Politics

[darxus]

Last night I heard on the radio that Bahrain troops attacked mostly sleeping, peaceful protesters, with teargas and bird-shot at close range (shotgun, many tiny pellets). Several killed, a bunch wounded. It seemed reasonably possible to me. But not to cathijosephine. I find it a very interesting example of our substantially differing perspectives. And we've still been together for five years. (Neither of us claims to know anything about Bahrain.)

Update: The first video on this page is what I heard on the radio: http://www.channel4.com/news/protesters-killed-as-police-storm-bahrain-demonstration-camp

Comments

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

possible that a govt would attack citizens? happens here all the time.

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[feng-huang.livejournal.com]

...particularly in the name of the War on Some Drugs.

Case in point, the police intercepted a package being sent to an innocent third party's house (which apparently sometimes happens so that dealers can pick it up after delivery without having their own address associated with it), got a rubber-stamp warrant, and raided the house.

In the course of the raid, they handcuffed the owner and his elderly mother, shot both of his dogs (at least one while it was running away), ransacked the place, and questioned the residents for many hours. They refused to believe or even verify that he was the mayor of his town.

Of course, everyone involved was cleared of wrongdoing, and the sheriff stated that, given the chance to do it all over again, they would—without hesitation.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

oh, i know a LOT about that case. the police quietly paid for the damage, but they seized the dead dogs without warrant and destroyed the evidence. Mayor never saw his dogs (one was a puppy) again.

the police were one's that PLANTED the drugs on the front step too. the local sheriff was actually NOT informed, it was a county/state based swat team that STRICTLY speaking, did not have jurisdiction in the town without informing the bloody sheriff.

MD has taken to SERVING everyday warrrants with swats teams. over 400+ that year alone. "we get results". yeah. they also shoot dozens of dogs a week ;) including all the neighbors dogs as well, because they might alert someone.

other famous cases:

guy in chicago, police raid, wrong house, bad warrant, guy manages to disable 2-3 police (they had vests, but a shotgun knocked them down), the police go wild with shooting. police miss. everything turns out fine, family gets $$$,$$$,$$$$ and the police buy the house ;) police screwed up but admit it.

similar, police raid house, based on tip the guy is growing drugs. turns out he's got japanese maples ;) hahahhahaha. guy was robbed the night before, so when he sees someone crawling in through a hole in his door, wearing all black, he shoots and kills, a police officer. DA goes batshit trying to make this guy out as Satan and a cop killer... owner is just defending himself after rightly thinking he's being robbed AGAIN the next day.

third: homeowner corners an intruder at gun point, an intruder the police forced into his home. police are called on two phones. wife tells them police that her husband is upstairs, holding the intruder at gunpoint, please be careful, everyone is outside otherwise, police go inside and put 8+ rounds into the homeowners back, because "he had a piece"... the homeowner was on 911 still on his cell phone. everything *recorded*, including the cops immediately trying to fabricate the story to frame the homeowner as some kind of drug dude, with a holdout gun... and "we got your back bro"... all on tape. how, embarrassing.

that's just cops... remember the WTO "riots"? they went around shooting people with less than lethal rounds? gassing them? *residents* were gassed and affected in their own homes. it's illegal to to wear a mask to avoid the gas, so police were just ripping them off old people's faces. great stuff.

when the police and soldiers remove their name tags, you know they know they're embarrassed and wrong.

i can, unfortunately, do this all day.

the police and firefighter and EMT services have a lot of good guys too, but you won't hear about those stories much.

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[feng-huang.livejournal.com]

Yeah, don't even get me started on the militarization of the fucking local police all around the country. You need a no-knock warrant and SWAT team because someone might flush the drugs? Well, if there's such a small amount that they can be flushed in a minute or two, the why the fuck is it such a high-value target that you need to call in a military-style raid?

I've heard of some of the cases you mentioned, and a couple are new to me.

This shit makes my blood boil. The sheer unrepentance... Upton Sinclair once said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it"—and I'd add bugdet, prestige, importance, and the like in there, too.

I'm not one of those "cops are pigs" people; I know there are plenty of good cops out there. Unfortunately, too many of them will cover for their ill-behaved/unprincipled brethren, making them accessory to being a bad cop, which also makes them bad cops.

I guess what I'm trying to say in all this is, I agree with you. :-)