Last year I wrote that the militarized police functions much like Al Qaeda (1)--or I should say ISIS now. They are lawless and violent against the targeted class, facilitating mass incarceration and eventually, the gentrification of abandoned neighborhoods. They serve the powerful few by creating a general atmosphere of chaos and destroying the fabric of the local communities.[tag]
But I didn't expect a police representative to openly rebel against the authority so soon along with a thinly veiled declaration of war against the people they are meant to serve. I immediately thought of the similarity between Al Qaeda--or ISIS--and them.
A statement by Patrick Lynch, President of the police union in NYC:
"There's blood on many hands tonight. Those that incited violence on this street under the guise of protest, that tried to tear down what New York City police officers did everyday. We tried to warn it must not go on, it cannot be tolerated. That blood on the hands starts on the steps of city hall in the office of the mayor."
Statement by Patrolmen's Benevolent Association:
"We have, for the first time in a number of years, become a 'wartime' police department. We will act accordingly."
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/23/the-politics-of-dead-cops-and-the-coming-repression/
Maybe it's just rhetoric, or a moment of confusion and frustration expressed by the police leadership.
But it's certainly a good cautionary thought to remember that an uncontrollable force of violence is always part of the neo-colonial process of building a failed state of conflict and chaos, which is then eaten alive by the military industrial complex, and other multinational corporate interests.
And anyone who laughs at such a notion must remember why the streets are continuing to fill with protesters. For some of us, violence, injustice and destruction of communities have been a reality for generations. It is certainly not a time to question the movement against the criminal authority. It is the time we do whatever we can to join those who have struggled for generations.
(1) https://www.facebook.com/notes/hiroyuki-hamada/militarized-police/10151962628769454
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