The Police: Now With More Sting

Governmental power expands into many areas. Whether it's growing plants, building houses, or eating food , The Man is always trying to get all up in your business, as the youth say. But of all these areas, I fear the expansion of police powers the most. While I happen to enjoy the law and order provided by police and court systems, there's a line between keeper-of-the-peace and SS stormtroopers: a line that is regularly crossed by jack-booted SWAT teams at 5 in the morning.

Conspiracy paranoids and Alex Jones have pretty much turned The Rise of the Police State into an elvis-in-a-UFO-style joke. They've been predicting for decades a fascist take-over of the country, and every single example of abuse is a rumble of thunder from the coming fascist storm. Lets be perfectly clear: that's as crazy as your aunt Fran, who thinks that someone's been trying to poison her for decades. The only problem is there are far more rumbles of thunder then you'd think. Here's some examples. 

1. Local police in Michigan raid a completely legal and licensed marijuana dispensary. They don't arrest or press charges on anyone, but instead they lift all the cash in the place (and on the people). 
2. Film a cop, especially a cop abusing the law, and you get the smack down. Time and time again. They are like the Amish, in that they fear the thieft of their souls if they are filmed, but they lack their simple brethren's compassion, gentleness, and honesty. Legally, they like to charge filming a police officer as wiretapping, which is a felony. I guess the meaning of "wiretapping" has changed since I last checked...
3. A camera in an interrogation room happened to miss the part when a woman arrested for  DUI happened to beat herself savagely as she fell down. Also, she happens to be in a pool of ketchup. That's their story, and their sticking to it.
4. People chilling out, getting stoned are such a threat to society that they require swift and violent responses, and if we happen to break a few eggs, so be it.“They pulled me outside in the freezing cold in my underwear, manhandle my wife, point a gun at my daughter and they won’t even tell me what they are doing in my house,” said McKay. “It was terrifying and humiliating beyond belief.” Botched paramilitary drug raids are far, far more common then you'd think. Here's a map of lost reported cases across the nation. It's a trend of policy, not just a few mistakes.
5. Dogs. Policemen hate dogs almost as much as the postman, only they're packing.  Bust into an elderly couple's home at night decked out in masks and guns and their dog does it's job by barking at you? Go ahead and put one right between it's cute puppy dog eyes. Now, toss them out of bed and slap cuffs on them. Turns out that Beatrix and Harold don't get high for fun? Oh, our bad. If you'll lucky, they might get a check to fix the door you broke down. Too bad the courts have ruled that pet dogs have no monitory value, even if they happen to be pure breeds owned by the mayor. Sometimes, they like to shoot dogs even if they're on an entirely unrelated case and just happen to be in the neighborhood. 
6. Do you have an ID from a country on our hate-list? We'll scoop you up and arrest you because you didn't stand in line long enough (immigration link). Those cuffs will never come off your filthy wrists until you get out of 'merica, even if you happen to go into labor.
7. If the police even suspect you of violating drug laws, all your property is up for grabs. As of 2008, 3.1 billion dollars where taken this way, and only 20% of times involved an actual prosecution. The best part about this is that it's completely legal. Even if the police admit, in writing, that you did nothing wrong. The best example of this is when a college student was driving around with a lot of cash to give to his aunt for a car. When he gets pulled for a traffic violation, the cops seize the cash, all $17,500 of it. Instead of being charged with a crime, it became his job to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it wasn't drug money. While this looks like "burden of proof ju-jitsu",  it's more "you can't stop us sumo".

Cats only require a tactical petting

I doubt that these are signs of a movement to overthrow america and go all ruby-ridge on your survivalist hide-outs, but they are troubling nonetheless. The fact that this power exists, and that its abuses are more then just isolated incidents. We're not talking about unfair subsidies, or burdening taxes; we're talking about lives being violently ruined. Innocent until proven guilty only exists on Perry Mason. If they suspect you did something, they'll treat you like terrorist. Unless you're in an airport, in which case they ALWAYS treat you like a terrorist.

Most of these cases involve drugs. This is one of the strongest reasons I support legalization (or at least decriminalization) of marijuana. General principles of prohibition aside, I see far more violent crime coming from enforcement then from the drug itself. Not to mention that the black market for drugs funds entire armies  in south america. Lets make this clear: I am personally against drug use, but on the whole, I will gladly trade off a few more lazy stoners with the munchies then have these violent acts committed on completely innocent people.

You might notice that there are no stories here about from Maracopa county. There are so many bizarre stories stories that come out of that bandit stronghold that I'll count is as an outlier, as a mercy to the rest of the country. 

Cuba: Keep on Truckin'

More evidence about the failure of Communism today: In the face of economic crisis, Cuba starts to lessen its stranglehold on the economy. Raul Castro plans to "update the Cuban economic model", but not because it's proven to be a horrible failure and it has lead to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of human lives, but because they just want to be cool.

"With experience accumulated in more than 55 years of revolutionary struggle, it doesn't seem like we're doing too badly, nor that desperation or frustration have been our companions along the way," the president said.

A happy citizen enjoy his healthcare

 No, no, you're doing fine Cuba, just peachy! We could all do a little better, we understand. It's hard to run a whole country by yourself, especially since your older brother pulled a Bin Laden and has not been seen since becoming terminally ill four years ago. Are the Fearless Leaders of Cuba above mortality, or am I confusing you with Best Korea? I confuse all you Utopian states.

Oh, and that health care system? World class.

Remember that scene in The Godfather Part II when they go to Cuba? Remember the spender and wealth that surrounded them? Yeah, it's still like that. EXACTLY like that, covered under 60 years of decay and poverty. It's like a post-apocalyptic fantasy where the constructs of yesterday crumble under the to stave off death for just one more day. And you know how much I love post-apocalyptic fantasies!

You know what Cuba needs? Zombies roaming the streets of Havana, seeking human flesh to devour. Maybe that's the only thing that us wealthy Americans can use that at all approximates living in a communist nation. Remember: your chances of surviving a zombie attack are NEVER as good as you expect them to be!

Perhaps I'm making too much light out of a very serious situation which is beyond cruel and evil. But it's mind-blowing that people don't see the horrors of communism, after a century of examples.