Protect What? Serve Who? You Talkin' to Me?
The image above illustrates the calm, professional, tolerant face of the New York City Police Department as it goes about its business of assisting the members of Occupy Wall Street understand the true meaning of the Bill of Rights. (Click for larger image.)
Here's another photo of this same policeman. As you can see his knuckles are raw from punching defenseless kids in the head all night. It is the picture of a man who really enjoys his work. (At least in Seattle the police display proper etiquette by pepper-spraying the elderly instead of punching them in the face.)
We do not pay the police to act like thugs for the benefit of corporations. We pay them to protect the people and maintain order, not actively cause disorder. If we the people decide to congregate in large numbers in public parks and decry injustice then the role of the officer is to direct traffic. End of story.
I understand that the nation's police are just like everyone else. They have families to feed and mortgages to pay but when they're asked to attack innocent Americans just because someone running forced-abortion sweatshops in the Marianas isn't comfortable with our citizenry acting democratically then the police are obliged to say "No". If not, then they're the enemy of the people and should be treated as such.
=Lefty=
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Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
Comments
The police forces of EVERY nation are the enemy of the people. Always have been - always will be. They just love the concept of authority coming from the top down rather than from the agreement of the citizen/taxpayers who pay their salaries. (Nothing gets a cop so mad as being reminded of who pays him.)
In this case the “top” is the elite and their representatives in positions of political power.
Your ‘toon says it all, I’m afraid.....
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They do not understandwhat may end up happening to them.
--upton sinclair
"One withstands the invasion of armies; one does not withstand the invasion of ideas."
--victor hugo
occupy party reaches critical mass/seismic effect--now what?
I commented that all three and others motivate me to write. Yes, I noticed immediately that this guy was an NYPD Captain and the look of anger on his face while his victims cower and cringe before him makes me angry.
This reminds me of the image in story and legend, of the the Shariff of Nottingham. A true, "take no prisoners" attitude.
Agreed, this photo is what should be splashed across the front pages and TVs of America. This is, truly, the face of the enemy.
FarLeftSide, you are correct. If they are told to do something like this and then they do so, they are the enemy and no amount of, "I was just doing what I was told," can exonerate them from their brutal acts of lawlessness in the guise of Enforcing the Law.
I still thought the cartoon was funny, but seeing what you posted in your blog below it made the smile completely disappear. Now I'm angry. (Don't worry, I won't let it spoil my day.)
--r--
All right maybe unfair...but this asshole certainly fits the porcine term. I wonder if he beats his wife.
america is not a democracy. as soon as you stop pretending it is, the world around you will suddenly make much more sense.
As a former public health enforcement officer who carried a badge and worked alongside regular law enforcement professionals (mostly), I am angered and saddened by the increasing lack of professionalism, the knuckle dragging goons who seem to take most of the law enforcement jobs these days. It makes it more dangerous for those who try to do their duty and remember that people have rights under the constitution. I no longer have respect for most cops unless they prove themselves worthy and I am considering a new degree in law after what I have seen.
Thanks for this article and most assuredly for the cartoon. It just says it all.
Bloomberg (Notorious liberal for all he claims to be a "Republican") is of course unaware of these goings on.
From Publishers Weekly
Browning reconstructs how a German reserve police battalion composed of "ordinary men," middle-aged, working class people, killed tens of thousands of Jews during WW II.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
http://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution/dp/0060995068