Suffice it to say that I find torture to be beyond the pale, and I don't think we should be doing things like rectally feeding anyone as "a means of behavior control." But what concerns me more than the torture itself is the lack of outrage at such glaring inhumanity and injustice, even after the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report describing some of the techniques used, including the aforementioned form of sexual assault, and the fact that 1/5 of the detainees were "wrongfully held."
It's especially frightening to me that a recent PEW poll shows a majority of those polled believe the CIA's methods were justified, and that the information gleaned helped prevent terror attacks despite the fact that the report suggests the exact opposite (assuming that's even a viable justification in the first place). This should engender as much public outrage, in my opinion, as the events in Ferguson, New York, etc. The more so, I think, because each is an concrete example of abuse of state power characterized by a lack of accountability. The two are intertwined—they're multiple heads of the same political-economic hydra.
Unfortunately, many people feel they deserve to be put into cages and tortured, even though many were despite being innocent (or at least not proven guilt of any crime). And many doubt the validity of the report, even though people 'in the know' like Dick Cheney are going around defending some of the previously unknown torture techniques like rectal feeding described in the report. Worst of all, many are indifferent to such acts of cruelty.
What complicates matters is that it's part of a broader, systematic problem that's beyond any one individual, making it difficult to face in the first place. I know when I often ignore the news, for example, it's because it's usually overwhelming and I feel helpless to do anything about it except express my impotent outrage on social media. But seeing the responses from the growing #blacklivesmatter movement and others like it, I think people can collectively make a difference and force changes to be made, especially if they're able to connect the dots and realize that these issues are just symptoms of a bigger, systematic problem.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Thursday, December 4, 2014
power to the people
I started walking home from the Holiday Ale Fest and ran straight into a march protesting the decision not to indict the officer involved in the murder of Eric Garner, as well as the decision not to indict the officer involved in the Ferguson shooting of Michael Brown. All those involved were rallying against the recent decisions and the societal issues underlying them.
I don't know where they originated from, but I found myself in the front as the group marched from Pioneer Square to the Moda Center, chanting along the way various slogans such as, "No justice, no peace," "Who's streets? Our streets," "Who's lives matter? Black lives matter," etc.
It just felt good, right; and being near the front, I started screaming at the top of my lungs, raising my fist and raging against the system with all my being. All that was going through my mind was, "This shit has to stop, and I have to be on the front line against racism, sexism, and every other kind of discriminatory 'ism' there is. Enough is enough!"
I don't know if anything I do, or ever have done, will actually make a difference; but I know I'm at least willing to try. I'm not afraid to add my voice to the millions crying out for the same thing: Equality. Justice. Peace. An end to discrimination and oppression in all of its forms. If at some point we're not a part of the solution, we by default become part of the problem.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
justice doesn't exist for the state
This is why I doubt equipping cops with cameras will do any good. Even when it's caught on tape, they rarely ever get charged for killing an unarmed person, whether it's by beating, shooting, or choking:
Grand Jury Lets Cop Choke Guy To Death Because Everything Is Terrible
The problems are built into the very fabric of our justice system. Nevertheless, I've seen a lot of people lately posting things like, "Not all cops are bad. Not all black people are criminals. Not all white people are racists. Quit labeling." This is true, not all cops are bad people, just as not all black people are criminals and not all white people are racists. But what people don't seem to understand here is the oppressive nature of the police as a social institution itself.
Individual police officers may very well be good people; but the real issue is, the police as a whole are primarily protectors of property and enforcers of the state, as well as a means of extracting surplus-value from working people (through parking tickets, traffic fines, etc.). They get their marching orders from the ruling class, not 'the people'; and more often than not, it's minorities and the poor that are the most affected by those policies.
When the police target the poor, the homeless, minorities, etc., they primarily do so because of institutionalized pressures created by those in power. Sit-lie and anti-camping ordinances, for example, are two ways for the state to legally harass homeless people by forcing them to move if they're sitting or lying anywhere in certain areas at anytime, often at the behest of local business alliances.
And there are numerous other laws that target minorities and the poor, such as harsher penalties for someone caught with crack cocaine, which is more prevalent in poorer communities and communities of colour, than powder cocaine, which is a more 'affluent' form of the drug, despite no physiological differences between the two. (In 2010, the sentencing disparity between offenses for crack and powder cocaine was finally reduced from 100:1 to 18:1 thanks to the Fair Sentencing Act.) It's a two-tiered justice system weighed heavily in favour of the wealthy.
