohnyCanuck]

12. kick n.t

[KharmaTrain]

13. I Refuse To Live In Fear...

and I refuse to fear this regime...that's what they want. It's their only "credibility" now and our problem has been to let these bullies intimidate us.

The underlying issue of the illegal wiretapping is how easily it would be for information to be "passed along" to the local level...and who knows how many of us right now are having dossiers filled that will be held by folks like the IRS, banks and other agencies and corporations that will attempt to use that info against our own people. While its not phycical torture, anyone whose endured an audit knows the emotional stress it causes.

This kleptocracy has codified authoritarianism...and its seeds have spread. It will take years to root it out...and it must be.

[flashl]

14. To see precedence, review the 'government's' lawful activities in minority communities. nt

[FlowerPowerToday]

15. I've thought about waterboarding my teenager a few times :)

[JNelson6563]

16. Yep, shit rolls downhill

Welcome to the valley.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

17. while highly educated members of law inforcement...

Might use "cruel and unusual" interrogation techniques only when specifically ordered, some dumb beat-cop, who was bullied in high-school, could decide to employ torture simply because he heard a TV report that the CIA admitted to water-boarding suspects.