Here’s a solid video making a nice follow up to yesterday’s post about the prison problems in Canada.
Wells Fargo, the too-big-to-fail entity bailed out by taxpayers only to give CEO’s ridiculous bonuses, is the primary investor in for-profit prisons across America. (more…)
‘Cram them in there!’ said the Tories this week, opting to close three incarceration facilities used to house some of Canada’s most notorious criminals. This decision comes despite the Conservative’s latest controversial crime bill, likely to continue increasing inmate populations across the nation.
But caring about what happens to society ranks low on the Conservative agenda. (more…)
One more American torture facility has been uncovered, this time in Poland. Under backlash from the US Government, prominent Poles have revealed damning details of a prison run by the CIA on Polish soil.
A similar CIA ‘interrogation’ program, unmasked in 2009, was being held at an exclusive horseback riding academy in Lithuania. Inmates, suspected of harboring violent intent against the United States, were subjected to various forms of torture including “sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions.”
Just to be clear, these clandestine prisons have zero public oversight. Most Americans have no knowledge of said places, nor would they authorize such atrocities were it up to them. (more…)
Suppose you own a number of giant prisons and you’re looking to expand your annual earnings. How exactly could you do that?
Well, you could cut maximize efficiency and minimize overhead, like any good corporation would do. As well, considering how you’re housing a massive population of inmates with practically no rights, it would be best to put them to work for slave wages. (more…)
(‘Come and see the violence inherent in the system!‘)
Americans are finding themselves surrounded by more and more members of the armed forces. Unfortunately, this isn’t due to the US withdrawing from Iraq or Afghanistan – the Military Industrial Complex will surely find more hapless victims to brutalize for as long as the American people allow it to continue.
No, when I say that the US population is being increasingly exposed to a military force, sadly, I’m referring to their local police departments. Peaceful protesters met with heavy handed tactics and civilly disobedient students being nonchalantly pepper sprayed has got citizens everywhere asking ‘How could this happen in America?‘
Of course, some have been sounding the alarm bells for decades now, trying to awaken the rest to the looming threat of totalitarianism. But most have remained oblivious to the reality, caught up the bubble of modern day living. Now, as the establishment faces a serious threat in the Occupy movement, the ugly face of a militarized police force comes into the light.
Fortunately, it is not too late to fix this. It will take a concerted effort on the part of many individuals, but police departments will fall into check as long as there is enough public pressure to warrant them doing so.
This puts the onus on you, people who like freedom. Stand up and be counted. Speak out against police brutality. Make noise whenever you see armor clad goons crushing unarmed activists. If you want your country to stay free, you need to stay vigilant against tyranny wherever it lies.
One week down, countless more to go for the daring dissenters from the movement to occupy Wall Street. Despite dozens of arrests, the protesters are holding strong, maintaining an indomitable presence near America’s financial heart.
Now, if you’re looking to be outraged, check out the above video that shows police corralling and pepper spraying a group of frightened females.
Ugh, that is entirely reprehensible. Absurd! The officer who did the actual spraying should be fired, and the police department deserves to be sued.
Whenever these badged bullies use unnecessary force upon activists it makes me long for the days when we view the whole police/protesters scenario like a massive Stanford Prison Experiment.
The Stanford case, if you didn’t already know, involved a 14-day study with 24 students split into two groups – half as the prisoners and half as the guards. The entire experiment was abruptly stopped after only six days as the test degraded to the point of prisoners being tortured by the designated captors.
In New York, the same situation is playing out right now. On one side, some humans have taken the role as activists, and most choose to simply exercise their rights of non-violent civil disobedience.
On the other side, some humans have been entrusted with the role of protectors – sworn to uphold the law. But, as Stanford alluded to, authorities will abuse the power they’ve been given.
So what’s the solution? Well, why not pass laws that make it mandatory for every single member from riot squads to make public a video feed of their actions. Put it all online – unaltered – open to public scrutiny.
Like the protesters on Wall Street are finding out, the 1% who control most of the wealth are scared of the 99% who want greater equality. It is imperative that we – the regular people of the world – push back against the encroaching security state, now, while we still can.
And one great way to do that is to make it really easy for anyone and everyone to police the police.
****UPDATE****
The officer who point blank maced a penned in group of young women and then slinked away has been identified as Deputy Inspector Anthony V. Bologna. Follow the link for a few ways to file a complaint.
Earlier this week, activist Adam Kokesh was brutally slammed to the ground, choked and arrested alongside several cohorts, all for dancing at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The group were protesting a recent court ruling that prohibits expressive dancing at national monuments, activism that would have likely been supported by Jefferson himself, who once wrote “If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.”
Perhaps most telling of this story is the power of regular people. The police department was inundated with support for the activists and hostility for the arrests, prompting a quick release. While the individual officers might not care about the public, their bosses are likely to make them use more caution in the future.
And we’ll see soon enough as Kokesh has another dancefest planned for noon this Saturday at the Jefferson Memorial. What would be great to see is the police force standing back and allowing the demonstration to go uninhibited, but this is the capital of the United States of Oppression were talking about.
Either way, if you find yourself near D.C. and you’re free on Saturday, be sure to be at the Memorial for noon. If you’re not interested in dancing for your freedom, at least be there, camera in hand, to record the event in case some power-tripping police people decide to beat some hippie skulls.
Sara Mahboubi, a 20 year old Iranian student, has been sentenced to ten months in prison for being using Facebook, which is deemed an “anti-revolutionary website” by Iranian leaders. She was arrested after the authorities searched her father’s house and confiscated her books, notes, CDs and computer.
Mahboubi was expelled from University earlier this year for her belief in the Baha’i faith, which strongly promotes unity and peace. Since 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has blocked the 300,000-member Baha’i community from higher education, refusing young Baha’is entry into universities and colleges.
They say Facebook is ‘anti’ revolutionary? Talk about double-speak. Yet another glaring example of why autocratic theocracies are bad for the general population.
Around twenty Jewish organizations, along with some prominent Jewish figures, have endorsed a letter calling for sanctions against Israel and a boycott of Israeli goods and institutions.
These boycotts and sanctions are “a moral tool of non-violent, peaceful response to more than sixty years of Israeli colonialism” which “rightfully place accountability on Israeli institutions (and their allies and partners) that use business, cultural, and academic ties to white-wash Israel’s responsibility for continuing crimes against humanity.”
In a related story, prominent ex-White House journalist Helen Thomas, who was fired last year for uttering anti-Israeli statements, continued her tirade this week, saying “I’m not anti-Jewish; I’m anti-Zionist. I am anti-Israel. It has taken what doesn’t belong to it. If you have a home and you’re kicked out of that home, you don’t come and kick someone else out.”
The world is waking up to the reality of the Israel-Palestine situation. As Israel gets exposed for their continued atrocities, the world will keep mounting pressure to help end the plight of the Palestinian people.
