From: gardner@convex.com (Steve Gardner)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,talk.politics.drugs,alt.society.civil-liberty,seattle.general
Subject: Re: SWAT team kills innocent woman in No-Knock raid.
Keywords: SWAT police no-knock raid death thugs occupying-army friendly-fire Officer-Friendly Enemies-R-US
Date: 17 Aug 92 14:07:27 GMT
Organization: Engineering, CONVEX Computer Corp., Richardson, Tx., USA
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

In article <1992Aug16.222303.12522@eskimo.celestial.com> kurt@eskimo.celestial.com (Kurt Cockrum) writes:
>You did, all of you, already.  You wanted secure streets, less crime,
>jail for drug dealers, and the right to be secure in the dim, flickering
>light of your livingrooms, sealed off in your mercury-vapor-illuminated
>urban fortresses.  You paid for it, and you got what you ordered.
	Yes.  I'm afraid you are right.

>This old cynic suspects that these guys are just adrenalin junkies and
>thrill-seekers that get off playing close to the edge, and have found a
>way to get the state to finance their habit.  Others go bungee-jumping.
	This old cynic agrees with you.  I think that that type 
	of work attracts a certain kind of person shall we say. . .

>Bosh, he'll just jam his pointy head down a bottle, seeking oblivion
>and very likely finding it.
	I doubt he'll even do that.  Sociopaths don't need to drown their
	consciences in liqour---they have none. Every society has its 
	sociopaths, individuals that are totally lacking in any regard for 
	others.  During the Nazi years such minds were attracted to the Gestapo
	and the SS.  Here in America we have to wake up to the fact that
	as we push harder for more punitive "solutions" to our social
	problems we are creating a market for such sociopaths in 
	law enforcement.  What do we do with our sociopaths?  They work for
	the DEA and some local police departments.  Anyone who doubts this
	has only to pay attention to the rising number of murders 
	being carried out by police.  Tyler (Texas) is in an uproar
	at this very moment because some white sociopath blew away
	a bed-ridden black woman during a "drug raid" in which no
	drugs were found.  

>Not to mention the practice of "tipping" and finking on one's neighbor,
>becoming institutionalized as a social practice -- When I was a kid, I
>remember Cold War articles in Reader's Digest describing darkest Stalinist
>Russia as a place of cowed tattletales, where kids informed on their parents
>for ideological deviations, and the secret police ran a network of informers
>with tentacles into all parts of society.  Now one can find post-Cold-War
>articles in the same publication, advocating the same acts as the only
>antidote for the fruiting body of the Cold War fungus, the Drug War.
	Amen brother.   Isn't it ironic how we have come full circle.
	Now the soviet secret police is gone we have one of our own.
	By the way, "fruiting body of the Cold War fungus" is one of
	the most apt descriptions I have heard for the the WOD.
	I wonder how many people realize that now the the security
	apparatus (CIA, NSA, DIA, ad nauseum) has no external enemy
	it is only natural that they would turn on the people who
	spawned them?

>Carrying the metaphor to perhaps excessive lengths [ :) ], one must ask,
>what happens when the spore sac bursts? [ waggish note -- followups to
>alt.tasteless :) ].  Only time can tell.  I think we're getting to a
>"cusp", as the astrologers say.
	I believe that the US, like the Soviet Union, will be a victim
	of its own cold war activities.  The Soviets went bust first but that
	doesn't mean they won't be followed by their arch enemies.
	It reminds me of an old cowboy movie where the two gun fighters
	mortally wound each other.  One dies first but the other succumbs
	to his wounds days later.


>Well, if they can try Honecker for actions he performed on duty, acting
>in his official capacity, they can sure get these guys.  May have to Smash
>State first, though.
	I don't think it will me necessary to smash the state.  
	The state is smashing itself quite nicely without our help. ;-)
	The amazing thing about the revolution against the Soviet 
	government was how little violence there was.  I think there
	will be even less here.  I think that people will eventually just
	stop cooperating with the federales.  They can't arrest everyone.
	When enough people believe that the federal government is
	corrupt beyond hope it will fall.  We are well on our way to
	that point now.


						smg
Xref: sparky alt.activism:14890 talk.politics.misc:40005