Yesterday, on tv, I watched a policeman, in the company of several other policemen, apparently summarily execute a wounded man crawling in the street. The heart of today's editorial comment is provided by The UK Subs' Charlie Harper.
Copper is a killer
No matter what you say
Put him in a uniform
He'll put you in a grave
The copper is a killer
Given him a gun
The copper is a killer
And he's killing everyone
Normally I might suggest we, the people, take ownership of our well documented police problems. I think we have done that already though. But nothing is fucking changing, unless you call getting worse change. Not even a fucking facsist could be pleased with their recent performance.
To my eye the unnecessary killings are the result of the war on drugs, a war which has become more and more para-military. Seeing the ERT out in the street
last week reminded me of that. The ERT dress, and act, like soldiers. Soldiers are not police. Considered to be among the police elite, the influence of the ERT must be tremendous. Our policemen, in a civil society, need to be the least like soldiers as possible.
Fuck the Rambo bullshit and fuck the war on drugs. That is the only road map I see towards improvement.
3 comments:
And a good job they doing of it. Around here, I'm talking years back, the national police used to have an approval rating in the 80s. Now it is in the 20s. The sort of numbers one might expect if you polled Harlem in the '40s.
Marijuana is illegal, traded for cash, guns and coke.
This snowballs because 1) criminals don't call the cops
2) cash and guns and dope are a ready target 3) territorial battles between low-level dealers kill both dealers and bystanders, not to mention push-in attacks.
Estimates are $30 billion per year in BC. Where does this money go? At the very least these people are smart enough to lobby/bribe/extort political support of criminalizing drug use -- many benefits!
Provides inmates to prison "schools," paid by tax money.
Keeps price of dope artificially high.
Keeps pot away from phamaceutical profits.
Recycles money into real estate for grow-ops ... I could go on.
Many good people grow pot, use pot, like pot. It is non-violent. Cash, guns and coke, not so much.
- Jonku
When the RCMP engaged in "starlighting" around Saskatoon, dumping Aboriginal men beyond the end of town in the dead of winter, sometimes after removing their coats, nobody seemed to care much. Trouble is, you teach the police they can get away with murdering one group of people, they don't necessarily just stick to that one group of people.
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