When the police send in riot cops to arrest protesters, even if they're non-violent and protesting a gross injustice, they do so because they're more concerned about protecting property and making sure economic supply-lines for both goods and labour (i.e., roads) remain open than they are justice and the lives of the people they're allegedly there to 'serve and protect.'
And due to the lingering effects of racism, from slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the practice of redlining to the unconscious racial biases that still haunt our perception, our judicial system is disproportionately biased against minorities, particularly the black community. Non-whites statistically get targeted more than whites; non-whites statistically get harsher sentences than whites; etc.
But what this case and others like it demonstrate to me is that, ultimately, justice doesn't exist for the state. The Establishment and those designed to serve and protect the interests of the ruling class and wealthy are above the laws that the rest of us plebs are subject to. They play by an entirely different set of rules.
A cop killing an unarmed black man? Or an unarmed, mentally-ill, homeless person who didn't do anything wrong, like James Chasse? No grounds for indictment. But a black man killing a cop? A homeless person killing a cop, even in self-defense? Shit. They'd probably never see the light of day, if they weren't killed themselves in retaliation.
But I think people are finally getting tired of the disparities, the growing militarization of the police, and the lack of accountability. In a lot of these cases, the cops seem like they're above the law.
Grand Jury Lets Cop Choke Guy To Death Because Everything Is Terrible
The problems are built into the very fabric of our justice system. Nevertheless, I've seen a lot of people lately posting things like, "Not all cops are bad. Not all black people are criminals. Not all white people are racists. Quit labeling." This is true, not all cops are bad people, just as not all black people are criminals and not all white people are racists. But what people don't seem to understand here is the oppressive nature of the police as a social institution itself.
Individual police officers may very well be good people; but the real issue is, the police as a whole are primarily protectors of property and enforcers of the state, as well as a means of extracting surplus-value from working people (through parking tickets, traffic fines, etc.). They get their marching orders from the ruling class, not 'the people'; and more often than not, it's minorities and the poor that are the most affected by those policies.
When the police target the poor, the homeless, minorities, etc., they primarily do so because of institutionalized pressures created by those in power. Sit-lie and anti-camping ordinances, for example, are two ways for the state to legally harass homeless people by forcing them to move if they're sitting or lying anywhere in certain areas at anytime, often at the behest of local business alliances.
And there are numerous other laws that target minorities and the poor, such as harsher penalties for someone caught with crack cocaine, which is more prevalent in poorer communities and communities of colour, than powder cocaine, which is a more 'affluent' form of the drug, despite no physiological differences between the two. (In 2010, the sentencing disparity between offenses for crack and powder cocaine was finally reduced from 100:1 to 18:1 thanks to the Fair Sentencing Act.) It's a two-tiered justice system weighed heavily in favour of the wealthy.
When the police send in riot cops to arrest protesters, even if they're non-violent and protesting a gross injustice, they do so because they're more concerned about protecting property and making sure economic supply-lines for both goods and labour (i.e., roads) remain open than they are justice and the lives of the people they're allegedly there to 'serve and protect.'
And due to the lingering effects of racism, from slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the practice of redlining to the unconscious racial biases that still haunt our perception, our judicial system is disproportionately biased against minorities, particularly the black community. Non-whites statistically get targeted more than whites; non-whites statistically get harsher sentences than whites; etc.
But what this case and others like it demonstrate to me is that, ultimately, justice doesn't exist for the state. The Establishment and those designed to serve and protect the interests of the ruling class and wealthy are above the laws that the rest of us plebs are subject to. They play by an entirely different set of rules.
A cop killing an unarmed black man? Or an unarmed, mentally-ill, homeless person who didn't do anything wrong, like James Chasse? No grounds for indictment. But a black man killing a cop? A homeless person killing a cop, even in self-defense? Shit. They'd probably never see the light of day, if they weren't killed themselves in retaliation.
But I think people are finally getting tired of the disparities, the growing militarization of the police, and the lack of accountability. In a lot of these cases, the cops seem like they're above the law.
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