Showing posts with label police state. Show all posts
Showing posts with label police state. Show all posts

Monday, March 7, 2016

Oh say can you see by the dusk's grey light a nation once great fading from sight.



Some time ago, around the mid to late forties, The United States of America moved into the premier position of power. It effectively elbowed the dilapidated British Empire from the top spot, from being the world's number one superpower. This was a much-welcomed event even for the Brits, those of them anyway long tired of Imperialism.
The rise of the USA also brought with it a sense of liberality to those in England tired of the straitjacket of pomp, circumstance and forever knowing ones place. The Yanks did not know their place. In fact, the very idea galled them somewhat.
They gave the world Hollywood, Coca-Cola, Jazz, Levis, Converse Sneakers, the Blues and ultimately, Rock and Roll. It was a time of youth, world youth and even though those British imposters, The Beatles, sat firmly on that throne, still the thrust of change came from America.
Then Margaret Thatcher was elected. Then Ronald Regan. Two Neo-Conservatives with singular minds. They didn't much like the way the young had challenged the establishment so set about destabilising all those changes made, replacing them with what Margaret Thatcher called, 'Victorian Standards.
It was the end of the world as we know. And no, I don't feel fine.
A nation built on secularism is now drifting to a right wing fundamentalist viewpoint, evangelical in their zeal with mammon in their hearts.
Every coin turns a profit.
Now the United States, that beacon of modernity is taking a short walk back to Imperialism via Cruz and Trump. And as they march in reverse like a scene from a Monty Python movie so the rest of the world giggles unbelievingly at the idiocy being shown by candidates unfit for the Presidency.
Let's hope Europe will not deal with such as they. I know Britain will as that is now a state without a star.

Monday, August 19, 2013

threat to liberty


The American approach to law enforcement was forged by the experience of revolution. Emerging as they did from the shadow of British rule, the country’s founders would likely have viewed police, as they exist today, as a standing army, and therefore a threat to liberty. Even so, excessive force and disregard for the Bill of Rights have become epidemic in today’s world. According to civil liberties reporter Radley Balko, these are all symptoms of a generation-long shift to increasingly aggressive, militaristic, and arguably unconstitutional policing—one that would have shocked the conscience of America’s founders.

Rise of the Warrior Cop traces the arc of U.S. law enforcement from the constables and private justice of colonial times to present-day SWAT teams and riot cops. Today, relentless “war on drugs” and “war on terror” pronouncements from politicians, along with battle-clad police forces with tanks and machine guns have dangerously blurred the distinction between cop and soldier. Balko’s fascinating, frightening narrative shows how martial rhetoric and reactionary policies have put modern law enforcement on a collision course with the values of a free society.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Pussy Riot


Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist punk-rock musical collective in Moscow, who stage politically provocative impromptu performances about Russian political life in unusual locations, such as on top of a trolleybus or on a scaffold in the Moscow Metro.

On February 21, 2012, four members of the group staged a performance on the soleas of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, motivated by their opposition to Vladimir Putin and the politics of the Russian Orthodox Church. Their performance was interrupted by church security officials. On March 3, after the video of the performance appeared online, three of the group members were arrested and charged with hooliganism aimed at inciting religious hatred.

Their trial began in late July and raised much controversy in Russia and globally. According to a poll by the Levada Center, 44% of Russians supported the trial and believed in its fairness, while 17% did not. According to another poll by Levada, only 6% sympathised with Pussy Riot, while 51% "felt antipathy or had nothing good to say about them"; only 4% believed group members should be acquitted. On the other hand, the band members gained the noticeable support of many in Russia and internationally because of allegations of harsh treatment while in custody and the risk of a possible seven-year jail sentence.

On August 17, 2012, the three members were convicted of hooliganism (article 213.2 of the Criminal Code) and each sentenced to two years imprisonment. The Russian Orthodox Church issued a statement appealing to the authorities to show clemency, within the law, and urging the court to "divide the sin from sinner and reprimand the first while hoping the latter will improve". The Church, however, condemned the "rude hostility to millions of people and their feelings" and cast no doubt on the legitimacy of the court’s decision. The trial and conviction have attracted international criticism. The foreign ministries of Germany and Sweden, together with representatives of the European Union and the United States, called the sentence "disproportionate". (read more)

Punk Prayer

Huffington post

Topless Warriors

Friday, May 4, 2012

four dead in ohio


The Kent State shootings—also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre—occurred at Kent State University in the U.S. city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.

Some of the students who were shot had been protesting against the American invasion of Cambodia, which President Richard Nixon announced in a television address on April 30. Other students who were shot had been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance.

There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of four million students, and the event further affected the public opinion—at an already socially contentious time—over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War. (read more) (four dead in ohio)