IT’S OUR OWN FAULT

IT’S OUR OWN FAULT

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

There seems to be an outbreak of brutality between U.S. citizens and law enforcement over the past several years, and I find it disturbing. I’m not in a street gang, I don’t sell narcotics on street corners, and I don’t have a stable of ladies of the evening. I try and operate my life as a law-abiding citizen…..however, last November (2014) there was a loud knock at my front door on a Sunday night right around 10:00 P.M. It was the cops, and they wanted to know if I had been beating my wife.

 

First off, I was interrupted from my Tru-TV show, and secondly I only beat my wife on Wednesday evenings between 7:30 and 8:00 P.M. so they were early! There’s a little deal that’s called probable cause that cops use all of the time, I know, I watch Law and Order, what those two words, (probable cause) means that John Law can enter your abode whenever they want, all they got to say is probable cause.

 

I was intimidated, scared, bewitched, bothered and bewildered, “actually just intimidated and scared” and one of the cops (there was two plus a trainee) wanted to search my house. Now I ask you, “what would you, think, say and do in such a situation” ….comply…..it’s what I did until my daughter stepped in and kind of put a halt to the silliness. At this point I kind of regained my composure and told the trio of authority figures to leave…..there’d been enough scare tactics for one Sunday evening.

 

There parting shot, “dispatch must have given us a wrong address which I hardily agreed with, anyways I always get sweaty whenever I’m beating my wife…..and on this Sunday night my brow was completely dry.

 

The incident left me with several different emotions, and you can’t know what I mean until you experience firsthand the vulnerable feeling that you have when blue uniformed men demand that you open your door for inspection with pistols hanging from their hips. It doesn’t matter the day, or the hour, the law simply suspects somebody of something.

 

Okay, I’m getting to be an old fool, as opposed to at one time being a young fool, and even though I seldom have had to deal with the law, I have an abiding fear of the law. The only respect that I have for these authority figures is that they can hurt me, they can arrest me, smash down my door and cart me off to jail for…..whatever, or worse…. shoot me.

 

I have to be totally honest, I have been happy to see the law only one time in my life, and I’ve been around a bit. I ran all over the Midwest for thirty years chasing a baseball (playing or involved with the game) and I got to tell you I wasn’t always sober when I drove. I also drove a semi-tractor trailer in 41 different states, and never once was glad to see the law.

 

I have noticed during the past decade or so that regular law enforcement has been stockpiling all sorts of military type equipment that they use once in a while for special incidents, you know, like crowd control, or the disbursement of the same. Pepper spray Tasers, billy-clubs and all sorts of choke-holds that can turn lethal in a heart-beat, or lack thereof. Police forces in the world of 2015 are armed to the teeth, and baby they’re ready, willing and able to use what they got.

 

TO PROTECT AND TO SERVE

I’ve always somehow had a problem with that slogan stenciled across police squad car doors, I personally have never felt the need for police protection, and I sure as hell don’t need a cop to get my cat out of the tree. No-sir-ee, I can protect myself just fine thank you, and you sure as hell don’t need to worry about cops serving me, I’m capable of taking my own sustenance.

 

There has been a dramatic shift in what cops are expected to do, and it hasn’t all been because they simply assumed more responsibility. It seems like a kind of gray area with regards to exactly what police departments across the fruited plains of America are really supposed to do.

 

I believe that fifty or so years ago, the average cop in any average community was supposed to ensure that there was peace, and some stability within a community. Today it seems as if the major thrust of police officers is enforce laws, make arrests and issue citations for an ever broadening litany of rules and regulations, some it seems enacted to generate an income for budgeting situations.

 

The techniques in use by police departments has made a gradual change over the years, there is a seeming heightened focus on total control in every situation. As if the control factor wasn’t enough, many in law enforcement seem to have a trigger finger when confronting a civilian no matter the reason for the stop.

 

I haven’t felt this, but there seems to be a kind of epidemic of police harassment and violence, which is a nationwide issue. I read about it, and see it in newscasts every day of the week.

 

Another issue that has spread across the nation like a wildfire is a seeming unbridled unaccountability for abuse of power, and police brutality has been an issue for several decades now. Cops do not have the right to manhandle, punch, kick, or whack with those batons that they carry.

 

I DON’T HAVE THE TIME…..BUT IF I DID

There is no data base that tracks police killing civilians, there is no data base that tracks police brutality, or abuse of authority, but if I had the time and the where-with-all, I’d bet that the numbers would be significant, scary, and sobering.

