Some Internet Tough Guys

A Black Police Chief speaks out on the events of the last week.

Grady: Of course it’s a factor. But the problem here is that it’s true. Minorities are not making it up that police are not responsive to their communities, that police are overly aggressive when they’re dealing with minorities. That’s not an illusion on the part of minority communities. That’s real. As a police chief, I have been stopped numerous times by police officers claiming that there was some violation with my car until they realized that I’m just a law-abiding citizen. I don’t identify myself as a cop when I’m in those circumstances, I just let them do what they are going to do. And like so many other African Americans I just say “yes, sir,” “no, sir” and let it go at that. But after a while you get tired of being stopped for doing nothing. After a while, even as a police chief, you get really tired of being put upon. There’s a thing that we call freedom of movement which is really revered in this country—that we should have the right to move freely without impingement from the police simply because.

I sent the above and the following to the moderators of a www site which will remain unnamed – it applies to a lot of the Republicans you see here and there around the ‘net.

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I must say your audience is in no way ready for armed Revolution. They don’t have the stomach for it. A Black man starts taking his grievances out on the police and you audience sides with the police. “The Man” owns them. They forget that their real war is with the government (and its agents) and side with the government.

They can have all the guns they want and if they are not mentally prepared to use them – if The Man and his agents are not their enemy – then they have already lost.

Personally I’m not interested in gangs of ‘net tough guys. I’m interested in people who have thought this through. Who get the heartbreak of killing and being killed. And who are willing to suffer that if their goals can’t be met any other way.

Yes. The police deaths are a tragedy. What do they expect if it comes down to shooting?

They have already been conquered.

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“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” – Samuel Adams

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Well the above will no doubt be ignored by the Republicans. Maybe the Democrats will listen. If not they both will be involved in a war they can’t win. It will be a tragedy for the country and for them.

What is amusing (if a country on the edge of insurrection can be called amusing) is that we just celebrated July 4, 1776. A case where King George hardened his heart to the grievances of the colonists. And if that isn’t enough certainly the biblical scholars among the Republicans know what happened to the Pharaoh when he hardened his heart.

It is more than past time that the politicians, “owners”, and citizens of this country woke up and fixed a few things. Like ending Drug Prohibition. For one. As my police officer friend says:

Modern Prohibition/The War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional & immoral domestic policy since slavery & Jim Crow. – Retired Police Detective Howard Wooldridge