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The police state at work and play
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by Don Nash, Unknown News
Aug. 20, 2004
I happened to watch the CBS Evening News on Aug. 17, 2004. I don’t watch the network news very often anymore, the programs are for the most part vapid and pandering. I caught a segment on the Florida hurricane and the displaced residents trying to get themselves back to what is left of their homes.
The day before the hurricane hit, Gov. Jeb Bush issued a mandatory evacuation order for the Tampa Bay area and the residents there proceeded to evacuate. You must leave your home, or else.
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So what ensued was governmental inspired chaos, as the people had to clear out and they had very little time to gather their belongings. They were allowed to take a few possessions and their families.
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Law enforcement now does what law enforcement does best.
They swing into action, as van guy has failed to follow a direct police order.
Law enforcement drags van guy from his van in front of the wife and kids, and now it gets really law enforcement ugly.
There are about six large (and the emphasis is on large) police types and they are going to take van guy ‘under control’.
He has failed to properly obey a direct police order and this is a “declared disaster area” under martial law and law enforcement is going to make an example of van guy, not only for van guy’s wife and children, but also for the crowd of locals who are watching.
Law enforcement gets the opportunity to use their law enforcement tazers.
Van guy gets to be electrocuted in front of his wife and children, his neighbors and friends, and the entire freaking world on the CBS Evening News.
The locals watching all this are on the verge of a riot.
Welcome to police state America.
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The video pieces that I watched of the exodus, reminded me of any Los Angeles freeway on a Friday afternoon at five o’clock.
So it was the funniest thing when the hurricane decided to go in a different direction than the Weather Service had predicted, and the evacuation throng was evacuating directly into the path of the oncoming hurricane.
Damn hurricanes, can’t even follow the orders of the Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush. Hurricanes are odd that way, they will do whatever in the hell they want to do. Brother Jeb can deliver up an election to his older brother but, he can’t get a hurricane to go where the Weather Service thinks the thing should go.
The news reports estimated that about three hundred thousand people had left the Tampa area and now the hurricane had come and gone and the area of Florida that is south and east of Tampa, is torn to wind sliced shreds. Those 300,000 people now have to get back to Tampa, and Tampa is one huge mess.
The people that were living in the directly affected area received about one hour’s notice to evacuate and now the power is out, phones are out, services and infra-structure are out, and of course, Brother Jeb declared the place a “disaster area”. That in essence means it is a closed and police-sealed containment zone.
Brother Jeb called out the Florida National Guard. Governors always call out their particular state’s National Guard, it gives the appearance of being in control. As near as I can tell, not one of the national news programs made any mention of the fact that Brother Jeb had ordered an evacuation directly into the path of the oncoming storm. (I’m probably being a bit severe in my critique of Brother Jeb but, I’m still a little pissed at his silly ass for the election disaster of 2000 and the fact that America is stuck with his older brother who is in fact, worse than any hurricane that has ever hit Florida or anywhere else that hurricanes are likely to strike.)
So day one comes and goes ... and day two comes and goes ... and day three comes and goes, and you get my drift. The people that were forced to leave the area where the hurricane did strike haven’t been allowed to get back to their neighborhoods and see if in fact, they have homes and belongings to get back to. Remember, there are no phones or services and Florida is one hot and sticky place almost any time of any year. They have no water and no one can bath or shower or whatever their preference for personal hygiene might be. Brother Jeb has declared the area a disaster area and big brother George did little Brother Jeb a favor and he declared the area a FEDERAL DISASTER AREA.
So you have a load of displaced and stressed-out Floridians living out of their cars and trucks, and they can’t make any phone calls, and they can’t take showers or bathe, and the people that they care about don’t know what has happened to them, and they all have their children and pets with them, and irregardless of what they may be coming home to, they all want to go home. But these displaced residents can’t get home. The roads are manned by law enforcement and law enforcement isn’t allowing anyone to get passed them. Nope, no one can or will be allowed entry, “disaster area and it’s been declared a Federal Disaster Area!”
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The residents of the “disaster area” have been milling about these law enforcement checkpoints and waiting, waiting to see when law enforcement will lift the barricades and allow them entry. They're hot, stinky, cranky, out of patience, out of time, and they are out of luck. This is where the segment that I watched on CBS comes into relevance:
A gentleman in a white mini-van with his wife and children is at the road block/barricade being manned by law enforcement, and he needs to get in and go home. The gentleman is adamant about going home, and I have absolutely no doubts, after three days together in dire circumstances, their nerves are shot, frayed, frazzled, unraveling. Mister and missus are probably about one more argument away from divorce.
The gentleman in the van is explaining his predicament to law enforcement, and law enforcement will hear none of it. They’re also frayed, frazzled, and unraveling ... and they are equipped with loaded guns. Unfortunately for van guy, law enforcement is going to change his whole world. The gentleman in the van attempts to drive directly through the law enforcement blockade and oh mercy, was that one really huge mistake.
Law enforcement now does what law enforcement does best. They swing into action, as van guy has failed to follow a direct police order. Law enforcement drags van guy from his van in front of the wife and kids, and now it gets really law enforcement ugly.
There are about six large (and the emphasis is on large) police types and they are going to take van guy ‘under control’. He has failed to properly obey a direct police order and this is a “declared disaster area” under martial law and law enforcement is going to make an example of van guy, not only for van guy’s wife and children, but also for the crowd of locals who are watching.
Law enforcement gets the opportunity to use their law enforcement tazers. Van guy gets to be electrocuted in front of his wife and children, his neighbors and friends, and the entire freaking world on the CBS Evening News. The locals watching all this are on the verge of a riot. Welcome to police state America.
I am not unsympathetic towards law enforcement. They get to deal with the great American public, who can be and are rude, crude, stubborn, obstinate, unruly, disorderly, breaking-the-peace insufferable pricks. It is the American way, so law enforcement jumps at the chance to be “law enforcement types” when the opportunity presents itself.
This explains, in a manner of speaking, how things like the tazering of van guy and the torture at Abu Ghraib can and do happen. A disaster or a terrorist strikes and the martial law order is given. Law enforcement keeps the peace and does not suffer fools lightly. They tazer them, or worse.
Soldiers guarding Iraqi prisoners will not suffer Iraqis at all, so they torture them. The difference being, soldiers don’t have to come home and still live as neighbors with the people they tortured, or in this case, tazered.
The bottom line is, because of the ill-conceived political idiocy of the Bush brothers, one poor guy in a van gets ’zapped’ into a whimpering puddle, and an inconceivable number of innocent Iraqis get tortured and killed. The police state makes for vivid television.
© 2004, by the author.
What do you think? |
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