 

Here’s the problem in a neat little nut shell, there can’t be a cop-land (where mostly cops live), police forces aren’t families, and they aren’t brothers. Like the rest of us, they are little more than working stiffs, grubbing for a paycheck. When we, as citizens kowtow to the silly notions that fire and safety departments are more than jobs, when they are held up, above the rest, and some kind of hero’s we are asking for trouble, the kind of trouble that we now find ourselves in.

 

And please don’t waste my time with that tired line about appreciating “their service,” because quite frankly…..I don’t. Some of these guys are way past dangerous, they are down-right barbaric, and need to be locked away with some of the people that they arrest.

 

I also take exception to the “the bad cops are just isolated, and the vast number of police officers are fine, upstanding public servants”. If that was the case, why would they refer to themselves as family, and brothers…..and the blue wall of silence!

 

There is an old saying that was uttered by somebody a hell-of-a-lot smarter then I, “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Truer words were never spoken, especially when talking about the shape of law enforcement in the United States today.

 

Race DOES play a role in how police act and react to situations, areas of their communities, and you’d better believe that the residents of these areas are aware of the race card being played over and over. Race is a big reason that there really isn’t a nationwide data base of police and civilian action, and reaction.

 

A BLACK A DAY IN THE EASIEST WAY

It is estimated that as many as 400 black men are shot to death here in the United States every year that means that at least one black man is shot every 24 hours, an appalling figure if true. There’s all sorts of stories about blacks getting murdered by cops across the country, and make no mistake, it is murder.

 

The numbers aren’t much different for Latinos with the average being shot to death between 350 and 400 males. The vast majority of police who shot either blacks or Latinos are white, which shouldn’t be surprising because the about 75% of all police forces in the country are white.

 

Believe it or not, there is also a status type symbol with regards to the killing of a black young person. I suppose you might relate shooting a black man to death the same as earning you’re bones. Of course for the vast majority of Americans this type of an attitude is completely foreign, and is unbelievable to understand.

 

With the attitude and the atmosphere on the streets of America today, as far as I can see, there is little reason for a black or Latino to confront cops in any sort of situation because that minority has an almost 50% chance of getting shot, or otherwise manhandled. White people, the basic framers of government today understand little about what a black person goes through during his life, yet it’s still the white man who sets standards, regulations rules, and laws that are supposed to aid minorities in their struggles with racism today.

 

CLOSING SHOTS

A 34 year old biomedical technician, Ricardo Arceo (a Latino), got out of his sisters van after a traffic stop, raised his hands over his head and begin walking towards the cop who pulled his revolver and shot Arceo to death…..on a Los Angeles street.

 

Undercover drug officers in Orlando, Florida shot to death unarmed Izzy Colon after a physical altercation. Colon may have been stupid to involve himself in a physical struggle, but undercover agents, guns, money and drugs make for a witches brew.

 

In Kent, Ohio a 29 year old police officer, Sarah Berkey, is on paid leave after the off duty officer shot and killed a 29 year old man.

 

Sidney, Nebraska police shot and killed Dana Hiavinka after cops responded to a domestic disturbance. The two officers saw a women running away from her residence, and when they entered the house they were confronted by the knife wielding Hiavinka who they shot to death. A graphic illustration of why one should never bring a knife to a gun fight.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a police car dash cam shows Officer Lisa Mearkle shooting David Kassick fatally in the back for a traffic stop.  It parallels the South Carolina shooting death of black motorist Walter Scott for a broken tail-light.

 

Of course there was the fatal shooting of black man, Eric Harris by a 73 year old white former real estate broker Robert Bates when Bates mistook his pistol for a Taser. It is true that Harris was a suspect in a weapons sting operations, and it’s also true that he ran from officers…..but getting shot by a ride-along 73 year old former real estate agent…..with an unauthorized gun to boot…..not cool.

 

And finally there’s the case of Freddie Gray, in Baltimore, Maryland who died in police custody from a snapped spine injury. Police are at a loss to figure out how Gray “picked up his injuries”, here’s a clue, he was black and the cops were white.

 

I remember my brother-in-law getting busted for driving while under the influence of alcohol in Pontiac, Michigan 20 or so years ago. After he was released and came home, his face looked like somebody had danced on it…..and he’s white.

 

Yup police are out of control, and we’ll probably never get control back again, at least in my lifetime. It’ll be up to my kid’s kid’s to deal with the problem, all I can say is “good luck.” For me, I plan on keeping my head low and my butt lower than my head!

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!