Summary: I have long discussed what might make Americans rouse themselves to retake the reins of the Republic and reverse its evolution into a new regime. Clear warnings, descriptions and diagnosis of the problem? Anger at ourselves and what we’ve allowed America to become? None of these seem plausible. Perhaps fear will do it, produced by recognition that there is a class war — and we’re losing. A few posts will review the depressing news.
Will these spur you to act? Time is not our ally. Lots of groups talk about building a New America; the people doing so act in the shadows — visible only if you look. But the results of their work have become obvious.
We discuss the progress of our foreign wars in great details, just as we track every vibration of the economy and the political machinery in Washington. The big things get less attention, such as the class war by the 1% against us. We’re losing. It’s like slowly boiling a frog; it’s happening so slowly that we don’t notice. But there’s still time to act. {Also: zoologists consider this a myth; please don’t test it at home.}
(1) COIN comes to America
As I and so many others warned for so long, the techniques of surveillance and oppression developed during our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan would eventually come home. As we see at the crushing of the Occupy protests and on the streets of Ferguson. Here’s another example. Even I, who has chronicled so many horrific stories about America at this website, was shocked. I shouldn’t have been surprised.
“The disappeared: Chicago police detain Americans at abuse-laden ‘black site’“, Spencer Ackerman, The Guardian, 24 February 2015 — Secret interrogation facility reveals aspects of war on terror in US. Protester details 17-hour shackling without basic rights. Accounts describe police brutality, missing 15-year-old and one man’s death.” Excerpt:
The secretive warehouse is the latest example of Chicago police practices that echo the much-criticized detention abuses of the US war on terrorism. While those abuses impacted people overseas, Homan Square – said to house military-style vehicles, interrogation cells and even a cage – trains its focus on Americans, most often poor, black and brown.
Unlike a precinct, no one taken to Homan Square is said to be booked. Witnesses, suspects or other Chicagoans who end up inside do not appear to have a public, searchable record entered into a database indicating where they are, as happens when someone is booked at a precinct. Lawyers and relatives insist there is no way of finding their whereabouts. Those lawyers who have attempted to gain access to Homan Square are most often turned away, even as their clients remain in custody inside.
Where was the Chicago Tribune all these years? As so often the case, a British newspaper broke this story about events in the US. That’s a long pattern, from the scandals about the Clinton Administration to leads about NSA surveillance.
(2) What reforms followed the protests about police violence?
Leaders of the NY Police have creatively responded to protests about their use of excessive force.
Louis Turco, president of the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, hand-delivered a note to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton Friday seeking his support for legislation to create an “aggravated resisting arrest” charge for people who resist arrest twice within a 10 year span. The proposal would increase the punishment for resisting arrest by pumping it up from a class A misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to one year in jail — to a class E felony, punishable by up to four years in jail.
“Such a program would have the potential dual benefit of enhancing the safety of the men and women of the Department and the general public,” Turco wrote.
He also is asking that the NYPD, through CompStat, begin tracking all incidents involving resisting arrest and assault on a police officer. {New York Post, Jan 26.}
No mention of using CompStat to track incidents of police using excessive force, even lethal force against unarmed people. That’s information carefully not tracked by police departments and the FBI. The proposal quick gained a powerful advocate:
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton today called for the state to change resisting arrest to a felony charge. Mr. Bratton testified today before a joint hearing of four State Senate committees, where he made a number of recommendations — including suggesting that the penalty increase for resisting arrest. Currently, resisting arrest is a misdemeanor carrying a maximum punishment of one year, which Mr. Bratton argued does not deter the nearly 2,000 resisting arrest charges each year. “I think a felony would be very helpful in terms of raising the bar significantly in the penalty for the resistance of arrest,” … {New York Observer, Feb 4.}
That’s a bad idea in the current police regime, since accusations of resisting arrest are frequently misused by bad cops.
Police departments around the country consider frequent charges of resisting arrest a potential red flag, as some officers might add the charge to justify use of force. WNYC analyzed NYPD records and found 51,503 cases with resisting arrest charges since 2009. Just five percent of officers who made arrests during that period account for 40% of resisting arrest cases — and 15% account for almost 3/4 of such cases.
“There’s a widespread pattern in American policing where resisting arrest charges are used to sort of cover – and that phrase is used – the officer’s use of force,” said Walker, the accountability expert from the University of Nebraska. “Why did the officer use force? Well, the person was resisting arrest.” {WNYC, 4 Dec 2014.}
As usual, the New York Times doesn’t even mention these developments (so far as I can see via Google). These are matters not fit for us to know about. Anyway, they affect mostly the underclass — so of little interest to membership of the inner and outer parties who comprise the NYT’s core readers.
The America that once was
The America of today, perhaps much worse tomorrow
Posts in this series showing that we’re losing America
- More evidence that we’re losing America. It’s not too late to act.
- Stories about a rising tide of black mob violence!
For More Information
To get angry, see posts about police violence. For ideas what to do next see the posts about Reforming America — steps to political change.
Here are a few posts keeping score: Why the 1% is winning, and we are not. Four opportunities to get angry, and put America on path to reform. Scoring the game so far: NSA is winning, we’re losing. My favorite: As the 1% grows more powerful, they speak their minds more boldly.
