A great eye opener for anyone who still naively believes the police could ever be a system to be trusted even if there are some “good apples” in the box.
In most of the liberal discussions of the recent police killings of unarmed black men, there is an underlying assumption that the police are supposed to protect and serve the population. That is, after all, what they were created to do.
If only the normal, decent relations between the police and the community could be re-established, this problem could be resolved. Poor people in general are more likely to be the victims of crime than anyone else, this reasoning goes, and in that way, they are in more need than anyone else of police protection. Maybe there are a few bad apples, but if only the police weren’t so racist, or didn’t carry out policies like stop-and-frisk, or weren’t so afraid of black people, or shot fewer unarmed men, they could function as a useful service that we all need.
This liberal way of viewing the problem rests on a…
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~Burning Woman~ 
When seconds matter the police are only minutes away.
That said – If you haev outsatnding warrants and are only days away from going back to jail for armed robbery trying to run over a cop is a bad idea and an act for which cries of We Demand Justice border on the absurd. Cops don’t stop crime, they wait until it happens then mop up. Something I have mentioned on every traffic stop since I was 16. Don’t you need to out be looking for the bad guys? While you’re writing that ticket some methed up fool is shooting a convenience store owner for twelve dollars. Or killing a thirteen year old for being with her brother when a bag of weed deal turned into rip off. Why is it high school and college kids keep getting killed stopping armed whack jobs when there are campus cops?
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Indeed.
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Juvenal) Who will guard the guards themselves?
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Ah, hah! That is the question, isn’t it. The System, of course, is the guards’ guardian and as long as the system holds sway over people, the guards will obey the system and oppress those whom they regard as below them. But when the system collapses the guards very quickly shed their oppressor uniforms and try to blend in with the remnants of those they oppressed.
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And sometimes, the guards decide that to ‘protect’ the system (and their jobs) they need to take charge….The Roman Pretorian Guard were adept at that.
For all my apparent sympathetic portrayal of The LifeGuard in my books, they are like that (only in a soemtimes creepy self-sacrificing way)
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Yes, I felt that ‘creepy feeling’ about the LifeGuard especially near the end of book II. Your heroine, Arketre Berritt seems to be the square peg in the proverbial round hole in that organization although not without sympathizers. I finished reading the novel last night and now must impatiently await book III. Your “Girls” have greatly grown in stature in book II, “Our Skirmishers of Lace and Steel.” A very well done series, Roger.
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Thanks so much Sha’ Tara, I’m glad you enjoyed the volume.
The final version does have some revisions towards the end, but those are only to underline the complete confusion and confrontation all the ‘big’ players get involved in, when trying to ‘play’ the Stommigheid; Arketre, Karlyn and Trelli get through as they do in the version you have.
Arketre has developed into the ‘Everyperson’ who ends up at the front line of a professional army, sometimes she’s in charge of her situation, other times she gets overwhelmed by it and of course she grumbles at great length. And she pays the price. Trelli is faith and ethics driven growing in knowledge…, trying to stay steady…Karlyn is….well Karlyn…fighting for her identity . Arketre is as Michael Herr wrote, movingly, in Despatches ‘the shit-faced grunt’.
Thank you again for all your support.
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Thanks for reblogging, Sha’Tara.
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This is certainly a hot topic. I went to the site and finished the article and read the comments. While I’m not much into conspiracy theory and bashing on other countries, I do agree that our police forces and the entire justice systems in the world ate a failure. It’s really simple. No rocket science involved. All those people in the public sector are us. We act badly in private and in public. We are a problem and we have to cure this problem as a society. Not sure that will ever happen but I do know that desperation and extreme danger make excellent change agents. When that happens, we’ll band together. We don’t have to like it, we just have to do it.
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Yes, when the despair from repression becomes greater than the fear imposed by institutional thuggery, then comes the rebellion and revolution.
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That is a real concern. You may have noticed that often police are gunned down in surprising numbers during armed conflicts with people that are well trained and understand tactics. Recently a local soldier killed a police officer and wounded two others as they approached the scene of a domestic dispute. It is sad beyond belief but the thugs are no match for someone that can hand it back to them without fear. As always, innocence is lost and the good die with the evil side by side. This soldier’s life is over as he will spend his life in prison until the day they execute him. And the police will be much quicker on the trigger with the next call.
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Spreading wars and terror abroad while increasing internal repression is always the hallmark of a society in such disarray that it can only destroy itself, or at least the power structure that upholds it. Then it is conquered by another power that is still ascendant and the people have to learn to submit to new sets of rules or suffer the consequences that always apply to the conquered. As those wars abroad become stalemated or lost, and as the police become faster on the trigger at home, is the measure of the empire’s downfall. America is in a tailspin and the only reason it hasn’t turned into wide open panic is that the people believe they’re on a roller coaster.
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I agree. I’ve been to several countries that have no standing government or an immasculated government and no organized infrastructure. The people in those countries were in much worse shape than if they lived under a repressive regime but they were of incredible strength and resilience unlike the West where just a week of no electricity sends thousands to the hospital or grave. We definitely are in a tailspin and the end is nearer than farther away. But, the economy is the best its been in 15 years and so actual crime and violence is on the decrease. The working class is small but strong. The fractured ideology and widespread lack of any form of unity or purpose, the collapse of infrastructure, idiotic psychopathic government paralysis, and the libertine news media are the Vandals at the gate. Change is going to come and it won’t be pleasant. There is a second enemy, the weather and weakening environment. We tend to forget that the massive violence of nature visited on us will wreck us faster than any impending social upheaval. Even now, large numbers of tornados are tearing through the central US leaving destruction in their path. Flooding is wide spread, fires are due to kick up again soon and devastating huricanes are forming four months ahead of the usual season. Huricanes wipe out portions of coastal states and affect millions of people. No one can measure the social decay as easily as the effects of natural disasters. That is the fear on many minds today while the sociopaths gather their coveted shiny objects and look for more victims, the winds of Mother Nature are tearing down their homes.
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Yes, that about summarizes the situation we are in.
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I think a lot of people will change their minds when they realize they signed up for some serious inconvenience.
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Hai totalmente ragione.
Ieri in una manifestazione politica la polizia ormai in cattività dalla estrema destra ha pestato di botte un giornalista.
Un fallimento della democrazia.
Shera
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Grazie per il tuo commento, Shera. Le nostre democrazie non sono reali, quindi falliscono solo nelle nostre aspettative infondate. Non conosco alcuna democrazia esistente sul pianeta Terra.
(Translated: Thanks for your comment, Shera. Our democracies are not real so they only fail in our baseless expectations. I know of no democracy extant on planet Earth.)
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Aspettative: hai ragione questo co fa perdere di concretezza.
Buona notte cara Sta ‘Tara
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That’s weird. I left a response about this but don’t see it anywhere. I’m pretty passionate about the police and why the police force was created and never see blogs like this addressing this issue, but…my entry disappeared. I don’t remember swearing or being uncivil…..so I hope I hadn’t offended anyone…..but I don’t think I did. Maybe I just didn’t push “post comment.” Bleh.
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Now that you mention it, I think it also quite weird that I seem to have read such a comment and replied to it? Parallel worlds, anyone? Oh, and if anyone says, “I take offense” just say, “Please, take any fence you want.”
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The Mandela Effect?! The Butterfly Effect?! Who’s been irresponsibly time traveling and changing our present?! Maybe THAT’S how the Orange One got elected president!!
As for offenses… Lol! Thanks.
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