As an example of their hypocrisy, a recent video showed California police violently assaulting a 14-year-old boy. How does this help anyone's public health? A physician in Miami was recently preparing to test homeless individuals for coronavirus when he was profiled and cuffed by police without masks, exposing the physician to potential coronavirus infection. In NYC, the NYPD notoriously has helped the domestic terrorist force, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tear people away from their families to put them into detainment camps that are overrun with coronavirus cases due to overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions. If police departments around the country wanted to help essential workers, the best thing they could do is turn off their sirens and simply make the decision to stop terrorizing communities en masse.
The propaganda charade would not be complete, though, without the arguably most murderous institution of them all getting in on the action. Recently, the military flew U.S. Airforce Thunderbirds and U.S. Navy Blue Angels over New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia to "honor" first responders during the pandemic. The planes making these flights represent the U.S. military industrial complex that has led to mass death and destruction around the globe. The U.S. military budget is greater than 144 countries combined. This money represents funds that could go into a robust public health system in the U.S. that instead goes into dropping drones on innocent black and brown people halfway across the world. Let's not forget that this same system produces more greenhouse gas emissions than up to 140 countries -- greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to the coming climate collapse and create the air pollution that makes people more susceptible to coronavirus complications, leading to more deaths.
While the military industrial complex uses wildly wasteful flyovers as publicity stunts to "express thanks," the U.S. government has continued its murderous sanctions on other countries, such as Venezuela and Iran, making it much harder to combat the global pandemic. The U.S. war machine has also continued contributing to the largest humanitarian catastrophe in the world in Yemen through supporting the Saudi regime. In the midst of this crisis, the U.S. is also still bombing other countries, including Somalia, which ranks second to last in global health security.
If the U.S. military really cared about "supporting" first responders and front-line workers during the pandemic, it could start with stopping actions that increase suffering and death around the world. Instead it's using the heroic work of front line workers to bolster its own blood-soaked image.
Ultimately, it's a given that profit-driven institutions responsible for death, destruction, and exploitation will attempt to manipulate public opinion for their own benefit. We must recognize the actions of these institutions and expose them for what they are: superficial, callous, and cynical ploys to reform their public image. We can combat the coronavirus pandemic, but not with corporate executives, racist police, or representatives of the military industrial complex in million dollar planes. Working people, organized and fighting, show the way forward.
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