On Police Brutality

I'd like to paint a picture for you:

I'm sure you've done some traveling where you'd have to visit an airport.

You know the part where they have to search you and have you go through the medal detector?

Well, let's say they make you spread your legs, they go inside of your pants. YES inside of your pants in order to make sure you aren't carrying anything dangerous. They touch you inappropriately, make you spread your butt cheeks apart, they make you open your mouth and take off your shoes. They even check your socks. They take off your hat, search it, and forcefully run their fingers through your hair. They do all of this while interrogating you about where you live, whether or not you're driving YOUR car even if the name on the licence and registration match), whether or not you have insurance, where you work, etc. This is also done when your car looks "too nice", meaning it looks like a car that "somebody like you" wouldn't normally be seen in.

What if you have a job that allows you to have that nice car? You get interrogated. They don't believe the car belongs to you so they run the plates AFTER they finish running your name and registration. Then they make you wait for another officer so they can search your car. They tear your car apart, find nothing, and leave you with the mess to clean up. 

Let's say it happens so much that you automatically "assume the position", which is where they make you turn around, face a wall (or something stationary) with your hands up, put your hands on the stationary object, and spread your legs far apart. And they keep pushing you to spread your legs further. And you can not spread them that far. Not because you are hiding something, but because you just aren't that flexible. And they keep pushing you around, grabbing you and telling you to comply even though you are already doing so. 

They insult you as they continue violating your personal space. They joke about it. They talk about you like a rare fish they caught over the weekend at the lake. They mock you.

And you can't do anything about it because if you move, they might kill you.

I'm sure you'd be royally pissed about that happening to you, right?

Well let's say that happens to you anywhere and without warning. You could be enjoying the sunshine by going on a walk, and all of a sudden the police show up and make you "let them" search you. 

Let's say you file a complaint against said officers. Nothing gets done and the officers are free to transfer into different departments. 

If you're unlucky, that report gets back to the officer. That officer decides to retaliate against you whenever you run into them again. 

^^ This is the sort of thing that happens in Black neighborhoods all the time. I've watched it. I've been searched before. Let me tell you. It makes a person feel dirty.

Bloomberg is Hell Bent on Finding Ways to Scrutinize Folks- my 9/11 rant for the year

I guess the backlash against the Stop and Frisk policies in New York has got the mayor of New York mad as hell. Now he wants to fingerprint people who live in public housing probably because in his head, all of "those" people are drug addicts and are going to magically get away with more crime than usual since the police force is under fire for racial profiling. "Those" people couldn't possibly be working honest jobs and or attempt to raise children or try to create a better life in a foreign country. I mean, they must be doing something wrong. He has to come up with a plan to protect them, I mean after all, isn't that what stop and frisk was supposed to be about? He obviously cares soooo much about these people that he's willing to make sure they get constantly searched and probed or fingerprinted to ensure their safety.  I'm going to have to tell Mike Bloomberg to Get The Fuck Outta here.

Time and time again we have been told that in order to be free, we must sacrifice something, especially after the whole 9/11 fiasco jumped off. People have argued about how the fingerprint policy is going to help determine which residents live there vs those who are visiting, or trespassing.  Why does he feel the need to monitor that? People have visitors all the time regardless if they live in public housing or not. I'm sure those who advocate the fingerprint policy would love to have their visitors and everyone in their residences get fingerprinted prior to entry. Why doesn't he implement these policies in his neighborhood to keep them safe? My guess is that his neighbors would hate him for it, and they'd be very upset about having their style cramped like that. Why not afford the same basic luxury to those in public housing?  I can hear some of these people now.  They may say something like, "These public housing units are being paid for by taxpayer's money, and I don't like the idea that these people are busy committing crimes on my dime. It's bad enough they're all on welfare...bla bla, bla (insert any and all stereotypical race baiting here while ignoring the fact that crime happens between people who live near each other in general)", followed up with their offers of  draconian crap like sterilization, forced abortion for all of those "baby mamas",  bulldozing the public housing units, or by letting them kill themselves and it'll all sort itself out etc."  To them, I present the following situation:

Let's play a game for a bit. What if Stop and Frisk were allowed in their own neighborhoods? What if the fingerprint policy were implemented?  How would things turn out?  I mean, how else are they going to have their dealers show up with whatever illegally procured drugs they use in the privacy and safety of their homes? What if they travel to their dealer's home to purchase it? Would they want to be stopped by police while on foot or driving?  What if they had a visitor in their home who happened to be a former convicted felon? What if it's a close family member who had a possession charge?  I would think they would say it isn't anybody's business whether or not a convicted felon or someone who was formerly in the prison system enters their home. I'm thinking they would say that it's up to the resident who decides which person gets the chance to enter their home.  Maybe it's just me, but I think they really wouldn't like the idea of being policed like that. I'm thinking they might even invent a term for it. I suspect they would call it "Martial Law" and they would fight tooth and nail to prevent it from happening.

 My initial instincts on Mayor Bloomberg's behavior indicate that he really doesn't care about safety of the citizens. He's acting like he may have a financial investment in the privatized prison industry and that he may have a vested interest in making sure the prisons have people in them, as in "more inmates equals more profit".  That being said, I feel some investigative reporting is in order.  Where are the potential inmates you ask? They can be found in public housing.   I guess it's easy to go after people that no one ever cared about. They have no money, they don't look or act like him and his friends.  It's like shooting fish in a barrel, or collecting the low hanging fruit, so to speak. In his eyes, and and others in this country who may not necessarily be rich, these people are vermin and it is their job to keep them in order.  It's too difficult to catch the crook in the suit with the attaché whose about to swindle millions of dollars out of a company, or the one who fooled a bunch of hard working Americans into giving away their life's savings under the promise of making a huge return on their investment, only to fuck off the money like entitled bratty spoiled trust fund babies.  <<But hey, at least they got that one, right?  It took a whole lot of work, but they got him so I guess there's that.  However, I'm waiting on them to get Larry Silverstein, the owner of the World Trade Towers who purchased them shortly before the 9/11 attacks and conveniently took out a multi million dollar insurance policy on the buildings only to have them burn down (insurance fraud?) while killing many innocent people at the same time, George W Bush, Dick Cheney, the bankers and CEOs who crashed the economy, and countless other people who made things very difficult for a lot of folks in this country. Maybe since I'm employed, and have a house, I should adopt an attitude that says "Well, better them than me."  The day I do that is the day I have to tell myself Get The Fuck Outta Here With That Bullshit because that's waaay out of character for me. I'd rather say something to the effect of, "See, look at everything I mentioned here in reference to Michael Bloomberg and his ilk. This is what happens when you let "those people" have money.